4 ms·

Can highly recommend SolveSpace.

StavrosK 6y ago
SolveSpace is quite fantastic as a technical achievement, but it's rather limited in terms of CAD. It's great for simple designs or just messing around, though, I'm very impressed.
- app4soft 6y ago
  > but it's rather limited in terms of CAD SolveSpace has NO "limits in terms of CAD" (as SolveSpace 3.0 actually in active development, heavy rework & list of implemented features growing each week) — the only limits it has is that for creating _too_complex_ solids & assembly it just requires to use more tricks & more powerful PC ;)
  - gamegod 6y ago
    Latest Solvespace in Git has some nifty features and QoL improvements... it's well worth compiling if you like it.
    - app4soft 6y ago
      > it's well worth compiling if you like it. Yep, I know. I use 'master' builds since SolveSpace became open-source.[0] SolveSpace is my daily engineering tool during last 7 years ;) [0] http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/solvespace-released-under-gpl http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/solvespace-released...
  - ddingus 6y ago
    I just took a look. It's really good. But, yeah. Has limits right now. The plan is to obviously make more possible, and a whole lot is possible right now. I know I could do a ton in that software and didn't know about it. Cool! When people say "CAD" they are talking about any number of technical things. Say you want to insure a free form surface is a minimum radius connecting all other surfaces. Depending on the scenario, one may be able to do that in the software today, but doing it may require well above average math and geometry skills. In "CAD", the skill requirement is much reduced, leaving the user more focused on requirements and overall design intent, not implementation details. Just FYI, on what "CAD" often means to people.
- Unbeliever69 6y ago
  Yeah. This is the a similar problem with alternatives to 2D AutoCAD replacements. 2D CAD application can pretty much all do the same things. However, most of the really useful productivity features such as dynamic blocks, sheet sets, constraints etc. are absent from the cheaper or free alternatives.
  - stavros 6y ago
    I'm a hobbyist, so I don't care if things like finite element analysis simulations are missing, but I do want basic things like constraints, some of which I think SolveSpace is missing. One big "quality of life" thing that even OnShape is missing that Fusion has is the ability to dimension a line from another line, i.e. you can specify a dimension as "line_23 / 2", which allows you to do math with the other element as a variable. It's a pretty small feature, but extremely useful.
    - app4soft 6y ago
      > but I do want basic things like constraints, some of which I think SolveSpace is missing SolveSpace has a lot of constraints & this is a key feature of SolveSpace. What "missing constraints" you talking about?
    - stjohnswarts 6y ago
      Freecad does constraints.

SolveSpace is quite fantastic as a technical achievement, but it's rather limited in terms of CAD. It's great for simple designs or just messing around, though, I'm very impressed.

app4soft 6y ago
> but it's rather limited in terms of CAD SolveSpace has NO "limits in terms of CAD" (as SolveSpace 3.0 actually in active development, heavy rework & list of implemented features growing each week) — the only limits it has is that for creating _too_complex_ solids & assembly it just requires to use more tricks & more powerful PC ;)
- gamegod 6y ago
  Latest Solvespace in Git has some nifty features and QoL improvements... it's well worth compiling if you like it.
  - app4soft 6y ago
    > it's well worth compiling if you like it. Yep, I know. I use 'master' builds since SolveSpace became open-source.[0] SolveSpace is my daily engineering tool during last 7 years ;) [0] http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/solvespace-released-under-gpl http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/solvespace-released...
- ddingus 6y ago
  I just took a look. It's really good. But, yeah. Has limits right now. The plan is to obviously make more possible, and a whole lot is possible right now. I know I could do a ton in that software and didn't know about it. Cool! When people say "CAD" they are talking about any number of technical things. Say you want to insure a free form surface is a minimum radius connecting all other surfaces. Depending on the scenario, one may be able to do that in the software today, but doing it may require well above average math and geometry skills. In "CAD", the skill requirement is much reduced, leaving the user more focused on requirements and overall design intent, not implementation details. Just FYI, on what "CAD" often means to people.
Unbeliever69 6y ago
Yeah. This is the a similar problem with alternatives to 2D AutoCAD replacements. 2D CAD application can pretty much all do the same things. However, most of the really useful productivity features such as dynamic blocks, sheet sets, constraints etc. are absent from the cheaper or free alternatives.
- stavros 6y ago
  I'm a hobbyist, so I don't care if things like finite element analysis simulations are missing, but I do want basic things like constraints, some of which I think SolveSpace is missing. One big "quality of life" thing that even OnShape is missing that Fusion has is the ability to dimension a line from another line, i.e. you can specify a dimension as "line_23 / 2", which allows you to do math with the other element as a variable. It's a pretty small feature, but extremely useful.
  - app4soft 6y ago
    > but I do want basic things like constraints, some of which I think SolveSpace is missing SolveSpace has a lot of constraints & this is a key feature of SolveSpace. What "missing constraints" you talking about?
  - stjohnswarts 6y ago
    Freecad does constraints.