Suggestion: Simple Environment Check in Windows Installer

[Fran5ois]

Hi CQ-editor team,

I'm a noob (as in "eager mechanical engineer and OpenSCAD user with no background in software development") assisted by Cascade (an AI assistant) and I encountered a situation with the Windows installer that I thought might be worth sharing.

Issue:
When I first ran the installer, it somehow picked up an old CadQuery 0.2.1 version instead of 2.4.0. Apparently existing Python/CadQuery installations were affecting the installation process. Maybe because I ran an old installer in the first place?

What Helped:
After succeeding with a Conda install (after many trials and errors and help from Cascade) I came back to the windows installer to see what was wrong and running it in a clean environment (thanks to a script Cascade created for me) solved the issue. The installer then worked perfectly, installing the correct versions.

Suggestion:
Would it be helpful to add an environment check to the installer? Maybe just a simple warning if it detects existing installations that might interfere?

Here is the script created by Cascade to run the installer in a clean environment, but I'm not sure if it will be useful to you as I'm quite new to this (to be saved as a .bat file):

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

REM Save current PATH
set "ORIGINAL_PATH=%PATH%"

REM Create test directory
set "TEST_DIR=C:\CQ_Editor_Test"
if not exist "%TEST_DIR%" mkdir "%TEST_DIR%"

REM Copy installer to test directory
copy "contributing on CQ-editor Github\CQ-editor-master-Windows-x86_64.exe" "%TEST_DIR%"

REM Save current datetime for log
for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%I in ('wmic os get localdatetime /value') do set datetime=%%I
set "LOGFILE=%TEST_DIR%\install_log_%datetime:~0,8%_%datetime:~8,6%.txt"

echo Testing CQ-editor installer > "%LOGFILE%"
echo Test started at: %date% %time% >> "%LOGFILE%"
echo Original PATH: %ORIGINAL_PATH% >> "%LOGFILE%"

REM Run installer
echo Running installer...
start /wait "" "%TEST_DIR%\CQ-editor-master-Windows-x86_64.exe"

REM Log post-installation PATH
echo. >> "%LOGFILE%"
echo Post-installation PATH: >> "%LOGFILE%"
echo %PATH% >> "%LOGFILE%"

REM Restore original PATH
set "PATH=%ORIGINAL_PATH%"

echo Test completed. Check %LOGFILE% for details.
echo Your original PATH has been restored.
pause

Note: You'll need to modify the installer path in the script to match where your CQ-editor installer is located on your system.

Thank you for creating such a great tool for the CAD community! I am so glad to finally be able to work with CadQuery after months of just reading the docs ^^U and quite a long journey to find my way to a working CQ-editor.

Please let me know if this contribution is worth at all, or if I could do better. I'll be more than happy to help.

[Fran5ois]

Quick note about the script: I've shared the test version rather than a permanent installation script because it's safer for testing. This script:

• Backs up your original PATH
• Tests the installation in an isolated directory
• Restores your PATH after testing
• Lets you verify everything works before making permanent changes

Once you confirm the installation works with this test script, you can run the installer normally for a permanent setup. This way, you can safely verify the installation without committing to system changes right away.