alt Hacker News> The power of parametric cad is such that I wouldn't be a 10th as productive using an interactive cad system.
This sounds like parametric and interactive CAD are polar opposites. Normal CAD software is generally parametric too.
The other points about the advantage of text files still applies though.
'Normal' cad software is parametric in an entirely different sense. You don't normally build up from entities just like you would in software, which you can then manipulate symbolically.
There are cad packages that can do this but unlike OpenSCAD the main interaction there is the 3D window, not the text editor.
Though AutoCAD of course had this with AutoLISP since 1986.
Interestingly, I'm not sure which has the steeper learning curve, OpenSCAD or AutoLISP. OpenSCAD is really great once it clicks but most people give up long before then.