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Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

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Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#41

Post by jacquesm »

auggierose wrote: post #32
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #26

OT: Why is that Alphabet, Mozilla, Apple, etc can get together to create web standards that allow anyone to create software that works cross-platform - only a browser is needed, but Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Canonical, etc can't get together to create standards that allow anyone to create software that works cross-platform?

You answered the question yourself: There is already a standard that allows anyone to create software that works cross-platform: the browser.

The browser is an extremely poor medium to deliver applications. It works, but barely, is a huge resource hog, fragile and it breaks way too often due to a lack of backwards compatibility between browser versions of the same manufacturer. I have a small app that I support and it's been fun to get it to work in the browser (instant cross platform support was indeed the driver) but the experience is still sub-par compared to what I could do on a local application.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#42

Post by jacquesm »

FloatArtifact wrote: post #40

It's a shame they don't have an actual application for a truly offline experience. If they had both, people could have their cake and eat it too.

It says 'local first' doesn't that mean you can run it locally after downloading? That's how I set up pianojacq, just so there aren't going to be a lot of disappointed people that lose their practice logs if I get hit by bus #9.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#43

Post by skybrian »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #26

OT: Why is that Alphabet, Mozilla, Apple, etc can get together to create web standards that allow anyone to create software that works cross-platform - only a browser is needed, but Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Canonical, etc can't get together to create standards that allow anyone to create software that works cross-platform?

There are many projects that try to make cross-platform mobile apps easier, including Google's own Flutter. I haven't heard of them getting much cooperation from the teams working on Android or iOS, though.

At least for stuff that doesn't use device API's much, it seems like websites are the way to go. They're a whole lot easier to build than mobile apps.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#44

Post by speed_spread »

reactordev wrote: post #7
observationist wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elegoo printers can be offline - you can run everything from the machine itself, as long as you have your model/s on a thumb drive. Or is that not what you mean?

https://youtu.be/kS-9ISzMhBM They’re trying to introduce legislation that would require 3D printers to be online so that if you try to print a firearm, it won’t let you… Granted, today, you can print offline. Tomorrow? A firmware update might just brick it the next time it goes online or won’t be able to read the grbl

This reminds me of William Gibson's "The Peripheral" in which the protagonist runs a rural 3D print shop where everything has to be licensed and government approved. We live in the near future.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#45

Post by the_fall »

Part of me wants to be wary. The useful life of industrial machinery such as CNC mills is much longer than the lifespan of websites, so locally-installed software you own is usually a better choice.

But another part of me realizes that everyone is using Fusion360, despite the fact they have a history of taking away features to force people to migrate to paid tiers. So it probably doesn't matter.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#46

Post by steve_adams_86 »

jacquesm wrote: post #38
pests wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bambu Labs ~recently had some drama around requiring an account / harvesting data for their machines. Might be what that's about.

Bambu is great hardware but the software (and the firmware) is just terrible.

Truly. The slicer is able to generate bugs I've never seen before, in around 6 years of printing with several slicers and firmwares. Cura, Flashprint, Orca, Prusa, using Marlin, Sailfish, Klipper. None of them produced the weird stuff I find with Bambu's pipeline.

When the bugs don't creep up it's absolutely incredible, though.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#47

Post by asveikau »

the_fall wrote: post #45

Part of me wants to be wary. The useful life of industrial machinery such as CNC mills is much longer than the lifespan of websites, so locally-installed software you own is usually a better choice. But another part of me realizes that everyone is using Fusion360, despite the fact they have a history of taking away features to force people to migrate to paid tiers. So it probably doesn't matter.

For comparison, I was looking at slicer source lately. Slic3r and its popular forks (prusa slicer, Bambu, orca) are using C++ with wxWidgets and boost. Sometimes outdated versions of those libraries at that. But stuff that will work, and totally local.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#48

Post by s0a »

the_fall wrote: post #45

Part of me wants to be wary. The useful life of industrial machinery such as CNC mills is much longer than the lifespan of websites, so locally-installed software you own is usually a better choice. But another part of me realizes that everyone is using Fusion360, despite the fact they have a history of taking away features to force people to migrate to paid tiers. So it probably doesn't matter.

of Kiri? it's in its 14th year. CAM was added in 2016, but the major work on that mode really kicked in around 2024.

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#49

Post by downrightmike »

cyrusradfar wrote: post #2

Surprised this hasn't been shared here before. Built by my former colleague, Stewart Allen (Co-Founder/CTO of WebMethods, CTO of AddThis, Co-Founder/CPO of IonQ, et al.). What caught my attention: - 100% free, no subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud - Local-first: all slicing and toolpath generation runs on your machine - Works in any browser, even offline once loaded - Supports FDM/SLA, CNC milling, laser cutting, w…

Any circuit designers? looking to hobby, but what I saw was all proprietary

Re: Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

#50

Post by s0a »

FloatArtifact wrote: post #40

It's a shame they don't have an actual application for a truly offline experience. If they had both, people could have their cake and eat it too.

there are desktop builds https://grid.space/downloads.html that run entirely offline. you can also use the center menu to "install" it as a progressive web app.
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