PONE-D-19-22759

Parametric CAD modeling for open source scientific hardware: comparing OpenSCAD and FreeCAD Python scripts

PLOS ONE

Dear Mr Machado,

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Talib Al-Ameri, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript mainly presents an analysis study of OpenSCAD and compare it with FreeCAD Python scripts. The authors also created a parametric open source hardware design to compare these tools.

The manuscript is of interest to the PlosOne readership. The introduction provides sufficient background and include all relevant references. The research design is appropriate. The methods adequately described. The results clearly presented. The scientific style of presentation is high enough.

However, the introduction is too long, I would recommend authors to summaries the motivation.

(Line 73) The authors mentioned some other FOSS CAD tools available to create solid models using a programming language, such as FreeCAD, PythonOCC, CadQuery and BRL-CAD. Among these CAD tools, Among these CAD tools, we have found FreeCAD to be the most active, having around a major release each year,..etc. Could you please compare the interesting features of OpenSCAD and FreeCAD with FreeCAD, PythonOCC, CadQuery and BRL-CAD.

(line 262) *.scad

The main references are WWW, we recommend the authors to cite research articles if applicable. The readership usually couldn’t reach web sites for some cases and that happens for many reasons for example changing/removing the web address when a company acquired by another compony.

The flowing references are a web address; 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 14, 21,22,30, 34, 3,36,37,38,39,40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, and 58.

Reference [5] missing the doi.

Reference [9] missing the doi.

Reference [13] missing the doi.

Reference [15] is a book but missing the doi.

Reference [16] please check the order of the authors; Luis Felipe Rosado Murillo then Matti Veikko Pietari Kauttu.

Reference [32] missing doi. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44468-9_53.

Reference [42] missing doi. 10.1201/9781315119601.

Reviewer #2: After reviewing the manuscript entitled “Parametric CAD modeling for open source scientific hardware: comparing OpenSCAD and FreeCAD Python scripts” (PONE-D-19-22759).

Here are my reviewing points:

The manuscript comparing OpenSCAD and FreeCAD. The work did provide some insight that can potentially guide the developers to improve the CAD modeling using open source scientific hardware.

1. The comparison was comprehensive and the authors provided sufficient resources.

2. The authors provided sufficient and good literature background.

3. The featured of both OpenSCAD and FreeCAD were analyzed fairly.

4. The major drawback is that this manuscript fits to be a case study rather than a research article. However, in both cases it is still valuable and interesting.

5. typos line (73) (The) should be (There).

6. In table (7), the authors mentioned that it is divided into (three) topics, but it seems that there are (four) topics discussed in the table as mentioned in line (238), which are (the geometric modeling kernel, the usability, the programming language characteristics and the tool features), so its need to be corrected to (four) topics in the title of the table.

7. The authors have to follow one format for the references, and I would suggest them to mentioned the access time for websites.

Reviewer #3: I know several groups working on parametric CAD modeling for open source scientific hardware and they demonstrated progress however there is no single comprehensive study compares such type of CADs (in my knowledge).

The authors present an analysis study of prevalent modeling CADs (OpenSCAD and FreeCAD). They created a parametric open source hardware design to compare OpenSCAD and FreeCAD . The authers also describe methodology of comparison and they provided necessary scripts and supplementary documents.

The main advantage of this paper is the systematic analysis. It feels that the authors predicted readership’s questions, so they put consequent answers. The paper is of interest for many PlosOne’s auditory. The done works of other groups and researchers are accurately acknowledged, I would recommend to publish this manuscript after minor corrections.

My main concern is about the motivation for the authors to publish their study in a journal while they have already deposited scripts elsewhere (github). I would recommend authors to explain that in the introduction. The bibliography needs some attention according to the journal instructions.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Parametric CAD modeling for open source scientific hardware: comparing OpenSCAD and FreeCAD Python scripts

PONE-D-19-22759R1

Dear Dr. Machado,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication.

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With kind regards,

Talib Al-Ameri, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Reviewer 3 has repeated the same comments as in round 1. I think the authors have adequately addressed all comments raised in a previous round of review and I feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: The authors have addressed my comments that I had raised in a previous round of review and I feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication.

The paper is well organized and clearly written. The technical quality of the manuscript is satisfactory. The length of the manuscript is now seems good, where most repeated sections are manipulated.

Reviewer #3: (same comments of round 1)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes