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GitHub announces 3D File Diffs
- jotux 13y agoA neat feature but I wish they had support for 3d source file types instead of exported "binary", for lack of a better term, file types. If you wanted to truly open source your mechanical project you'd need to add an extra step to delete the previously exported STL and export a new one every time you commit. You also lose color/texture data when you export to STL.
- steveklabnik 13y agoSTL files are the source file for most 3D printers, which is probably the vast majority of 3D files on GitHub, I'd imagine.
- kanzure 13y agoSTL files aren't sources. They are near the very end of the toolchain. At the front of the toolchain tends to be scripting languages like AutoLISP, OpenSCAD, MGED (BRL-CAD), etc.
- jotux 13y agoYes, it's the output from a CAD tool and used for 3d printing but STL is a binary file type and not easy to edit. Committing STL files to a repo is analagous to commiting EXE files instead of source code or PDF files instead of TEX.
- crymer11 13y agoWhat about ASCII STL files? I'd say they're "pretty easy" to edit. I wouldn't want to write an entire one, but I've tweaked values in one before.
- jotux 13y agoWhat I mean is ease of editing in a typical CAD tool: Solidworks, AutoCad, Sketchup, etc. STL is imported as a solid blob and you lose all the individual features from the source model.
- DanielRibeiro 13y agoActually there are 10x more OBJ formatted files than STL files. I created a Chrome extension to visualize these on GitHub as well: https://github.com/danielribeiro/three-hub https://github.com/danielribeiro/three-hub Collada format is also very popular, particular with WebGL guys. The problem with diffing these is that you start diffing animations as well. Which literally adds a new dimension to the problem. If you take textures and materials into account, then the problem soon becomes really hard to visualize
- NickPollard 13y agoThat's a really great extension; My indie game currently uses .obj for some output files and this is very useful for me.
- dnautics 13y agoit's pretty trivial to include your SCAD file (for openSCADders like me) alongside your STLs. That's what I did on my github project (linked to indirectly via my info, and elswhere in this section).
- srimech 13y agoI have my SCAD files on github. It seems wrong to me to have a build result (the .STL file) under version control though.
- dnautics 13y agothis is great, comes just in time as I'm desiging a custom 3d scientific part. https://github.com/ityonemo/imsocultured/blob/master/device.stl https://github.com/ityonemo/imsocultured/blob/master/device....
- kanzure 13y agoWould you like any help building/designing/softwaring that? I have a soft spot for rolling my own lab equipment. Only asking here because github is down, otherwise would be looking..
- dnautics 13y agowell the design is complete, we printed some first round tests, and adjusted the tolerances, and the final device is being printed as we speak.
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoWhat's it do - presumably it's a connector, glass rod to rubber hose (ie tubing)? Edit: ah, found this https://github.com/ityonemo/imsocultured/commit/08b57107b75761f2d8d274b6ac8d17bbf1bcd8ce https://github.com/ityonemo/imsocultured/commit/08b57107b757... - "oral microbiome community culturing apparatus" - so the complete apparatus is for culturing whatever bacteria and such you find in your mouth in a mini biome?
- dnautics 13y agothe oral microbiome model system is an anaerobic community; this apparatus allows you to connect a pH probe using the screw side for continuous pH monitoring (we already have a device that does this; but it's suboptimal for other reasons too) plus a second port that will be fitted with a septum to draw gas, draw samples, or add to the medium.
- suhailpatel 13y agoNot sure why but from just reading the title I was expecting a new way to view diffs of normal files in some funky 3D mode
- mck- 13y agoMe 8
- bollockitis 13y agoI thought the same thing. I thought the title was implying that they were offering "3D diffs for files," not "diffs for 3D files."
- antsar 13y agoSame here, perhaps "GitHub announces Diffs for 3D Files" would be clearer. This is a really awesome feature though, I'd be curious to see what other types of files they do this for (if any).
- benjamta 13y agome too. so whoes up for implementing a funky 3D tool for normal file diffs ;-)
- benjamta 13y agome too. so whoes up for implementing a funky 3D tool for normal file diffs ;-)
- 13y ago
- asselinpaul 13y agoWow, I love how Github is transforming into the a great tool maker for the digital world.
- chriskelley 13y agoI wonder if they have any plans to add support for other 3D filetypes (.ma, fbx, obj, etc)? It would be great to use this with more organic VFX-type models where some of the intricate detail updates are hard to discern at first glance. Blue sky thinking, it would even be awesome to have something like this as a plugin in Maya where we could load in a previous version of the model and onion-skin between them with a slider like in the demo. Going to check out the links in the article. Very cool!
