[HN Gopher] Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping...
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Obsessed with Cuttle: Parametric CAD for prototyping, producing,
and procrastin
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 169 points
Date : 2024-09-27 19:35 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (hannahilea.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hannahilea.com)
| wood_spirit wrote:
| Always so wowed by posts about maker spaces :)
|
| Is it normal in the states? And is it full of cool projects?
| amelius wrote:
| What do they mean by "create 5 free projects"? Will they laser-
| cut it for you and send it to you by mail?
| tqs wrote:
| On a free account you can create up to 5 projects in the Cuttle
| Editor (and you can delete them if you want to create more...)
|
| We don't laser cut anything for you. You can download your
| project as an SVG file (or DXF, etc) which you can then send to
| a laser cutter hooked up to your computer.
|
| The product is designed for people who have access to a laser
| cutter, e.g. at home or at a makerspace.
| m00dz wrote:
| I am loving your program making designs for my 3d printer.
| Thank you for sharing it to the world!
| tqs wrote:
| I am one of the creators of Cuttle. It stems from my research
| building direct manipulation + programming environments like
| http://recursivedrawing.com/ and http://aprt.us/
|
| From a programmer's perspective, you can think of Cuttle as a
| direct manipulation vector editor (like Inkscape or Adobe
| Illustrator) that can be driven with parameters and JS code where
| you need it.
|
| Unlike my previous research projects, this is a commercial
| startup mostly catering to laser cutting small businesses, though
| you can use it for anything where you want a 2D vector editor +
| some programmatic capabilities.
|
| I'll try to answer questions that come up in this HN thread.
|
| Thank you for sharing your work Hannah! Very cool stuff!
| dekhn wrote:
| I'm mainly curious whether the concepts in Cuttle could be
| exposed as plugins in Inkscape, or as a standalone application
| written in Qt-Python.
| tqs wrote:
| A Cuttle project is -- behind the scenes -- a program. Each
| "component" is a function. "Modifiers" are functions that
| take input geometry (and parameters) and use JS code to
| create arbitrary output geometry. All of this code can be
| live edited.
|
| At the same time you can do arbitrary "drawing" with a bezier
| pen tool and move/transform shapes. In this case you are
| essentially using the canvas drag-and-drop to manipulate
| literals in the program.
|
| But fundamentally a Cuttle project is a program and the
| Cuttle Editor is an IDE that looks like a vector editor on
| the surface.
|
| Because of this I'm not sure how much of Cuttle could be
| grafted onto a program whose architecture is more rooted as
| an editor of static vector graphics. I do know that Inkscape
| has some "live effects" which are similar to Cuttle's "live"
| modifiers.
|
| If you are interested in Cuttle's architecture, I did a one
| hour walkthrough on this interview,
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2el-85vG-IU
| ferfumarma wrote:
| Very cool work.
|
| FWIW the aparatus site says
|
| > Apparatus is under active development. Discuss how
| Apparatus should evolve on the Apparatus Google Group.
|
| Which seems like it's no longer accurate. Has it moved to a
| different repo?
| tqs wrote:
| Hmmm.. I would say Apparatus is no longer under active
| development. Researcher Joshua Horowitz was doing some
| work on it for a bit, but yeah I don't think it's changed
| much in several years. It should be regarded as a
| research project that scouted out several areas of the
| "programming experience" world that others can build on.
| pbronez wrote:
| It would be neat to have STL and STEP output for 3D printers.
| tqs wrote:
| Thanks for the suggestion! Yes, we should do this. I've been
| seeing more and more people use Cuttle for 3D printing
| (exporting a DXF, then bringing that into another program to
| extrude and output a STL).
| 1oooqooq wrote:
| there's openscad
| phkahler wrote:
| See Solvespace for that.
| throwaway2562 wrote:
| Cuttle is v cool, congratulations! I had previously seen
| Apparatus and liked it, so I can clearly see the genetic
| resemblance now ;)
|
| I'm wondering how many of you are on the team, and does it
| actually support you as a business yet? Even for a quite
| niche-y app Cuttle deserves to be better known, and higher-
| priced, imo.
| tqs wrote:
| Thanks! There are 5 of us on the team. Yes, the business is
| profitable.
| mft_ wrote:
| Hey, I've just spent an hour creating my first design with
| Cuttle - and I'm very impressed! You're right that it has a
| very short learning curve, especially coming from a hobbyist
| CAD and programming background.
|
| A few random thoughts/questions/suggestions (and apologies if
| I've missed options or existing functions):
|
| * Would it be possible to add edge snapping?
|
| * Could there be a slicker way to switch from the central
| origin for shapes? (Central is frustrating as it means having
| to change position every time I tweak the size.) Being able to
| easily select an arbitrary corner as the origin with a click
| would be great; maybe even auto-selecting the origin based on
| snapping two shapes together - i.e. 'anchoring' the shape based
| on snapping it to another one?
|
| * Any way of exporting multiple components in one go, without
| clicking through for each one?
|
| * Being able to set custom rounded corners with a list is
| great, but it's not easily discoverable!
|
| * It might be neat to have a pop-up offering boolean options
| when snapping or overlapping shapes?
|
| * Given the (I think?) JS under the surface, is it possible to
| import data, either as a CSV or an image from which pixel
| values can be read?
|
| * Lastly, any thoughts on offering an intermediate 'hobbyist'
| paid tier? I'd be strongly tempted to support you and access
| some of the paywalled features, but $19/month is honestly too
| high for an occasional/fun hobby product.
