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Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

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Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

libfive - https://libfive.com guile scheme, bindings in Rust and Python personally exited to check it out for real constructive-solid modeling, as opposed to emulating that workflow over OpenCascade's (fickle but otherwise lovely) BREP modeling (ie. edges & faces) via build123d (which has been great but is increasingly vibe-coded :/) discussed previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12319406 a real construct…

Libfive has been superseded long ago by fidget (same author, Rust not C++). https://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/fidget/ https://github.com/mkeeter/fidget

woah, thanks! seeing the scenes in the blog-post i realize i've ran into it before, but must not have observed the lineage, committed the project to memory, or realized it was so mature

there's even a parametric split-keyboard project (what i'm doing too)! the clearances and cutouts in julianschuler/concavum-customizer/.../keyboard/mod.rs[1] are so much like my static, single-file, build123d-based version in antlers/keyboard/.../main.rs[2] >u1: https://github.com/julianschuler/concavum-customizer/blob/ma...

2: https://codeberg.org/antlers/keyboard/src/branch/main/src/ca...

3: https://codeberg.org/antlers/keyboard

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

i got really carried away making a contoured split-keyboard in build123d, and affirm there are some gaps in docs and functionality -- eg. it was quite tricky to get the center of an object in the right form (vector, position, or location), and often zero otherwise. i think a lot of it boils down to an OOP hierarchy with a lot of inherited or generit methods that aren't applicable or impl'ed. OpenCascade causes its own geom issues too, and by the end i was fighting build123d just to slap absolute-position--based hacks over inadvertantly invalid geometry. the dev team's interest in llm-generated code does not inspire confidence that it will become more reliable.

but i found-out up-thread that libfive, which i was esp. interested in for more reliable geom, has a Rust-based successor in Fidget -- and there's even a parametric split-keyboard that can be contrasted with my (static, hack-ier, but single-file) build123d iteration. exited to follow suit!

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#114
post #102

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I found the UI far more approachable in Dune 3D than any other 3D CAD program I've tried and as the readme notes, Dune 3D imports STEP files and does fillets/chamfers which SolveSpace does not (in the current version) There was a recent video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1VNpC0nwF4 If someone knows of a general introduction to 3D CAD which focuses on vendor-neutral descriptions of terminology and concepts,…

> If someone knows of a general introduction to 3D CAD which focuses on vendor-neutral descriptions of terminology and concepts, I'd be very interested I'm not sure there is such a thing. Maybe a drafting book would be a vendor neutral description of spec'ing a 3D manufacturable object on a 2D surface. Otherwise the way the software accomplishes the task is kinda the point which will necessarily have methodology spec…

But elsethread there's a person complaining that industry standard terminology is _not_ used in Solvespace....

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#115
post #82
post #70

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Which video did you watch?

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

Hmm. Thanks, I'll bookmark it but the cadence of the narration is VERY monotone and uneven. This makes it hard for me to focus on what is being said because my OCD brain keeps tripping over the lack of pauses between sentences (and inappropriate pauses in the middle of sentences). I can't tell if it's an AI voice or an ESL person narrating a script.

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#116

Its not often you see 'fillets and chamfers' are tip-line features in the readme for CAD packages. But good on you for building something.

> Its not often you see 'fillets and chamfers' are tip-line features in the readme for CAD packages. Well the readme states the following: Solvespace on the other hand gets the workflow part right, but falls short by not importing STEP and the geometry kernel not supporting chamfers and fillets. So I assume that's where that comes from.

Perhaps. I guess I'm saying 'oh boy fillets and chamfers' marks it as not very serious CAD hardware. That's table stakes

Re: Dune3d: A parametric 3D CAD application

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Is there a good text (or video) which discusses the basics of 3D CAD and all the attendant terminology and concepts?

You could ask Gemini (Deep Research) to create a jargon file with mappings.

That's the equivalent of LMGTF, in 2026. ;)

I mean all this is documented publicly online (docs/help for CAD software), market leaders are known and the LLMs have ingested this data during training.

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