3 ms·

I have also long desired something like this. I'd love a parametric vector (+ image) editor; it's an unfilled niche. (If any startup people are looking for idea

by jml7c5 6y ago

I have also long desired something like this. I'd love a parametric vector (+ image) editor; it's an unfilled niche. (If any startup people are looking for ideas, here's your million dollar opportunity.) There are the CAD programs, like SolveSpace/AutoCad/QCAD, but they aren't really designed for illustration: you would have to constantly export the blueprint to style it. I think the closest you can get now is UI design software with constraint features, but that software isn't really made for free-form work like Illustrator/Inkscape. This discussion may be of interest to you, though it is not UI-based and none of the software has been open-sourced (yet): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21774018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21774018 EDIT: Looks like Inkscape can do a few vaguely CAD-like things with "live path effects", but it's by no means a proper constraint solver. See the feature request here for a full constraint solver, which includes a summary of past progress and proposals: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/1465 https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/1465

melville 6y ago
Just curious: in what sense is that startup niche not yet filled by any of the usual 3d parametric CAD programs like Rhino etc.?
- J253 6y ago
  The full blown 3D CAD programs _do_ have easily definable dimensions and a constraint solver for drawing sketches. The problem is that in these softwares, it’s typically assumed those sketches are going to be used to make a 3D part. So you’ll extrude the sketch along a line or sweep the sketch around an axis or something to create a 3D part. Consequently, what you can do artistically with the sketch ends there.* I’m not looking for that 3D aspect of the software. Once I have the sketch dimensioned and constrained, I want to start doing artistic stuff with it like changing the line style or color, adding a gradient fill, adding text inside it—-stuff you’d use Inkscape and the like to do. But Inkscape doesn’t have the constraint solver or easy to use dimensioning tool. *To be fair, you could probably export the line after fully defining it in CAD and import it into Inkscape, but that’s not much fun.

by jml7c5 6y ago

melville 6y ago

Just curious: in what sense is that startup niche not yet filled by any of the usual 3d parametric CAD programs like Rhino etc.?

J253 6y ago
The full blown 3D CAD programs _do_ have easily definable dimensions and a constraint solver for drawing sketches. The problem is that in these softwares, it’s typically assumed those sketches are going to be used to make a 3D part. So you’ll extrude the sketch along a line or sweep the sketch around an axis or something to create a 3D part. Consequently, what you can do artistically with the sketch ends there.* I’m not looking for that 3D aspect of the software. Once I have the sketch dimensioned and constrained, I want to start doing artistic stuff with it like changing the line style or color, adding a gradient fill, adding text inside it—-stuff you’d use Inkscape and the like to do. But Inkscape doesn’t have the constraint solver or easy to use dimensioning tool. *To be fair, you could probably export the line after fully defining it in CAD and import it into Inkscape, but that’s not much fun.