| tqs wrote:
| Cuttle's snapping is very good (imo). But you have to drag
| _from_ the snap point _to_ the snap point. So if you want to
| snap a particular midpoint (say) to a particular corner, you
| need to drag from that midpoint to that corner. That is, your
| drag is explicit about the from and to snap points.
|
| To export multiple components, we usually create a component
| (called "Cut Layout" for example), then drag out each of the
| other components (the pieces) into that component.
|
| There is a modifier called Flatten which might be useful for
| you for doing lots of Boolean operations at once. I think
| this video shows the workflow,
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGHKRfIC6QA
|
| Yes it's all JS. You could copy and paste your data in and
| then process it and create geometry. (Sorry we don't have any
| data import other than copy and paste at the moment.) Our
| scripting documentation is pretty good:
| https://cuttle.xyz/learn/scripting/getting-started-with-
| scri...
|
| We are experimenting with being able to read pixel values of
| raster images. Coming soon likely.
|
| Perhaps some kind of middle tier that gives full access to
| the Editor but does not give full access to the Pro templates
| makes sense. Many of our customers subscribe for access to
| those templates rather than the Editor!
|
| You are also free to subscribe when working on a project and
| need the Pro features, then cancel when you're dormant. We
| don't delete your projects when you downgrade to free, you
| can still access/edit/download them.
|
| I appreciate the feedback and the questions!
| volta-do-mar wrote:
| Totally dig this, especially the doorbell chime cover & music
| box!
| emmelaich wrote:
| Pedant alert. Learning curve is skill/time.
|
| > _with an exceptionally shallow learning curve_
|
| I'm used to long learning time to incorrectly described as steep,
| but I haven't seen shallow used as short.
|
| Time to officially deprecate steep and shallow, and use short and
| long instead.
| cjbgkagh wrote:
| "The common English usage aligns with a metaphorical
| interpretation of the learning curve as a hill to climb."
| Wikipedia
|
| Both steep and shallow work in this context
| emmelaich wrote:
| Maybe the fault such as it is belongs to the original coiner.
|
| Should've been time/skill not skill/time.
| leoedin wrote:
| I was briefly a member of a makerspace with a laser cutter - and
| it was brilliant! The ratio of effort to results was far better
| than any other CNC tools I've used.
|
| But then COVID and moving house put an end to that. I'd love to
| recreate something similar at home - but at a budget.
|
| Does anyone have a low cost laser cutter that actually works? It
| seems like there's an increasing number of Chinese ones out
| there, but quality and capabilities are unclear.
| jononor wrote:
| There is a saying among those that operahe makerspaces: "people
| come for the 3d printer,and stay for the laser".
|
| We have Redsail CO2 lasers for nearly 10 years now, in our
| volunteer ran makerspace in Oslo. It works, but does requires a
| bunch of setup and maintenance. Of course with hundreds of
| different users yearly, anything will need that... But it is
| more and gives poorer results than GCC/Epilog (which another
| local lab has, albeit with more professional maintenance crew).
| GlowForge targets a user group which accept less tinkering. PS:
| expect to spend at least the same amount of money/time on
| ventilation system as the machine itself!!
| ajb wrote:
| Perhaps someone on this thread will know the answer to this: is
| it possible to make V shaped grooves with a laser cutter, or
| would they end up stepped?
| mtreis86 wrote:
| Maybe. Many laser cutters are 3dof so there is no way to tip
| the cutter to a different angle. Find one with a couple extra
| axis and then sure.
| jononor wrote:
| A laser cutter has no inherent depth control. But you can
| modulate the power, which depending on the exact laser+material
| combination will give varying depth. In "raster" mode it can be
| modulated continuous so smooth transitions/slopes are possible.
| But the exact effect will need to be tested on samples.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| That would be a lot easier with a CNC mill/router and the
| correct shaped cutter.
| jononor wrote:
| Cuttle looks amazing for 2D geometric patterns. I really must
| find time to play with it some day and make something. Maybe on
| leather.
| thatguy288 wrote:
| I got excited when I read "parametric"... thinking it would be
| akin to what Autocad Inventor had 20+ years ago (setting angles
| between lines, setting lines to be parallel etc.) since I was
| recently looking for a simple CAD tool that could do that. Alas.
| bschwindHN wrote:
| Check out SolveSpace! It might be just what you want, don't be
| deceived by its retro UI.
| jononor wrote:
| For hobby/maker/semi-pro that would be Fusion360, Onshape,
| FreeCAD or Solvespace. And more, probably...
| s1mon wrote:
| I'm very curious about the fonts available in Cuttle. Are these
| all free fonts, or did some need to be licensed? Is it possible
| to use professional fonts which are on your local machine
| (without exporting as outlines)? How much adjustment needed to be
| done to make them appropriate for laser cutting etc? Many fonts
| which make sense for screen or printing need a lot of detail work
| to make sense for CAD work.
| tqs wrote:
| The free fonts in Cuttle are mostly from Google Fonts and other
| freely licensed fonts.
|
| With a Pro account you can upload your own font files.
|
| You may be interested in Cuttle's Connected Text feature. This
| will automatically connect dots on i's, etc so you can cut out
| text in one piece. There's also an option to "thicken" text so
| it's not as delicate.
|
| You can try a live demo here:
| https://cuttle.xyz/@cuttle/Connected-Text-29M9IXUSr5yr
|
| That page also describes the algorithm we use to make this work
| with any font.
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