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I hope somebody will continue this project. It's a few months away to be a serious alternative to Blender / FreeCAD for certain use cases, with a much softer le

I hope somebody will continue this project. It's a few months away to be a serious alternative to Blender / FreeCAD for certain use cases, with a much softer learning curve.

turtledragonfly 2y ago
EDIT aha, the program already supports exporting to a mesh via marching cubes; see the youtube video on the site. I hadn't realized that (: ---- Be aware that since it fundamentally works with SDFs, it is a somewhat different modeling experience (and stores different data) than traditional meshes with triangles, verts, etc. Transforming it from SDFs into meshes could be done with marching cubes or similar, but you'd likely need to "clean up" such data afterwards in a Blender-style app anyway. SDFs are great though, if your renderer is SDF-based, too (most are not). [sorry if you knew this already, wasn't sure]
- antirez 2y ago
  Yep the export is already done! I used TinkerCAD a ton for things ways more complex than it should be used to, so even when I use more advanced CADs at this point I tend to think in SDF terms. For many things it's faster and more natural than extruding, rotating, ... But the fact is, the engine behind TinkerCAD is quite good, but there is little interest for AutoDesk to compete with its own Fusion360, so TinkerCAD is left forever as a children / beginners tool, without the more advanced stuff that could implement.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  >SDFs are great though, if your renderer is SDF-based, too (most are not). Thanks for reminding me that one of the best SDF renderers in the industry is stuck behind Sony, deemed a failure because Sony didn't want to publish it to PC (where all the dev scene is).
adastra22 2y ago
Blender maybe, but not CAD work unfortunately.
- nineteen999 2y ago
  Not even Blender. Not even close. No disrespect to the author, it's impressive, but Blender gives you extreme control over mesh topology and this doesn't.
  - adastra22 2y ago
    Sometimes that’s what you want though. This is good for “digital clay modeling.”
    - nineteen999 2y ago
      So is ZBrush, which is why its the industry standard for sculpting for VFX and games. You still have to get decent topology out of the modelling package, and marching cubes aren't going to give you that. If you have to retopologize your sculpted model by hand to make it viable for use in a rendering pipeline you might as well have just started with good topology in the first place and save yourself the time.
  - naasking 2y ago
    Meshes in Blender have finite resolution, SDFs do not. They can scale to an extent that simply isn't possible with meshes.
    - nineteen999 2y ago
      Wake me up when the deformable assets in VFX and video games etc are represented by SDF's instead of meshes. How do you rig an SDF for animation (eg. skeletal, for a humanoid figure)?
      - naasking 2y ago
        The signed distance function defining a solid can be parameterized by anything. Common ones are results of a finite element analysis, thereby allowing you to make the structure thinner where it doesn't need strength. In the case animation, parameterize it by a global clock, and each frame the objects are in slightly different positions dictated by a rough physics model (like a person's skeleton).
moarinfoszszz 2y ago
Check out Dune3D and Salome-Platform
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
OskarS 2y ago
You should check out MagicaCSG, which is a more sophisticated version (though still free!) of this: https://ephtracy.github.io/index.html?page=magicacsg#ss-carousel_ss https://ephtracy.github.io/index.html?page=magicacsg#ss-caro...
- captainhorst 2y ago
  There's also https://womp.com https://womp.com as an SDF modeler
fsloth 2y ago
If you like SDF:s Womp is pretty nice for starting out. Tinkercad is another pretty good beginner “cad”.

I hope somebody will continue this project. It's a few months away to be a serious alternative to Blender / FreeCAD for certain use cases, with a much softer learning curve.

turtledragonfly 2y ago

EDIT aha, the program already supports exporting to a mesh via marching cubes; see the youtube video on the site. I hadn't realized that (: ---- Be aware that since it fundamentally works with SDFs, it is a somewhat different modeling experience (and stores different data) than traditional meshes with triangles, verts, etc. Transforming it from SDFs into meshes could be done with marching cubes or similar, but you'd likely need to "clean up" such data afterwards in a Blender-style app anyway. SDFs are great though, if your renderer is SDF-based, too (most are not). [sorry if you knew this already, wasn't sure]

antirez 2y ago
Yep the export is already done! I used TinkerCAD a ton for things ways more complex than it should be used to, so even when I use more advanced CADs at this point I tend to think in SDF terms. For many things it's faster and more natural than extruding, rotating, ... But the fact is, the engine behind TinkerCAD is quite good, but there is little interest for AutoDesk to compete with its own Fusion360, so TinkerCAD is left forever as a children / beginners tool, without the more advanced stuff that could implement.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>SDFs are great though, if your renderer is SDF-based, too (most are not). Thanks for reminding me that one of the best SDF renderers in the industry is stuck behind Sony, deemed a failure because Sony didn't want to publish it to PC (where all the dev scene is).

adastra22 2y ago

Blender maybe, but not CAD work unfortunately.

nineteen999 2y ago
Not even Blender. Not even close. No disrespect to the author, it's impressive, but Blender gives you extreme control over mesh topology and this doesn't.
- adastra22 2y ago
  Sometimes that’s what you want though. This is good for “digital clay modeling.”
  - nineteen999 2y ago
    So is ZBrush, which is why its the industry standard for sculpting for VFX and games. You still have to get decent topology out of the modelling package, and marching cubes aren't going to give you that. If you have to retopologize your sculpted model by hand to make it viable for use in a rendering pipeline you might as well have just started with good topology in the first place and save yourself the time.
- naasking 2y ago
  Meshes in Blender have finite resolution, SDFs do not. They can scale to an extent that simply isn't possible with meshes.
  - nineteen999 2y ago
    Wake me up when the deformable assets in VFX and video games etc are represented by SDF's instead of meshes. How do you rig an SDF for animation (eg. skeletal, for a humanoid figure)?
    - naasking 2y ago
      The signed distance function defining a solid can be parameterized by anything. Common ones are results of a finite element analysis, thereby allowing you to make the structure thinner where it doesn't need strength. In the case animation, parameterize it by a global clock, and each frame the objects are in slightly different positions dictated by a rough physics model (like a person's skeleton).

moarinfoszszz 2y ago

Check out Dune3D and Salome-Platform

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

OskarS 2y ago

You should check out MagicaCSG, which is a more sophisticated version (though still free!) of this: https://ephtracy.github.io/index.html?page=magicacsg#ss-carousel_ss https://ephtracy.github.io/index.html?page=magicacsg#ss-caro...

captainhorst 2y ago
There's also https://womp.com https://womp.com as an SDF modeler

fsloth 2y ago

If you like SDF:s Womp is pretty nice for starting out. Tinkercad is another pretty good beginner “cad”.