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OrcaSlicer/scripts/CAD/README.md
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Design-tab scripts

Everything here supports the parametric Design tab (src/libslic3r/CAD/, src/slic3r/GUI/CAD/). Nothing here is needed to build or run OrcaSlicer — these are the development and verification tools for that one feature.

The verb in the name is the role:

build-… produce a binary
start-… bring something up and leave it running
run-… run a suite and report pass/fail
check-… one specific assertion, usually driving a live app

Verification

Script What it proves Needs
run-kernel-tests.sh The CAD kernel builds and the Catch2 [CadDocument] tags pass — every case builds a document, recomputes it and asserts on real geometry. Exit 0 is the verification contract. Docker only. No display.
run-all-checks.sh Every check below, in one command. The gate before pushing a Design-tab change. Docker + the GUI container
check-sketch-engine.py A ladder of 2D sketches of increasing complexity, judged on loop count, closure and void attribution rather than on area. Kernel only
check-sketch-engine-corpus.py The same ladder graded against a systematic sample of real drawings instead of shapes we chose. Kernel + corpus
check-gui-sketching.py The same profiles drawn the way a person draws them — synthetic mouse gestures and typed values. Headless GUI
check-gui-context-menu.py That right-click is the pivot of the design gesture, and adapts to what was clicked. Headless GUI
check-mcp-sketch.py The sketch layer driven over the MCP socket, asserting what decides whether a profile is buildable. Headless GUI + ORCA_CAD_MCP

run-kernel-tests.sh is the only one CI can run. The rest need a live application with an OpenGL canvas and synthetic input, which hosted runners do not have. The kernel suite itself is already in CI by an ordinary route: the cases are registered in tests/libslic3r/CMakeLists.txt under if (SLIC3R_CAD), so they are part of libslic3r_tests and run under ctest on every platform like any other unit test. This script exists for the local loop, where it is a two-minute round trip instead of a full application build.

Build and run

Script Purpose
build-gui.sh Build the GUI binary in a throwaway container, writing into the build-cache volume the long-lived GUI container reads.
build-gui-incremental.sh Incremental build against the deps-baked image, for a fast edit/compile loop.
start-headless-gui.sh Bring the app up on a headless X display (Xvfb + a window manager), ready to drive or attach to over VNC.

Two constraints that are not obvious and have each cost a session:

  • Never build inside the GUI container. Its baked source tree silently reconfigures the shared build directory and this fork's targets vanish.
  • A window manager is required. Without one, windows are never focused, and an unfocused GTK app ignores synthetic keys — which looks exactly like a code bug.

docs/rig_build_traps.md documents these and three more, with symptoms and exact recovery commands. Read it before debugging a configure or link failure one of these scripts reports.