- kmfrk 13y agoI would unironically love a GitHub developer's conference where they get to do a keynote presenting all the awesome features they churn out at record pace. I feel more people who aren't unrepentant nerds should get to see what these guys (and gals) are doing. --- EDIT: They could just do something simple at a local, informal event (say a bar) with a few dozens of people. it doesn't have to be something huge. It'd also be a great way for everyone at GitHub to get some training in making and delivering presentations, and it's great to have on your resumé. I'd definitely want to try something like that out as a CEO, and I imagine it'd make it even more fun to work at a playful place like GitHub.
- steveklabnik 13y agoThey did a conference a long time ago: CodeConf. It was a blast.
- Goopplesoft 13y agoI wonder what percent of Github users store 3D files, to make this worth the effort. I imagine less than 0.5% if that?
- fletchowns 13y agoWith 3D printers becoming more common, I think they are positioning themselves for the future, rather than fulfilling a strong demand that exists today.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- robertely 13y agoProbably that many previously, but this has been a long requested feature of the hobby 3d community. If you build it they will come sort of thing.
- maxk42 13y agoWell now that Github actually supports 3D files, I'm sure that will change.
- scoofy 13y agoA friend and I built http://www.bld3r.com http://www.bld3r.com as a vastly more open 3d file sharing platform than thingiverse. We welcome this move, as we prefer files to be hosted on open platforms like github. I thought I'd plug the site for anyone who wants an alternative. We are still in beta, but are finishing that soon.
- kanzure 13y agoI wouldn't call github an open platform. Maybe you meant gitorious or cgit or gitweb?
- scoofy 13y agoI mean open in the sense that they have clear terms such that they don't effectively own your content. In building a 3d printing social network, not having to trust us was important to our design.
- jacquesm 13y agoIf github would make import/export a lot easier than it is today it would qualify as an open platform. Right now only the 'git' part of it is open (and git was open all along).
- milkshakes 13y agoyou mean besides all of the APIs they expose?
- thrillgore 13y agoThis certainly makes Github a viable option compared to Thingiverse. Hopefully we'll see OpenSCAD file support in the future!
- willvarfar 13y agoThis is great! Historically, studios has shunned dvcs; github moving in his direction - even if motivated by personal 3d printing projects - may open some eyes and change some minds.
- hosh 13y agoThat would be great ... but I think the bigger thing is, just as open-source software has taken over much of the Internet, this is a critical step in helping open-source hardware take over ... well, everything else.
- kanzure 13y agoCool, that's one wishlist feature down. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5519676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5519676 (hehe "Wow. That's a stupidly large amount of work, barfed out with seeming ignorance to the cost of implementation." Yes, well.... libffi helps out a lot.)
- angersock 13y agoSometimes, open source actually helps mitigate the work issue. :)
- rafeed 13y agoThis is so great! I'm always working with STL's and always asking myself, "what's different in these models?" I'd love to see meta data and other 3D file types like VRMLs or SolidWorks parts included in the future as well.
- kanzure 13y agoSolidWorks seems really difficult to implement unless you're licensing a Windows server + SolidWorks software licenses or running wine and hacking up their dlls.. I would be curious to hear ideas on how to do it.
- rafeed 13y agoThis is true. I think it would require working directly with SolidWorks to make it happen since everything of theirs is so proprietary.
- schrijver 13y agoThey had diffs for typefaces at some point: http://i.liketightpants.net/and/how-it-has-come-about-that-code-hosting-site-github-offers-visualisations-of-typeface-development http://i.liketightpants.net/and/how-it-has-come-about-that-c... I originally suggested it to them, and was kind of sad that they did away with this feature—that being said, it makes sense they want to streamline their platform. Then, I’ve found it hard to create these kind of things myself, selfhostable FOSS solutions like Gitorious don’t offer enough possibilites to build upon (no real API)
- thefreeman 13y agoAnd.... they're down. edit: back up yay!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- raganwald 13y agoI am neither authorized nor inclined to speak for GitHub, but if you were to suggest devoting more resources to convincing the people running botnets to go fold proteins, that would be nice.
- angersock 13y agoThis is why we can't have nice things.
- GantMan 13y agohave you ever seen Cube 2, hypercube? They must have tried to go 4D
- jackflintermann 13y agoHmm, github.com is throwing a 500 error at the moment. I wonder if this is somehow related?
- markdunphy 13y agoIn other (possibly related) news, the entire website is now throwing an error.
- jared314 13y agoI wonder if this feature is targeting the growing consumer 3D printing market. Being the goto place for collaborating, and versioning, 3D designs would be a good play for them.
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- leoh 13y agoIt could be great to have something like this for SVG!
