Just wow. I've tried CadQuery and I'm too dumb to use its fluent syntax. But Build123D has amazing DSL, it was an instant understanding what code actually does and it's easy to write also. Thank you for recommendation!
Impressively it’s even the same underlying object system so the two can coexist, use the same previewer etc., and I think there’s even Jupyter support.
But yes, the syntax is IMO much better because it isn’t trying to be so clever.
Many interesting features, and as it is bRep you have faces and edges, some access to constraints, the ability to import STEP etc. (oh and fillets/chamfers, with the usual OpenCascade caveats)
I have not got into it yet (mostly I am a happy FreeCADder) but your feelings about OpenSCAD resonate with me and this looks like it addresses many of them.
On the one hand OpenSCAD was the first thing that ever gave me any confidence that I would be able to make my own designs to print, and on the other the fact that it is wholly declarative is exasperating.
People make such amazing things in OpenSCAD (like Edgar Kech’s scalable large format field camera) but I do not have the tenacity to keep up with all the maths, or keep consistently avoiding coplanar issues in the preview.