Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 117 posts

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#81

Post by WillAdams »

FWIW, there has been some previous discussion here:

1.2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41975958

1.1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40228068

1.0 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37979758

(unfortunately, no discussion for 1.3, so I guess this stands in for 1.4)

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#82

Post by gloosx »

bityard wrote: post #70
gloosx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't agree, I'm a complete newbie in CAD, and after I opened FreeCAD I didn't know what to do at all. Watched one youtube video covering all the basics and I can design whatever I want with confidence. Besides being free – it's very intuitive and great piece of software in my opinion

Which video did you watch?

this one from CAD CAM lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jULWgMV9_TM

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#83

Post by WillAdams »

spiritplumber wrote: post #80

is there something like sketchup make that isn't stuck in 2017?

Maybe Shapr3D? (for folks who are willing to pay monthly) or Moment of Inspiration 3D (commercial, perpetual license, by the former lead developer of Rhino 3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9k4ZbcnW-Y )

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#84

Post by WillAdams »

phkahler wrote: post #79
freeopinion wrote: post #26

Dune3d comes off like a reskin of SolveSpace. SolveSpace is pretty awesome, so that's not a knock, per se. I'll leave it to somebody with more experience to fill in what value Dune3D adds beyond SolveSpace.

The main things Dune3D has over solvespace are 1 - the ability to include STEP files in assemblies, and 2 - the ability to put a chamfer or fillet on the top/bottom of an extrusion. I don't think it has the ability to select arbitrary edges and apply such features (I could be wrong). Solvespace 3.2 is essentially done (try the latest edge build), we just need to get github to produce the correct artifacts (not sure w…

Named parameters will be _huge_ and if it could be considered, I'd dearly love to see a human-oriented input/export format where an individual could edit a text file, import it to get an interactive/graphical representation, then export to the same format for subsequent editing --- if nothing else, a format such as this would allow easy versioned storage of files.

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#85

Post by gmiller123456 »

interstice wrote: post #68
Evidlo wrote: post #6

Some other open source 3D CAD tools: Code-based - CadQuery - https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery/ - build123d - https://github.com/gumyr/build123d - OpenSCAD - https://openscad.cloud/openscad/ GUI (browser-based) - Cadmium (abandoned, cool idea) - https://mattferraro.dev/posts/cadmium

This thread has turned into a great resource! build123d has been my favourite conceptually so far (it's just Python) but vcad looks very clean too. I like the abuse of + and - in both of these for booleans.

I gave build123d a try about a year ago. I really wanted it to work, but it has a lot of issues, mainly in documentation. I'm going off memory here, and it's been a while, so maybe some of these have been fixed. One of the biggest issues is one of the fundamental classes (I want to say "Part") is not documented at all. And it's essentially the most important class. I tried enumerating all of the methods on the class, but didn't make much progress. Fillets were promising, but it seems once you've got a complex edge from a few operations it quits working, or at least did for my part. You're supposed to be able to do something like b=Box(10,10,10), then access the width as b.width, but all of those properties were always zero.

OpenSCAD supposedly supports Python now (https://pythonscad.org/), but I was not able to get it to work at all. I've fallen back to just OpenSCAD, even though it has limitations, at least I'm familiar with them. I'm mostly just waiting for improvements to anything that'll make it better than OpenSCAD.

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#86

Post by tapia »

virtualritz wrote: post #60
freeopinion wrote: post #26

Dune3d comes off like a reskin of SolveSpace. SolveSpace is pretty awesome, so that's not a knock, per se. I'll leave it to somebody with more experience to fill in what value Dune3D adds beyond SolveSpace.

Usability? SolveSpace is a PITA in that regard. You also need to re-learn most terms that are common in other CAD software. It's a typical OSS thing. Why care about professional users that have years of learning invested into an ecosystem of professional CAD software (including terminology)? Because these people will get you the most valuable feedback if you can get them to even play with your OSS CAD thingy. AI has…

I agree that it is very different from other CAD software, but that is also something I like. When I started using SolveSpace for some easy models, I was a bit lost. But then it clicked, and I really enjoyed the different approach. It is not my main CAD software (build123d is), but I really appreciate the workflow.

I don't think that every oss should try the copy what already exists. The best is when new approaches are tried. The same happened to me when I started using tilling window managers. "Professional" Operating systems don't have that, but I am sure that if more people would try them, many would realize that the workflow fits them better. So, my point is that there is no single best solution in terms of user interface or interaction with a program, and the fact that many people explore and share different approaches with their open source software is something I really appreciate.

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#87

Post by mkeeter »

dr_win wrote: post #15
Evidlo wrote: post #6

Some other open source 3D CAD tools: Code-based - CadQuery - https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery/ - build123d - https://github.com/gumyr/build123d - OpenSCAD - https://openscad.cloud/openscad/ GUI (browser-based) - Cadmium (abandoned, cool idea) - https://mattferraro.dev/posts/cadmium

vcad was started in 2026 and has great ambitions: https://docs.vcad.io

They certainly have ambitions – the most recent changelog claims to add "Full PCB design pipeline: schematic capture, routing, DRC, Gerber export, and signal integrity simulation."

It also seems to have a physics engine, a slicer for 3D printing, an embroidery mode, and a entire ecosystem of math crates (https://tang.toys/).

Whether any of that works – or whether it's pure LLM slop – is less clear. I tried to import a trivial STEP file, and it crashed my browser tab [1]. Every commit is co-authored by Claude.

[1] https://github.com/ecto/vcad/issues/7

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#88

Post by bdcravens »

operatingthetan wrote: post #46
bdcravens wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had better luck telling it to use CadQuery. Here's an example where I stumbled around a bit, but was successful in creating a cat food container (Sheba Perfect Portions) dispenser https://claude.ai/share/ebce7c8e-4e5a-42ec-8ee9-cf066f68858f

You might have an easier time doing that with claude code.

Possibly, but for reasonably quick tasks it's nice to get previews or downloadable artifacts in the UI (I use the Claude Desktop app)

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#89

Post by Beretta_Vexee »

Pay08 wrote: post #39
gmueckl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FreeCAD: https://freecad.org

I would not suggest anyone use FreeCAD. The UX is the worst I've seen for any software. Finding any functionality is next to impossible.

It depends; it’s not bad with the right plug-ins for designing a building, but God forbid you ever have to model a threaded hole.
Post reply on HN