When comparing OpenSCAD vs Solvespace, the Slant community recommends OpenSCAD for most people. In the question“What are the best open source CAD tools?” OpenSCAD is ranked 3rd while Solvespace is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose OpenSCAD is:
Because the 3D-objects will be programmed. You define basic geometric objects, scale, rotate or move them, create unions, intersections, hulls, differences, ...
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Ideal for programmers
Because the 3D-objects will be programmed. You define basic geometric objects, scale, rotate or move them, create unions, intersections, hulls, differences, ...
Pro Text based description
Hence the resulting files can be easily stored/merged in version control systems.
Pro Parametric
Define some variables and use them in the code.
Pro Easy to use
Pro Easy to learn
There are easy to understand commands that really help to getting started quickly. The application itself is surprisingly simplistic with easy to learn shortcuts, but extremely powerful.
Pro Available on Windows, Linux, OS X
Binaries are available for Windows and OS X. On Linux it needs to be built from sources.
Pro Open source
Pro Good tutorials
Pro Extremely light-weight
The latest version 2.3 is ~6MB size, the previous one was ~1.4MB - yes, Megabyte.
Pro Useful integration of keyboard shortcuts
Pro Does not require installation
The single executable can simply be launched.
Cons
Con Need to know scripting
Con No measurements from any area
Con SVG exports a single big shape
It should export one shape per object, so it would be re-usable in SVG tools.
Con Slow for large number of constraints
