I just started with FreeCAD this weekend, and in 3 hours I managed to create a simple pci bracket that I could 3dprint. I just followed some YouTube tutorials. When I learned 3D Studio Max 25 years ago, I struggled a lot more.
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.
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 :-)
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!
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.
After looking at some videos of what this even is, I'd say it can do it but will likely fail on the boolean operation where the two spirals intersect. It might work fine but it's an operation likely to trigger a bug, and it would be sensitive to the exact placement/pitch of everything. Having said that, using the "force to triangle mesh" option solvespace will probably work fine. That should be sufficient for the home 3D printing crowd to make some fun stuff, but you won't be able to save a STEP file then. Just my guess as to how this might go.
I’ve wondered how feasible it would be to start building browser-based CAD/design products to replace our expensive and poorly supported paid plugins and niche products. Seems promising!
I love solvespace, it is hard to describe but despite it's limitations and problems (and there are many) it feels joyous to use if that makes sense. Something about it's simple and straightforward interface just makes it fun. To the point that my biggest gripe is the modal dialogs that pop when a constraint is deleted or it's conditions cannot be met. It is quite awkward compared to the rest of the workflow.
Anyhow, salutes to the author of this web port, very slick.
Looking at stream events, the event type is so long and often repeated for each event with little extra payload it could be potentially easy win for Anthropic to optimize system bandwidth by using shorthands.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 63.2 ms ] threadNeat that they got it working in the browser.
0: https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/149
1: https://dune3d.org/
Is there an open-source "cleanroom" re-implementation of the Parasolid kernel? I just like the way Solidworks does things vs. Autodesk.
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 :-)
[0]: https://GrandpaCAD.com
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.
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47580583
Since SolveSpace has a helix tool that can "extrude" any sketch along a helix it should be doable.
I implemented a full kernel in rust and compile it to wasm https://github.com/ecto/vcad
Anyhow, salutes to the author of this web port, very slick.
Anyone having used both can share their thoughts about how solvespace and OnShape compare?
On my end I’ve been loving OnShape and find it pretty intuitive. I also tried fusion360 but closed it after 5 minutes, it felt too sluggish.
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SolveSpace officially is supported on Windows (Vista-11), Linux and macOS, and compiles with Emscripten and runs in a browser.
However with a little effort it also compiles for and runs on Windows 2000.
https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/1036#issueco...
So it runs on all the majour platforms from the last 26 years (excluding MacOS 9).
SolveSpace officially is supported on Windows (Vista-11), Linux and macOS, and compiles with Emscripten and runs in a browser.
However with a little effort it also compiles for and runs on Windows 2000.
https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/1036#issueco...
So it runs on all the majour platforms from the last 26 years (excluding MacOS 9).