4 ms·

How about https://www.plasticity.xyz/ https://www.plasticity.xyz/? I didn't try yet, but looks great.

by _glass 2y ago

linsomniac 2y ago
I just picked up Plasticity earlier this week to start trying to learn it, it's been on my radar for a while. I've been using TinkerCAD for years for making my simple models, and it works really well for the basics but there are things that become painful there that Plasticity has promise of making a lot easier. One of the first tutorials I went through was really frustrating though. Some of it may be that Plasticity is a quickly moving target right now (lots of tutorials are for v0.x or 1.4, with current being v24, for an idea). A lot of the pain was this tutorial just didn't touch on the basics it was assuming you knew. Some of it was just getting used to the tool and figuring out what mode you are in and which you need to be in to accomplish what you need to do. I struggled a lot with just getting keyboard shortcuts and the trackpad navigation to work. I never did find a description of mouse/trackpad mappings (possibly made worse by there being ~5 themes you can select from). It shows a lot of promise, but there's going to be a bit of a learning curve. But there was a learning curve on TinkerCAD too, I just need to keep that in mind. Pricing is ok: free 30 day trial, $150 for a license with 1 year of updates, and $299 for the Studio license. I don't use CAD that much, like maybe a model a month or less, so it's kind of a big bite to take for me personally, especially with it being young and likely to need to spend $150/year for a while here as it's revving up. The Studio version's xNURBS feature seems like it might be really enticing, but just makes that even harder for me to bite off. I probably should try OnShape just because they do have that free plan. I'm also looking at OpenSCAD for doing parameterized models. I installed it last night and asked Perplexity AI to generate a model, and it made a good start at it, but couldn't quite get the tongue-and-groove right.
- WillAdams 2y ago
  I actually bought Plasticity early on, but bailed, because I found the UI confusing. I was a bit more successful with Dune3D: https://dune3d.org https://dune3d.org (see the discussion I made on Github about working through the tutorial). That said, OpenSCAD is more my speed, and I've been using it for a long while now, and have even gotten started on a library for the new OpenPythonSCAD, Python-enabled fork: https://pythonscad.org https://pythonscad.org https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
  - jdboyd 2y ago
    I like the idea of openscad and sometimes use it, but the fact that it is no good for producing drawings suitable for machinists or 2d CAM programs is too much of a limitation. I wish someone would extend the idea to be more universally useful. Also, I wish I could afford for that someone to be me.
    - WillAdams 2y ago
      That limitation is a big part of why I've been extending it at: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview I've got it making DXFs (w/ arcs) which can then be used for 2D CAM. If you'll give me an example of a project you'd like to make I'll gladly see if I can code it up.

How about https://www.plasticity.xyz/ https://www.plasticity.xyz/? I didn't try yet, but looks great.

by _glass 2y ago

How about https://www.plasticity.xyz/ https://www.plasticity.xyz/? I didn't try yet, but looks great.

I just picked up Plasticity earlier this week to start trying to learn it, it's been on my radar for a while. I've been using TinkerCAD for years for making my simple models, and it works really well for the basics but there are things that become painful there that Plasticity has promise of making a lot easier. One of the first tutorials I went through was really frustrating though. Some of it may be that Plasticity is a quickly moving target right now (lots of tutorials are for v0.x or 1.4, with current being v24, for an idea). A lot of the pain was this tutorial just didn't touch on the basics it was assuming you knew. Some of it was just getting used to the tool and figuring out what mode you are in and which you need to be in to accomplish what you need to do. I struggled a lot with just getting keyboard shortcuts and the trackpad navigation to work. I never did find a description of mouse/trackpad mappings (possibly made worse by there being ~5 themes you can select from). It shows a lot of promise, but there's going to be a bit of a learning curve. But there was a learning curve on TinkerCAD too, I just need to keep that in mind. Pricing is ok: free 30 day trial, $150 for a license with 1 year of updates, and $299 for the Studio license. I don't use CAD that much, like maybe a model a month or less, so it's kind of a big bite to take for me personally, especially with it being young and likely to need to spend $150/year for a while here as it's revving up. The Studio version's xNURBS feature seems like it might be really enticing, but just makes that even harder for me to bite off. I probably should try OnShape just because they do have that free plan. I'm also looking at OpenSCAD for doing parameterized models. I installed it last night and asked Perplexity AI to generate a model, and it made a good start at it, but couldn't quite get the tongue-and-groove right.

WillAdams 2y ago
I actually bought Plasticity early on, but bailed, because I found the UI confusing. I was a bit more successful with Dune3D: https://dune3d.org https://dune3d.org (see the discussion I made on Github about working through the tutorial). That said, OpenSCAD is more my speed, and I've been using it for a long while now, and have even gotten started on a library for the new OpenPythonSCAD, Python-enabled fork: https://pythonscad.org https://pythonscad.org https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
- jdboyd 2y ago
  I like the idea of openscad and sometimes use it, but the fact that it is no good for producing drawings suitable for machinists or 2d CAM programs is too much of a limitation. I wish someone would extend the idea to be more universally useful. Also, I wish I could afford for that someone to be me.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    That limitation is a big part of why I've been extending it at: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview I've got it making DXFs (w/ arcs) which can then be used for 2D CAM. If you'll give me an example of a project you'd like to make I'll gladly see if I can code it up.