- hardware_nick 13y agoThis is nice, but, it feels like a splashy visual tool that took a lot of dev resources and will only be used significantly by a small user base. I personally feel that they would make a lot more users happy by spending a little on improving their existing code diff interface. Some ideas: - make the context button "..." for the code diff actually do something - side-by-side diffs - syntax highlighting
- pyrocat 13y agoThey're doing it before a significant user base grows that precipitates a github-for-3D startup. Building this feature also fosters growth of open source 3D modeling and printing, which is a net positive thing.
- bradtgmurray 13y agoIt is a net positive, I just wish they would focus more on their core users. Their basic code diff tool could use a lot of love to make it on par with the diffs generated from other tools.
- tesseract 13y agoI wonder if it really will though. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, STL is an output format (think PostScript) that I would be a little bit surprised to see checked in to a repository. Maybe diffs for 3D source formats will come in the future?
- pintglass 13y agoI agree. I think whoever is ok'ing things like the UI changes made in the past months and whoever approved this diff really is not doing what the majority of users are looking for. I think GH provides a great service, but something is wrong.
- hosh 13y agoThis is aweomse. It's a small, but critical step in making the design for things versionable and forkable.
- snowwindwaves 13y agoDoes anybody know of a 2D diff for diagrams? a lot like http://www.diffplug.com/ http://www.diffplug.com/
- plg 13y agoSometimes more is less
- adamwong246 13y agoOh Github, you're wonderful
- malkia 13y agoIn a similar vein: http://3drepo.org/ http://3drepo.org/
- sam 13y agoThis is a small step into a big open field. Collaboration in the hardware design space is moving slowly. It's not even at the SVN/CVS level now. Has an architect ever forked an open source building? Has an biomedical engineer ever forked a open source prosthetic hip implant? Has a civil engineer forked an open source bridge? They will.
- jotux 13y agoSolidworks has had a svn-like system built into it for the last few years: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/product-data-management/revision-and-version-control.htm http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/product-data-managemen...
- sam 13y agoYeah, but it's probably expensive. The pricing isn't even public: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/purchase/quote.htm http://www.solidworks.com/sw/purchase/quote.htm
- lh7777 13y agoYou can bet it's thousands of US dollars, if not tens of thousands. Just a single seat of Solidworks is $4000 without any extras. Believe it or not, that was actually crazy cheap for parametric CAD back when Solidworks started becoming popular ~15 years ago.
- 542458 13y agoAs much as people give Solidworks flak, it actually is really, really good software for what it does, and it does a lot of different things. There are other pieces of software that can match or exceed it in single matters, but very few can do all the things it does. While it's not cheap by an means, it fills a role at which little else comes close. In other words, it may be $4000, but it does what would take four or five $1000 (plus training) pieces of software to do.
- fra 13y agoMeanwhile, still no side by side diffs :(
- dandyhighwayman 13y agoGitHub: Doing the Work That Matters(tm)
- voodootikigod 13y agoMike Skalnik (post author) will be at RobotsConf http://robotsconf.com http://robotsconf.com and available to talk about this and other similar initiatives going on (make-me, etc). Still a few tickets left. Saw a couple comments about conferences and such, figured it would be worth mentioning.
- jamesmiller5 13y agoI haven't seen anyone mention binary space partitioning since using quake3's bsp toolchain a few years ago. http://www.mralligator.com/q3/ http://www.mralligator.com/q3/
- 3rd3 13y agoI'm wondering why they ended up using BSP as a data structure for boolean mesh operations. Is there an advantage over Octrees I'm not aware of in this case?
- 3rd3 13y agoAparently, yes: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8659.2009.01609.x/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8659.2009....
- 3rd3 13y agoJust for the record: The original paper in which they found that merging the trees of binary space partition yields set operations: http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~amana/research/bsptSetOp.pdf http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~amana/research/bsptSetOp.pdf
- sshirokov 13y agoFor the use case of boolean mesh ops the majority of the work is polygon splitting and clipping, something BSP trees excel at.
- perone 13y agoAnd they still didn't implemented a visualization for SVG ?
- tibbe 13y agoCan we have side-by-side diffs of code first, please?
- swang 13y agoYes. With maybe support for viewing full files instead of just the diffs. None of the Chrome/Browser Extensions really do this.
- itsbits 13y agoawesome addition..althgh am little confused looking for changes..but revision wise looks quite descriptive....
- radioxid 13y agoWell, if they could add slides diffs that would be cool too.
- marcosscriven 13y agoThis is very cool. Rather obviates my own site. (http://fabfabbers.com http://fabfabbers.com) Ho hum ;)
- talles 13y agoNow I'm feeling in the future