Ancestors

Written by Simon George on 2024-04-07 at 23:13

I needed to 3D model a timing belt profile and slightly tweak it for 3D printing. But the technical drawing is deceivingly complex.

I normally use OpenSCAD which is parametric (you specify shapes & dimensions), but that won't work here. See all the arcs relative to other arcs relative to points… it needs a constraint solver.

FreeCAD can probably do it but the UX Is inscrutable to me.

So I tried SolveSpace; another open source constrain modeller. And it was a breeze! https://solvespace.com/

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Toot

Written by Simon George on 2024-04-07 at 23:19

SolveSpace's garish pixelated UI looks off-putting at first like it was built in the 80s and surely won't make any sense. But that's not true!

I quickly realised its tool palette works like Photoshop, it has intuitive mouse viewport controls, and well labelled icons & menus. Honestly it just works. And it's fast.

I started with the tutorial but found myself quickly able to skip ahead, it's really that intuitive.

Open source, 2D, 3D, comprehensive export. I love it. https://solvespace.com/bracket.pl

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Descendants

Written by postmodern on 2024-04-08 at 01:42

@sfcgeorge I love the minimalism of SolveSpace's UI. There's nothing that distracts you.

[#]solvespace #cad

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Written by Simon George on 2024-04-08 at 10:39

@postmodern same 😁 I avoid big IDEs / GUI applications because I'm too lazy to learn all the buttons, but Solvespace is the perfect balance for me. I really love it, instantly shot up to one of my favourite OSS apps

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