How to install Openscad in Ubuntu 18.04/18.10?

There is no current release of this source package in 18.04 (Bionic Beaver). However, openscad-mcad exists, which depends on openscad, so that's obviously an error.

3 Answers

It seems openscad is neither in 18.04 nor in 18.10, I just opened a bug here, feel free to subscribe to it.

In the meantime, here is a procedure to install openscad from the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openscad/releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openscad

In Ubuntu 18.10

For this Ubuntu release, OpenSCAD is neither in the official repos nor in the ppa:openscad/releases PPA (see?). Installing the nightly build as a Snap package is a viable short-term alternative:

sudo snap install openscad-nightly

Using libraries in the OpenSCAD Snap: Like any OpenSCAD installation, it comes with one bundled library of CAD functions that you can use out of the box. You would use include <….scad> statements with paths relative to the installation library location, which is here:

/snap/openscad-nightly/current/usr/share/openscad-nightly/libraries/

Since this is only meant for libraries bundled with OpenSCAD and Snap installation directories are not writable anyway, you would install other libraries manually into the built-in library location, which for the Snap package is this:

$HOME/snap/openscad-nightly/current/.local/share/OpenSCAD/libraries

You can also set a "nicer" user-defined library location via $OPENSCADPATH.

In Ubuntu 19.04

The good news is that starting with this Ubuntu release, the brand new version OpenSCAD 2019.01~RC2-2 will be in the official Ubuntu repositories (see). Then, installation will be easy and disk space saving again:

sudo apt install openscad

A fast workaround for desperate/non-technical users or the trial-minded is suggested here by user glenstewart:

I suggest to just use the AppImage provided on the scad download page. The
latest build at the moment, is OpenSCAD-2019.01-RC3.1-x86_64.AppImage
Just chmod 755 it, and then run. Much easier than all the fuss listed
above. Runs fine for me on Ubuntu 18.04.

This worked for me as well on Ubuntu 18.04.5, when I downloaded OpenSCAD-2019.05-x86_64.AppImage.
Download page here, look under "Other Linux" for the .AppImage download.

(Thanks to @pim for the link to the bug and associated discussion.)