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Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

solvespace.com

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Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#31

Post by Zekio »

ur-whale wrote: post #12
ponyous wrote: post #7

Does this use its own backend/engine? I've been working on LLM to CAD tool[0] and have realised there are so many backends and options to choose from. Since the realisation I'm trying to find the best representation for an LLM. I think OpenSCAD is currently the best and most feature complete choice, but I definitely need to dig a bit deeper. If anyone has any pointers I welcome them! [0]: https://GrandpaCAD.com

> I think OpenSCAD is currently the best and most feature complete choice As much as I love OpenSCAD, I would strongly disagree with your conclusion. All the OpenSCAD language can do is boolean operations and moreover, the engine can only implement those on polygonal (triangle actually) meshes. That's a very far cry from what a modern commercial CAD engine can do. For example, the following things are very, very hard…

using BOSL2 alleviates most issues I've run into with OpenScad for chamfers and the like, but it is an extra set of functions you need to remember sadly

https://github.com/BelfrySCAD/BOSL2

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#32

Post by trey-jones »

ur-whale wrote: post #15
bhouston wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FreeCAD is amazing these days. It has completely replaced my use of Autodesk Fusion 360 for woodworking projects. It is capable and the UI is understandable. Its feature depth is incredible. FreeCAD is becoming like Blender and Inkspace - incredibly robust and capable and equivalent in most cases to the commercial alternatives. I find the rendering side of things under developed though.

> FreeCAD is amazing these days. FreeCAD has become much better, no denying it. "Amazing" is however not the word I would use though, the UI is still very convoluted and very hard to learn. The worst part in FreeCAD, and which remains true to this day is the load of minutia you need to know to handle/avoid weird corner cases that you inevitable run into when you start building complex models and where FreeCAD stubbor…

This is really accurate to my experience learning FreeCAD earlier this year. I am a former professional CAD user (of a lesser software than AutoCAD) and I don't think I would have gotten far without being able to ask ChatGPT for help understanding some of the quirks of FreeCAD.

For free and open it's truly impressive though. Actually I think my time building iOS UIs in Storyboard was at least as useful as previous CAD experience, since constraints are the foundation of (at least one approach to) designing parts.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#34

Post by faangguyindia »

MrDOS wrote: post #3

SolveSpace is a wonderfully different take on parametric CAD, but development has really slowed, and it seems fundamentally incapable of some pretty rudimentary features (like chamfers[0]). Dune 3D[1] seems like a pretty effective spiritual successor. 0: https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/149 1: https://dune3d.org/

All we need is a genius, with unlimited claude and codex credit and he will replace Fusion 360 atleast in 3d printing and machining space

It's so sad most guys aren't comming together to build some great CAD engine which open source really needs!

Gimp is shame, photoshop is increasingly being lockdown and people who have smarts to fix that are doing nothing.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#35

Post by ponyous »

yangcheng wrote: post #11
ponyous wrote: post #7

Does this use its own backend/engine? I've been working on LLM to CAD tool[0] and have realised there are so many backends and options to choose from. Since the realisation I'm trying to find the best representation for an LLM. I think OpenSCAD is currently the best and most feature complete choice, but I definitely need to dig a bit deeper. If anyone has any pointers I welcome them! [0]: https://GrandpaCAD.com

I have tried OpenSCAD, it seems very slow to compile to display on web. are you using the official wasm or some other ways?

I export it as .3mf file and display it with threejs on the web. Compilation seemed fast enough - few seconds tops.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#36

Post by MrDOS »

phkahler wrote: post #22
MrDOS wrote: post #3

SolveSpace is a wonderfully different take on parametric CAD, but development has really slowed, and it seems fundamentally incapable of some pretty rudimentary features (like chamfers[0]). Dune 3D[1] seems like a pretty effective spiritual successor. 0: https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/149 1: https://dune3d.org/

Chamfers and Fillets are my next major undertaking. Don't expect them any time soon, but they've moved to the top of my list. They are extremely difficult to do in the general case - so we will not cover all cases. Several years ago I tried an experiment: https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/453#issuecom... That could only do the top or bottom of a straight extrusion. This time will be a more general than…

Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize that this had been posted by a SolveSpace maintainer! Rad. I am glad to hear the project is still moving.

I also appreciate the difficulty of generalizing chamfers/fillets. There's a reason that basically all FOSS CAD packages have struggled with it.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#37

Post by ezst »

faangguyindia wrote: post #34
MrDOS wrote: post #3

SolveSpace is a wonderfully different take on parametric CAD, but development has really slowed, and it seems fundamentally incapable of some pretty rudimentary features (like chamfers[0]). Dune 3D[1] seems like a pretty effective spiritual successor. 0: https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/149 1: https://dune3d.org/

All we need is a genius, with unlimited claude and codex credit and he will replace Fusion 360 atleast in 3d printing and machining space It's so sad most guys aren't comming together to build some great CAD engine which open source really needs! Gimp is shame, photoshop is increasingly being lockdown and people who have smarts to fix that are doing nothing.

That people on this forum convinced themselves that it's a reasonable take to vibe code a useful geometric kernel is profoundly depressing.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#38

Post by jabl »

IshKebab wrote: post #19
MrDOS wrote: post #3

SolveSpace is a wonderfully different take on parametric CAD, but development has really slowed, and it seems fundamentally incapable of some pretty rudimentary features (like chamfers[0]). Dune 3D[1] seems like a pretty effective spiritual successor. 0: https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/149 1: https://dune3d.org/

FreeCAD doesn't have the limitations of SolveSpace, and the UX is actually decent now. I moved to that.

Some years ago I tried to learn CAD by doing some FreeCAD tutorials, and failed. But I hear 1.0 was a big step forward, and the recently released 1.1 is also a big step, and it should be somewhat decent nowadays. Maybe I need to try again one day.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#39

Post by faangguyindia »

ezst wrote: post #37
faangguyindia wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All we need is a genius, with unlimited claude and codex credit and he will replace Fusion 360 atleast in 3d printing and machining space It's so sad most guys aren't comming together to build some great CAD engine which open source really needs! Gimp is shame, photoshop is increasingly being lockdown and people who have smarts to fix that are doing nothing.

That people on this forum convinced themselves that it's a reasonable take to vibe code a useful geometric kernel is profoundly depressing.

Just wait for sometime, there will be one.

There are many geniuses on HN for tacking up challenge

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#40

Post by markcheno »

ponyous wrote: post #7

Does this use its own backend/engine? I've been working on LLM to CAD tool[0] and have realised there are so many backends and options to choose from. Since the realisation I'm trying to find the best representation for an LLM. I think OpenSCAD is currently the best and most feature complete choice, but I definitely need to dig a bit deeper. If anyone has any pointers I welcome them! [0]: https://GrandpaCAD.com

I just ran into this today: https://github.com/gumyr/build123d - seems like an LLM should have no problem writing python code...
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