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Usability? SolveSpace is a PITA in that regard. You also need to re-learn most terms that are common in other CAD software. It's a typical OSS thing. Why care

Usability? SolveSpace is a PITA in that regard. You also need to re-learn most terms that are common in other CAD software. It's a typical OSS thing. Why care about professional users that have years of learning invested into an ecosystem of professional CAD software (including terminology)? Because these people will get you the most valuable feedback if you can get them to even play with your OSS CAD thingy. AI has now balanced the scores here. Someone with decent CAD experience can now instruct a model to build something useful. Based on lots of good libs out there that solve the basics. I.e. concentrate on UI/UX to build something better. It's like Lego, hands-free. You have all the blocks and you have someone who knows how/helps you combine them. If you have good taste, you can get nice results without understanding how the Legos where made or how to even combine them.

WillAdams 7mo ago
Is there a good text (or video) which discusses the basics of 3D CAD and all the attendant terminology and concepts?
- virtualritz 6mo ago
  You could ask Gemini (Deep Research) to create a jargon file with mappings. That's the equivalent of LMGTF, in 2026. ;) I mean all this is documented publicly online (docs/help for CAD software), market leaders are known and the LLMs have ingested this data during training.
tapia 7mo ago
I agree that it is very different from other CAD software, but that is also something I like. When I started using SolveSpace for some easy models, I was a bit lost. But then it clicked, and I really enjoyed the different approach. It is not my main CAD software (build123d is), but I really appreciate the workflow. I don't think that every oss should try the copy what already exists. The best is when new approaches are tried. The same happened to me when I started using tilling window managers. "Professional" Operating systems don't have that, but I am sure that if more people would try them, many would realize that the workflow fits them better. So, my point is that there is no single best solution in terms of user interface or interaction with a program, and the fact that many people explore and share different approaches with their open source software is something I really appreciate.

WillAdams 7mo ago

Is there a good text (or video) which discusses the basics of 3D CAD and all the attendant terminology and concepts?

virtualritz 6mo ago
You could ask Gemini (Deep Research) to create a jargon file with mappings. That's the equivalent of LMGTF, in 2026. ;) I mean all this is documented publicly online (docs/help for CAD software), market leaders are known and the LLMs have ingested this data during training.

tapia 7mo ago

I agree that it is very different from other CAD software, but that is also something I like. When I started using SolveSpace for some easy models, I was a bit lost. But then it clicked, and I really enjoyed the different approach. It is not my main CAD software (build123d is), but I really appreciate the workflow. I don't think that every oss should try the copy what already exists. The best is when new approaches are tried. The same happened to me when I started using tilling window managers. "Professional" Operating systems don't have that, but I am sure that if more people would try them, many would realize that the workflow fits them better. So, my point is that there is no single best solution in terms of user interface or interaction with a program, and the fact that many people explore and share different approaches with their open source software is something I really appreciate.