Inevitably, one day there will be a moment where you'll start designing your own 3D models. For first steps, tinkercad is a great tool which will get you surprisingly far.

But as projects get more complex, tooling must grow, too. Most CAD software ist expensive, clunky and/or have e very steep learning curve. 3D modelling software like Blender are an entirely different beast. They have all the same problems, plus they are very counter intuitive to the workflow I am used to. So far, nothing has really clicked with me.

Enter OpenSCAD. It even describes itself as the programmer's modeller, because that is just what you do: you have to describe a model by chaining a series of commands. On first sight, this sound very slow and inconvenient, and there admittedly is a learning curve, too. Once the first conceptional hurdles are mastered, results start showing quickly. The user manual and documentation cover all topics needed. Great.

This concept enables you to bring many concepts usually used in software development: code splitting, reusable modules, version control, continuous integration. All is possible. OpenSCAD is even open source, mature and available on many platforms. Even better.

As default, previews in OpenSCAD are reloaded after a file has changed, meaning you can even bring your own editor of preference. OpenSCAD shows a hot reloading preview of your models, almost in real time.

All in all, this software has brought my productivity to a new level.