OpenSCAD User Manual/Paths

OpenSCAD looks for and saves resources to various paths. This is an overview.

Env variables

• HOME
• XDG_CONFIG_HOME
• OPENSCAD_FONT_PATH
• OPENSCADPATH

Per platform roots

• ResourcesPath
  • Posix:
  • Mac OS X: OpenSCAD.app/Contents/Resources
    • Windows:
• DocumentsPath
  • Posix: $HOME/.local/share
  • Mac OS X: [NSDocumentDirectory], typically $HOME/Documents
  • Windows XP: [CSIDL_PERSONAL], typically C:users\\username\documents\GitHub\OpenScad\
  • Windows Vista->: [CSIDL_PERSONAL], typically C:\users\username\documents\GitHub\OpenScad\
• UserConfigPath
  • Posix: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/OpenSCAD or $HOME/.config/OpenSCAD
  • Mac: [NSApplicationSupportDirectory], typically $HOME/Library/Application Support/OpenSCAD
  • Windows: [CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA], typically C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data

Read-only Resources

• libraries: [ResourcesPath]/libraries
• fonts: [ResourcesPath]/fonts
• render color schemes: [ResourcesPath]/color-schemes/render
• editor color schemes: [ResourcesPath]/color-schemes/editor

User Resources

• libraries: $OPENSCADPATH, [DocumentsPath]/OpenSCAD/libraries
• fonts

  * $HOME/.fonts

• render color schemes: [UserConfigPath]/color-schemes/render
• editor color schemes: [UserConfigPath]/color-schemes/editor

Misc Resources

• GUI preferences (Uses QSettings):

  * Posix: $HOME/.config/OpenSCAD.conf
  * Windows: Registry
  * Mac OS X: $HOME/Library/Preferences/org.openscad.OpenSCAD.plist

• backups: [DocumentsPath]/OpenSCAD/backups

Reference

this chapter is based on https://github.com/openscad/openscad/wiki/Path-locations written by the developer kintel