Live data from Hacker News

Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

solvespace.com

61–70 of 135 posts

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#61
post #4

I've been using FreeCad more and more, but solvespace has been a great, lightweight tool to design parts for laser cutting by SendCutSend/Oshcut. Neat that they got it working in the browser.

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.

[flagged]

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#63
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/

How does Dune3D compare to FreeCAD?

>> How does Dune3D compare to FreeCAD?

Dune3D is more like Solvespace with a few improvements and bug fixes vs being anywhere near FreeCAD in terms of capability. Improvements include using STEP files in assemblies and having some ability to make Fillets or Chamfers. Bugs fixes would be due to using OCCT for NURBS surfaces - solvespace frequently fails with NURBS boolean operations.

As for overall capability, FreeCAD does everything these others do but also supports lofting and other modeling options, BIM for architecture, I think it does pre- and post- processing for FEA, and maybe some other "big tool" things.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#64
post #17

Impressive work! Minor nit: why does the rendered in-window text use a really awful pixelated font? It looks like what happens when a font gets rendered onto a pixel grid without any hinting or snapping.

It uses exactly the same font in the desktop version, and is probably entirely intentional.

Intentional indeed. It is GNU Unifont - a 973KiB file that covers practically all of Unicode. In a bitmap font, platform independent, self contained, small. Practically all that SolveSpace strives to be.

https://www.unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html

Perhaps I've been using computers for too long but I actually like the non anti-aliased "sharp" and "pixely" look :-)

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#65

So stoked to see the movement on this project. Once lofts are possible, it'll be so over for FreeCAD

Just curious, why are you so excited for the demise of FreeCAD ?

Has worked quite okay for me thus far for semi professional & hobby projects

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#66
post #37

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.

Indeed. I would love for it to be true, but aside from opencascade^1 all the professional kernels are proprietary and not in the training set, so LLMs can't just regurgitate them.

^1: Which I really appreciate, but let's be real, it is far behind eg. parasolid.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#67
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Correct me if I'm wrong, kernel is already there, and it's decent enough. What's lacking is a good user interface to it.

FreeCAD is perfectly good user interface for opencascade. The problem is that as your geometry gets more complicated you start running into the kernel limitations.

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#68

I scrolled with the mouse wheel and the origin drifts off screen. Is there an open-source "cleanroom" re-implementation of the Parasolid kernel? I just like the way Solidworks does things vs. Autodesk.

If you get lost press `f` to "fit" the current drawing to the screen.

By the way working in SolveSpace is extremely fast if you use keyboard shortcuts - almost everything can be dome with a shortcut key. No need to search for them - you can learn them by looking in the menus.

A very short "crash course" on the navigation is in the "Quick start:" section at the bottom of the download page. https://solvespace.com/download.pl The "demo video" on the home page is also a great starting point.

After that the "Tutorials" and "Reference" go in as much detail as one may want :-)

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#69
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.

[deleted]

Re: Open source CAD in the browser (Solvespace)

#70
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Correct me if I'm wrong, kernel is already there, and it's decent enough. What's lacking is a good user interface to it.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN