AI coding tools are providing non-programmers giving similar ability. Not production quality, but still useful to them everyday and they can tweak as they go.
My wife and I bought a Bambu P1S and I think the machine has had a duty cycle of 30% (excluding when we weren’t in town). It’s great fun. The majority of the models are ones we get from the Internet, it’s true.
But my wife used some base open source components to design a block that goes into the bits of a playpen that we used to have and transform it into something that docks with the wall instead of only with itself[0].
And I have designed with Claude a few small things like card holders for the board game power grid[1].
I wish there were better AI tools for interacting with modeling software. As it stands I use OpenSCAD with Claude and that seems as good as it can be. There are Solidworks AI startups but they’re like for professionals.
The Bambu P1S I have is quite low friction to set up. And I have an AMS2 Pro on top of it that feeds different kinds of filament (material and color) into the printer. I have just the one but now I wish I had more AMS hooked up.
I attempted to productize a super niche idea I had for myself that I have ended up using multiple times. It's a simpler method of running wires without having to cut/patch drywall and drill through studs.
It started with trying to create a router-like device equipped with a motor (which was version 1 [1]).
But then iterated it to be a plate which can be attached to existing routers. That resulted in a drastically improved user experience which went from doing it all inside and making a mess to doing it in your garage with more precision. I've used the final design on 4+ projects at home and it has saved me so much time [2].
Making a good mechanical design is difficult, it usually involves making several iterations which in the physical world takes a lot more effort than iterating on software.
One thing that always bothered me is that most people with 3d printers seem to design things on their own from scratch and rarely take on others designs, improve them and share them. There is little collaboration going on for 3d prints in comparison to software. Except from maybe ~10 widely successful projects that now have healthy communities improving them.
Why is GitHub and similar sites not used more among makers?
You're assuming that CAD tooling is mature enough to enable that.
There is no standard format for CAD projects/design files. STEP is a standard format for exporting finished designs.
There are many CAD-with-code platforms, but none of them converged on a shared language the same way there are multiple competing C compilers.
I might be beating a dead horse with this one, but standardizing around FreeCAD isn't possible either, because it isn't good enough to compete with commercial CAD software like Solidworks, OnShape or Autodesk Fusion. Blender is almost there though, but for mesh-based free form 3d modeling.
Then on top of that, a 3d model on its own is useless. You need to manufacture the part. Printers have varying capabilities and something that has turned out to be particularly essential is multi color printing, since it allows embedding text and markings onto a print but not every printer is capable of doing it or doing it economically.
Ordering individual parts is expensive, which means you'd rather buy a full kit from someone who is getting volume discounts.
11 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 30.3 ms ] threadUnfortunately, it is still very hard to _design_ niche solutions. The usability of CAD tools did not really improve at all in the last 20 years..
Now the hype has seemed to shift to "do absolutely anything just barely well enough to get people to pay for it".
But my wife used some base open source components to design a block that goes into the bits of a playpen that we used to have and transform it into something that docks with the wall instead of only with itself[0].
And I have designed with Claude a few small things like card holders for the board game power grid[1].
I wish there were better AI tools for interacting with modeling software. As it stands I use OpenSCAD with Claude and that seems as good as it can be. There are Solidworks AI startups but they’re like for professionals.
The Bambu P1S I have is quite low friction to set up. And I have an AMS2 Pro on top of it that feeds different kinds of filament (material and color) into the printer. I have just the one but now I wish I had more AMS hooked up.
0: https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Blog/2026-01-15/Modeling_Wit...
1: https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Blog/2026-01-11/Modeling_Wit...
I attempted to productize a super niche idea I had for myself that I have ended up using multiple times. It's a simpler method of running wires without having to cut/patch drywall and drill through studs.
It started with trying to create a router-like device equipped with a motor (which was version 1 [1]).
But then iterated it to be a plate which can be attached to existing routers. That resulted in a drastically improved user experience which went from doing it all inside and making a mess to doing it in your garage with more precision. I've used the final design on 4+ projects at home and it has saved me so much time [2].
[1] https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i5p330nqo0cfrfx3gxf05/Wiresha...
[2] https://trywireshark.com (includes diagrams and videos of what I 3d printed)
One thing that always bothered me is that most people with 3d printers seem to design things on their own from scratch and rarely take on others designs, improve them and share them. There is little collaboration going on for 3d prints in comparison to software. Except from maybe ~10 widely successful projects that now have healthy communities improving them.
Why is GitHub and similar sites not used more among makers?
There is no standard format for CAD projects/design files. STEP is a standard format for exporting finished designs.
There are many CAD-with-code platforms, but none of them converged on a shared language the same way there are multiple competing C compilers.
I might be beating a dead horse with this one, but standardizing around FreeCAD isn't possible either, because it isn't good enough to compete with commercial CAD software like Solidworks, OnShape or Autodesk Fusion. Blender is almost there though, but for mesh-based free form 3d modeling.
Then on top of that, a 3d model on its own is useless. You need to manufacture the part. Printers have varying capabilities and something that has turned out to be particularly essential is multi color printing, since it allows embedding text and markings onto a print but not every printer is capable of doing it or doing it economically.
Ordering individual parts is expensive, which means you'd rather buy a full kit from someone who is getting volume discounts.