I’m very curious about the fonts available in Cuttle. Are these all free fonts, or did some need to be licensed? Is it possible to use professional fonts which are on your local machine (without exporting as outlines)? How much adjustment needed to be done to make them appropriate for laser cutting etc? Many fonts which make sense for screen or printing need a lot of detail work to make sense for CAD work.
Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing, and procrastin
31–35 of 35 posts
Re: Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing, and procrastin
#32I am one of the creators of Cuttle. It stems from my research building direct manipulation + programming environments like http://recursivedrawing.com/ and http://aprt.us/ From a programmer's perspective, you can think of Cuttle as a direct manipulation vector editor (like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator) that can be driven with parameters and JS code where you need it. Unlike my previous research projects, this is a c…
Hey, I've just spent an hour creating my first design with Cuttle - and I'm very impressed! You're right that it has a very short learning curve, especially coming from a hobbyist CAD and programming background.
A few random thoughts/questions/suggestions (and apologies if I've missed options or existing functions):
* Would it be possible to add edge snapping?
* Could there be a slicker way to switch from the central origin for shapes? (Central is frustrating as it means having to change position every time I tweak the size.) Being able to easily select an arbitrary corner as the origin with a click would be great; maybe even auto-selecting the origin based on snapping two shapes together - i.e. 'anchoring' the shape based on snapping it to another one?
* Any way of exporting multiple components in one go, without clicking through for each one?
* Being able to set custom rounded corners with a list is great, but it's not easily discoverable!
* It might be neat to have a pop-up offering boolean options when snapping or overlapping shapes?
* Given the (I think?) JS under the surface, is it possible to import data, either as a CSV or an image from which pixel values can be read?
* Lastly, any thoughts on offering an intermediate 'hobbyist' paid tier? I'd be strongly tempted to support you and access some of the paywalled features, but $19/month is honestly too high for an occasional/fun hobby product.
Re: Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing, and procrastin
#33I am one of the creators of Cuttle. It stems from my research building direct manipulation + programming environments like http://recursivedrawing.com/ and http://aprt.us/ From a programmer's perspective, you can think of Cuttle as a direct manipulation vector editor (like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator) that can be driven with parameters and JS code where you need it. Unlike my previous research projects, this is a c…
Hey, I've just spent an hour creating my first design with Cuttle - and I'm very impressed! You're right that it has a very short learning curve, especially coming from a hobbyist CAD and programming background. A few random thoughts/questions/suggestions (and apologies if I've missed options or existing functions): * Would it be possible to add edge snapping? * Could there be a slicker way to switch from the central…
Cuttle’s snapping is very good (imo). But you have to drag from the snap point to the snap point. So if you want to snap a particular midpoint (say) to a particular corner, you need to drag from that midpoint to that corner. That is, your drag is explicit about the from and to snap points.
To export multiple components, we usually create a component (called “Cut Layout” for example), then drag out each of the other components (the pieces) into that component.
There is a modifier called Flatten which might be useful for you for doing lots of Boolean operations at once. I think this video shows the workflow, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGHKRfIC6QA
Yes it’s all JS. You could copy and paste your data in and then process it and create geometry. (Sorry we don’t have any data import other than copy and paste at the moment.) Our scripting documentation is pretty good: https://cuttle.xyz/learn/scripting/getting-started-with-scri...
We are experimenting with being able to read pixel values of raster images. Coming soon likely.
Perhaps some kind of middle tier that gives full access to the Editor but does not give full access to the Pro templates makes sense. Many of our customers subscribe for access to those templates rather than the Editor!
You are also free to subscribe when working on a project and need the Pro features, then cancel when you’re dormant. We don’t delete your projects when you downgrade to free, you can still access/edit/download them.
I appreciate the feedback and the questions!
Re: Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing, and procrastin
#34I’m very curious about the fonts available in Cuttle. Are these all free fonts, or did some need to be licensed? Is it possible to use professional fonts which are on your local machine (without exporting as outlines)? How much adjustment needed to be done to make them appropriate for laser cutting etc? Many fonts which make sense for screen or printing need a lot of detail work to make sense for CAD work.
The free fonts in Cuttle are mostly from Google Fonts and other freely licensed fonts.
With a Pro account you can upload your own font files.
You may be interested in Cuttle’s Connected Text feature. This will automatically connect dots on i’s, etc so you can cut out text in one piece. There’s also an option to “thicken” text so it’s not as delicate.
You can try a live demo here: https://cuttle.xyz/@cuttle/Connected-Text-29M9IXUSr5yr
That page also describes the algorithm we use to make this work with any font.
Re: Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing, and procrastin
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, I've just spent an hour creating my first design with Cuttle - and I'm very impressed! You're right that it has a very short learning curve, especially coming from a hobbyist CAD and programming background. A few random thoughts/questions/suggestions (and apologies if I've missed options or existing functions): * Would it be possible to add edge snapping? * Could there be a slicker way to switch from the central…
Cuttle’s snapping is very good (imo). But you have to drag from the snap point to the snap point. So if you want to snap a particular midpoint (say) to a particular corner, you need to drag from that midpoint to that corner. That is, your drag is explicit about the from and to snap points. To export multiple components, we usually create a component (called “Cut Layout” for example), then drag out each of the other c…
Thanks for the very comprehensive reply!
For snapping, I was missing being able to drag the side of an object (not on a corner or midpoint) and have it snap to any parallel line it encounters. You're right that using a corner or midpoint does work very well, but you just have to be more conscious about the action you're making.
For the point about a boolean operation, I was only thinking that if I drag one object on top of another, it would be a timesaver to have icons quickly pop up as a shortcut to the different boolean operations. But probably not a big gain.
RE: the subscription, agree that unlocking projects, downloads, and maybe folders might suit people that are mostly into designing things for themselves. Also, have you considered allowing read-only access to the pro templates within the editor? There are a few that I have no interest in making, but I'd like to learn the more advanced techniques of Cuttle by viewing.
Lastly, one other suggestion; you may already to thinking of this, but given the proliferation of selling 3D/CNC designs online (e.g. Printables, Etsy) have you thought about allowing creators to sell their designs directly from your site?