This seems to be more than just a parametric 3D drawing program (at least based on a quick look at a tutorial). The workflow seems to be heavily constraint based. You make a bunch of connected lines of no particular orientation and dimension and then specify a bunch of restrictions on what sort of thing is possible. Eventually you end up with your design based on a bunch of tiny specifications.
Strikes me as different than something more drafting oriented like Freecad. It's more like a type of 3D breadboard.
This is the standard with commercial CAD packages like Solidworks/AutoCAD because it's much more effective for the part design process than manual drafting. I can't really think of any paremetric CAD packages that aren't also constraint based.
>The workflow seems to be heavily constraint based.
That strikes me as being very similar to the Part Design Workbench of FreeCAD which uses the Sketcher and constraint solver. Anyone have more details on a comparison of Solvespace and FreeCAD?
I've been using this software quite extensively to design a small 25m2 house I'm building earlier this year. It can be a bit rough around the edges, but it's already quite usable and powerful!
IMO the main issue is that the constraint solver recomputes everything whenever you add/move something, even though past additions are already properly constrained. As a result, the software gets less and less responsive as your design gets more complicated. I don't know if the devs adressed that issue (it's a tough one), but I know it was already on the radar a few months ago.
Does it get as bad as OpenSCAD? I found that anything even remotely complex using OpenSCAD brings the machine down to a crawl. And I'm on an overclocked 5930K with 64GB ram ;-)
I'd be very curious to see a couple screenshot of your project! I used Google Sketchup to do landscaping last year around my house; I wonder how this would compare...
Solvespace is the best open parametric CAD package I've used by far. For people coming from commercial CAD packages like SolidWorks the design process is easy to pick up. The UI is definitely a bit rough, but it's so much more powerful than anything else I've used.
I used to use Inventor professionally, and that had a MTBF of perhaps 4 hours. I haven't needed a CAD program since then, but one of the things that'd make me try Solvespace first is that whitequark appears to actually care about reliability.
Let me plug qcad, a free and open source cad system that allows you to work parametrically as well using plain javascript.
I've done some pretty complex stuff in it and it hasn't let me down yet.
I'll give solvespace a shot to see how it compares, for me the reason to use parametric CAD is that I'm far more comfortable programming something than editing it in a GUI, and besides it makes changing stuff so much easier.
"Currently, the focus of development is to improve SolveSpace's handling of complex assemblies with many similar parts by allowing to load a hierarchy of sketches instead of a single sketch and propagate the changes as they are made, and to derive many variants of geometry from a single sketch. For example, these changes would allow to use a single basic sketch to model framework made from varying lengths of 80/20 profile, whereas currently that would require a separate sketch for every size of cut."
FreeCAD & OpenSCAD have both been mentioned a lot in this thread. If you like the thought of the scripting power OpenSCAD gives you, but like the convenience of a GUI at times, the cadquery plugin for FreeCAD may be worth a look. It provides a Python scripting environment in FreeCAD that you can use in tandem with GUI operations.
If you are using FreeCAD, probably try to run Solvespace or read one of it's tutorials, and you'll see the difference.
I have not used both apps extensively, but clearly FreeCAD is much bigger tool with wider use-cases. If talking about 3D cad only, I like minimalist Solvespace's approach better (from UI/UX stand point and from source code's perspective as well), easier menus, easier use (simple shortcuts), readable and rather small-ish codebase.
I'm not aware of any plan to incorporate programatic costraints into Solvespace. I've given this a little bit of thought before, and I suspect it could be best done with a scripting language tied into Solvespace, in the style of Blender.
I like the concept, and I am sure that I will try it out soon.
I do however miss some screenshots on the website of the full application, and asking a user to download a video on a website in 2016 seems a bit off, why not use YouTube or some other service that offers embeds?
[+] [-] upofadown|9 years ago|reply
Strikes me as different than something more drafting oriented like Freecad. It's more like a type of 3D breadboard.
[+] [-] akiselev|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GregBuchholz|9 years ago|reply
That strikes me as being very similar to the Part Design Workbench of FreeCAD which uses the Sketcher and constraint solver. Anyone have more details on a comparison of Solvespace and FreeCAD?
http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Basic_Part_De...
[+] [-] jacquesm|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tgirod|9 years ago|reply
IMO the main issue is that the constraint solver recomputes everything whenever you add/move something, even though past additions are already properly constrained. As a result, the software gets less and less responsive as your design gets more complicated. I don't know if the devs adressed that issue (it's a tough one), but I know it was already on the radar a few months ago.
[+] [-] buserror|9 years ago|reply
I'd be very curious to see a couple screenshot of your project! I used Google Sketchup to do landscaping last year around my house; I wonder how this would compare...
sketchup plan: https://goo.gl/photos/Qc5mEnFiFm9UWBvv8 reality: https://goo.gl/photos/Gn66MSc8UPshR3CC8
[+] [-] n00b101|9 years ago|reply
If these are linear constraints, maybe they can use the "Cassowary" incremental solver.
[1] http://overconstrained.io/
[+] [-] leoedin|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nialo|9 years ago|reply
I used to use Inventor professionally, and that had a MTBF of perhaps 4 hours. I haven't needed a CAD program since then, but one of the things that'd make me try Solvespace first is that whitequark appears to actually care about reliability.
[+] [-] doczoidberg|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|9 years ago|reply
I've done some pretty complex stuff in it and it hasn't let me down yet.
I'll give solvespace a shot to see how it compares, for me the reason to use parametric CAD is that I'm far more comfortable programming something than editing it in a GUI, and besides it makes changing stuff so much easier.
[+] [-] geon|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] buserror|9 years ago|reply
Funny that one of their example of clamps looks exactly the same as the one I've designed to hold the spindle on my CNC! (cut from sheet aluminium https://github.com/buserror/buserror-reprap/blob/master/stl/...)
[+] [-] whitequark_|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] setori88|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] setori88|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsilvereagle|9 years ago|reply
https://github.com/dcowden/cadquery
[+] [-] jononor|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agumonkey|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] markild|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] trymas|9 years ago|reply
I have not used both apps extensively, but clearly FreeCAD is much bigger tool with wider use-cases. If talking about 3D cad only, I like minimalist Solvespace's approach better (from UI/UX stand point and from source code's perspective as well), easier menus, easier use (simple shortcuts), readable and rather small-ish codebase.
[+] [-] jpt4|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zem|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Unbeliever69|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avhon1|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EJTH|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mlvljr|9 years ago|reply
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