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Show HN: FluidCAD – Parametric CAD with JavaScript (fluidcad.io)

160 points by maouida ↗ HN
Hello HN users,

This is a CAD by code project I have been working on on my free time for more than year now.

I built it with 3 goals in mind:

- It should be familiar to CAD designers who have used other programs. Same workflow, same terminology.

- Reduce the mental effort required to create models as much as possible. This is achieved by:

    - Provide live rendering and visual guidance as you type.
    - Allow the user to reference existing edges/faces on the scene instead of having to calculate everything.
    - Provide interactive mouse helpers for features that are hard to write by code: Only 3 interactive modes for now: Edge trimming, Sketch region extrude, Bezier curve drawing.
    - Implicit coding whenever possible: e.g: There are sensible defaults for most parameters. The program will automatically fuse intersecting objects together so you do not have to worry about what object needs to be fused with what.
- It should be reasonably fast: The scene objects are cached and only the updated objects are re-computed.

I think I have achieved these goals to a good extent. The program is still in early stages and there are many features I want to add, rewrite but I think it is already usable for simple models.

Update to add more details: This is based on Opencascade.js WASM binding. So you get all the good things that come with any brep kernel. Fillets, chamfers, step import and export...

The scene is webview but the editing is in your local file. You use your own editor and the environment you are familiar with.

One important feature that I think make this stand out among other code based cad software is the ability to transform features not just shapes. More here: https://fluidcad.io/docs/guides/patterns You can see it in action in the lantern example: https://fluidcad.io/docs/tutorials/lantern

23 comments

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alterom
What geometry kernel is it using?

Which operations are supported? (Booleans? ...)

Where's the API link?

...finally, was this vibe-coded?

Inquiring minds want to know!

CWIZO
This looks great. I just started trying to generate some models using golang and the ecosystem doesn't seem great. Will check this out, might work out better.
shocks
This looks awesome.
bsimpson
The thing that made Flash magical was that it had the approachability of a design tool (and it really did have some of the best design tools ever), with the extensibility of a scripting language. You could start by drawing on a canvas and grow into programmatically generating designs.

This looks like it could do the same thing for constraint modeling. That's awesome!

unforbiddenYet
Nice work and kudos for programming it by hand! Starred the project and plan to try it out soonish.
ramses0
I'll throw my hat in on the feedback... looks great!

https://github.com/openscad/openscad/pull/4478#issuecomment-...

My pet use case is: "My naive approach as a programmer would be: `pen := new Pen(q,r,s,t); box := new Box( pen.L, pen.W, pen.H )`" along with being able to sometimes work with the whole pen, and sometimes touch the pen vs. the cap separately.

Since it's all javascript, it seems like there's a chance that this use case would work (ie: `p = Pen(...).render().getWidth()`)? Additionally, your intermediate step screenshots really makes it seem like a SketchUp-ish GUI would be perfect! Obviously a ton of work, but SketchUp's "grab face + extrude / push", but if it were "sticky" to the underlying parametric components seems like it'd be an awesome combo... something like group/components, but backed by code instead of GUI-only (or GUI-centric) editing.

interstice
I've been working on this exact idea! But it's late, will remember to come back and check this out to compare notes.
gitgud
Really interesting! Is there a list of all supported CAD operations? Can I “revolve” 2D sketches? Can I make assemblies?
upcoming-sesame
I don't know much about CAD but it is surprising to me this hasn't existed before seems so natural. great work
isaacphi
This looks incredible, great job!

I've been revisiting OpenSCAD recently but find it very frustrating. I just got started with build123d which is great but I'll definitely be trying this. The workflow is exactly what I'm looking for.

I'll drop an issue if I have feedback. Are you open to PRs?

somat
These code base cad systems are pretty great. But all of them are imperative languages and as such can only solve imperative constraints. Including declarative constraints would be very welcome. I mean, sure, Theoretically we could enter the turing tarpit and build our own constraint solver, but it would be nice to see one included as a standard library.

I am trying to think of an example, declarative constraints are usually the domain of a graphical cad system(like solvespace). but I suspect it would look like a set of relationships you can enter in any order and it solves for the missing one. so... prolog? has there ever been a cad system in prolog?

flowerthoughts
This is nice, though I think the use of indices instead of stable identifiers might bite in complex models that undergo changes. I've been toying with the idea that you could specify a point (2D or 3D in some coordinate system, depending on context) and pick the face/edge/point closest to that as the identifier. The only other alternative I see is diffing old and new, and trying to match the outputs of each operation geometrically, but that would produce extra output that needs to be persisted...

E.g. when splitting a face in OnShape, I might have to redo a whole bunch of operations later because the identifiers change, but I'm often surprised how good it is at matching up faces after a single operation. Like modifying a sketch, then having to add the new face to an extrusion, but then it magically does the right thing for chamfers and drafts.

adam_rida
i feel like cad is really the next frontier, whoever figure out vibe-CADing will make millions
seesthruya
Really interesting! Love the combination of 'code cad' and graphical interface. I've been screwing around with build123d and its vscode plugin, which always selections, but this seems to take that concept much further.
eggy
Looks great! Nice work. I am steeped in CAD for my work flow, so I used to program AutoCAD in AutoLISP, Rhino in Rhinoscript, now F#, and FreeCAD in Python as well as Blender. They have the geometry engines built-in and tested over decades. I think this is good for the maker with a 3D printer to do parts that are relatively simple (not discounting parametric code to make complex shapes here). Industry needs integration of CAD, BIM, CAM, Viz, etc. Take a look at this now older (2014) project where Rhino and F# were used to design and manufacture complex geometry for a real world build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY-bvZZZZnE
oguzbalkan
As a mechatronics engineer I really liked this!
ry2zen
This looks awesome – I'm excited to try it!

I've been using OpenSCAD and Build123D so far, but OpenSCAD is limited and Build123D is Python and I'd much rather use JS/TS.

Just curious – when when you do a sketch and then call extrude, why the implicit connection there? Why not assign the sketch to a const and then do `s.extrude`?

Great work so far!