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This could be neat for schools and absolute beginners I guess. But I think the "basic shapes + booleans" workflow is going to be much more annoying than "sketch

This could be neat for schools and absolute beginners I guess. But I think the "basic shapes + booleans" workflow is going to be much more annoying than "sketch + extrude" that you see in almost every other parametric CAD program.

fsloth 7mo ago
Agree! Sketching 2D shapes is a very natural way to start thinking about shapes. That's why there is a sketch + extrude. Here are few examples - 42 seconds to a desk organizer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX6g5slTdeE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX6g5slTdeE Or quick wavy vase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkhAUhlg81s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkhAUhlg81s The booleans and extrusion shapes are complements - both fitting different type of modeling. Booleans are not only about shaping but also about composing individual parts to more complex assemblies. So one can extrude few parts, then eg. combine them with a join.
- IshKebab 7mo ago
  Ooo that is quite impressive. You should import SovleSpace's sketcher! What CAD kernel are you using? OpenCASCADE?
  - fsloth 7mo ago
    Thank you! The CAD kernel is written by me apart from the boolean solver for the meshes which is the superb https://github.com/elalish/manifold https://github.com/elalish/manifold To explain a bit more as "do your own kernel" is usually considered more mad than mad-science - this is not done on a whim. I spent over a decade doing CAD at Trimble, developing base tech and CAD offerings (including Tekla Structures and SketchUp). Happy to discuss the architecture more. OpenCASCADE is included as part of STEP importer though. Solvespace is a nice reference! One can already use it as prestep to modeling - just export the output as STL or SVG and import it :).
    - WillAdams 7mo ago
      More than anything, what I _really_ want is an interactive tool which allows me to work in both 2 and 3 dimensions, tagging points/coordinates with names and then referring to them by name while applying distances/lengths and modifications such as arcs and curves. I've been using Open(Python)SCAD: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview but have wished for an interactive tool which would allow programmatic usage as well (apparently OnShape does this by having FeatureScript as the basis and the UI simply edits the script?).
      - fsloth 7mo ago
        This is really good feedback. The data model supports solving dependencies like this on the data level. TBH I don't know at the moment how to make something like this accessible but will definitely keep it in mind.
        WillAdams 7mo ago
        One thought --- could you export the file as a structured XML description? BlockSCAD does this, and I've been thinking about parsing the XML and then using that 3D structure in my own project.
        fsloth 7mo ago
        Theoretically, yes, but in practice a structured XML description of a parametric model is not useful in the general case without standardized format. STEP XML would be probably the closest here. To be realistic, I might wrap a CLI to AdaShape first, then the user could query the model and have their LLM backport the model tree to something like CadQuery :D
        WillAdams 7mo ago
        I am fine with a representational XML which depicts the contents of the tree with the data for each node --- my idea is I would parse the XML and re-create the structure inside my program (which is pretty much what I had in mind for supporting BlockSCAD).

fsloth 7mo ago

Agree! Sketching 2D shapes is a very natural way to start thinking about shapes. That's why there is a sketch + extrude. Here are few examples - 42 seconds to a desk organizer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX6g5slTdeE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX6g5slTdeE Or quick wavy vase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkhAUhlg81s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkhAUhlg81s The booleans and extrusion shapes are complements - both fitting different type of modeling. Booleans are not only about shaping but also about composing individual parts to more complex assemblies. So one can extrude few parts, then eg. combine them with a join.

IshKebab 7mo ago
Ooo that is quite impressive. You should import SovleSpace's sketcher! What CAD kernel are you using? OpenCASCADE?
- fsloth 7mo ago
  Thank you! The CAD kernel is written by me apart from the boolean solver for the meshes which is the superb https://github.com/elalish/manifold https://github.com/elalish/manifold To explain a bit more as "do your own kernel" is usually considered more mad than mad-science - this is not done on a whim. I spent over a decade doing CAD at Trimble, developing base tech and CAD offerings (including Tekla Structures and SketchUp). Happy to discuss the architecture more. OpenCASCADE is included as part of STEP importer though. Solvespace is a nice reference! One can already use it as prestep to modeling - just export the output as STL or SVG and import it :).
  - WillAdams 7mo ago
    More than anything, what I _really_ want is an interactive tool which allows me to work in both 2 and 3 dimensions, tagging points/coordinates with names and then referring to them by name while applying distances/lengths and modifications such as arcs and curves. I've been using Open(Python)SCAD: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview but have wished for an interactive tool which would allow programmatic usage as well (apparently OnShape does this by having FeatureScript as the basis and the UI simply edits the script?).
    - fsloth 7mo ago
      This is really good feedback. The data model supports solving dependencies like this on the data level. TBH I don't know at the moment how to make something like this accessible but will definitely keep it in mind.
      - WillAdams 7mo ago
        One thought --- could you export the file as a structured XML description? BlockSCAD does this, and I've been thinking about parsing the XML and then using that 3D structure in my own project.
        fsloth 7mo ago
        Theoretically, yes, but in practice a structured XML description of a parametric model is not useful in the general case without standardized format. STEP XML would be probably the closest here. To be realistic, I might wrap a CLI to AdaShape first, then the user could query the model and have their LLM backport the model tree to something like CadQuery :D
        WillAdams 7mo ago
        I am fine with a representational XML which depicts the contents of the tree with the data for each node --- my idea is I would parse the XML and re-create the structure inside my program (which is pretty much what I had in mind for supporting BlockSCAD).