Pylele

(Pronounced as "Pie-Lay-Lay")

Python based Ukulele and other String Instrument 3D Model Generator similar to previous projects from Brian Guan:

• Gugulele OpenSCAD
• Gugulele OnShape

The Pylele repository is currently composed of 3 subprojects:

• pylele: a collection of tools to design and customize ukulele and other stringed instruments. It currently only targets headless instrument. Two implementation are available:
• B13D: 3d design library underlying pylele. Also provide unit-testing, and lots of helping functions. The "B1" prefix is a tribute to Brian Guan who started this repository.
• B1scad: .scad file interpreter based on B13D. Still VERY experimental!

Pylele ukulele generation has two main implementations:

• pylele1: first monolithic implementation that is no longer actively developed, and therefore (supposedly) stable
• pylele2: second modular implementation, that is actively developed with more options some of which a bit experimental

B13D is a portable Python 3D Modeling Library that acts as a common wrapper around the following backends:

• CadQuery (cq) (Most Accurate)
• Blender (bpy) (Still a little buggy...)
• Trimesh (tm) (Faster)
• SolidPython2 (sp2) (Supports .stl, .svg, .scad, and BOSL2 library import, fast when using manifold option)
• manifold3d (mf): (Fastests) 3d modeling library used by trimesh and openscad

Code and view generated models in your favorite development environment!

Installation

Simplest

Install with pip.

pip install git+https://github.com/bguan/pylele@main
pylele1 --help # first implementation, more stable
pylele2 --help # newer implementation, more options available

Cadquery, Trimesh and Manifold apis should be available on most systems with this method.

Simple (for Ubuntu/Debian)

Install on Ubuntu/Debian should be as simple as running the script:

  ./install_dependencies.sh
  pip install -r requirements.txt

This was developed on Ubuntu 22.04.4. CI is currently testing with python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 .

Detailed

• Python
  • MacOS
    • install xcode developer tools. Using admin user accout, in terminal command line shell:

      xcode-select --install
      

    • install Homebrew. Using admin user accout, in terminal command line shell:

      > /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
      

    • install Python 3.11 (Blender only support this version). Using admin user accout, in terminal command line shell:

      > brew install [email protected]
      

    • install Virtualenv.

      > brew install virtualenv
      

    • create a python 3.11 based virtual env then activate it. Using admin user accout, in terminal command line shell:

      > virtualenv --python=/opt/homebrew/bin/python3.11 venv3.11
      > . venv3.11/bin/activate
      

• CadQuery
  • Note: if you ever get error messages about bool8 missing from numpy, downgrade from numpy 2.x back to numpy 1.26.4 e.g.

    > pip install --force-reinstall numpy==1.26.4
    

  • Linux installation of dependencies (I tried on Intel I7 Asus laptop running Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > pip install cadquery
      > pip install PyQt5 spyder pyqtgraph logbook
      > pip install git+https://github.com/CadQuery/CQ-editor.git
      

  • MacOS Apple Silicon installation (I tried on M2 Macbook Air running Sonoma 14.5)
    • Due to perculiar build magic for CAD Query OCP wrapper for OCCT not yet working with pip (reason why CQ devs encourage using conda instead of pip, but I prefer pip for other reasons), I needed to download and install prebuilt wheels for caquery_ocp and nlopt
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > wget https://github.com/biggestT/cadquery-dist-macos-arm64/releases/download/v0.0.1/cadquery_ocp-7.7.0.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl
      > wget https://github.com/biggestT/cadquery-dist-macos-arm64/releases/download/v0.0.1/nlopt-2.7.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_14_0_arm64.whl
      > pip install cadquery_ocp-7.7.0.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl
      > pip install nlopt-2.7.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_14_0_arm64.whl
      > pip install --force-reinstall numpy==1.26.4
      > pip install cadquery
      > pip install PyQt5 spyder pyqtgraph logbook
      > pip install git+https://github.com/CadQuery/CQ-editor.git
      

• Blender (Still a little buggy...)
  • Linux installation of dependencies (I tried on Intel I7 Asus laptop running Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > pip install bpy
      

  • MacOS Apple Silicon installation (I tried on M2 Macbook Air running Sonoma 14.5)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > pip install bpy
      

• Trimesh (Still missing 3D text and filleting...)
  • Linux installation of dependencies (I tried on Intel I7 Asus laptop running Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > pip install trimesh
      

  • MacOS Apple Silicon installation (I tried on M2 Macbook Air running Sonoma 14.5)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > pip install trimesh
      

• SolidPython2 (Still missing filleting...)
  • Linux installation of dependencies (I tried on Intel I7 Asus laptop running Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > sudo apt install openscad
      > pip install solidpython2
      

  • MacOS Apple Silicon installation (I tried on M2 Macbook Air running Sonoma 14.5)
    • In a terminal shell inside a python 3.11+ virtual env:

      > brew install openscad
      > pip install solidpython2
      

Similar Projects

• ukulele.scad
• ParamUKE