[HN Gopher] Arcol simplifies building design with browser-based ...
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Arcol simplifies building design with browser-based modeling
Author : joeld42
Score : 41 points
Date : 2025-06-02 16:16 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.arcol.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.arcol.io)
| joeld42 wrote:
| We're launching Arcol today! Check it out. Modern CAD tool, built
| for the browser with Rust+Typescript for high performance and an
| elegant UX.
|
| Check out the announce video that explains some of the ideas
| behind it: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paul-o-
| carroll-38aaa1105_arco...
|
| Feel free to post any questions and I'll do my best to answer!
| bhouston wrote:
| Looks a bit like the ThreeJS editor reskinned. Is it using
| ThreeJS?
| joeld42 wrote:
| It is using ThreeJS for the 3D rendering, with a custom Rust
| geometry kernel to generate the mesh buffers to render. The
| editor interface is React based.
| Twinklebear wrote:
| Pretty general question, but what has your approach been for
| coupling ThreeJS + React w/ a Rust/Wasm kernel for mesh
| generation? E.g. do you have Wasm own the memory and you give
| ThreeJS views of the memory to upload to GPU?
| joeld42 wrote:
| We don't need to update the scene at once, so when geometry
| changes we rebuild the buffer and send it over to
| typescript, and the three.js mesh will own the buffer. By
| being careful about what needs to be updated, we can keep
| things interactive.
|
| This is an older blog post but it covers the general idea
| of it: https://blog.arcol.io/parametric-geometry-engine
| prideout wrote:
| Currently we simply copy a slice of the heap's ArrayBuffer
| from WASM to JS. In the past we exposed the heap slice
| directly but it was technically "unsafe" (perhaps because
| the heap can grow), and doing a copy did not hurt
| performance in any measurable way.
| hooverd wrote:
| Hehe, I imagine the back-and-forth between the architects and
| structural/mechanical/HVAC guys will be glorious.
| joeld42 wrote:
| haha yeah! It feels like a real pain point in the industry
| right now. Hopefully we can make it easier for communication
| between design, engineering and construction.
| gervwyk wrote:
| Well done for zoning in on this problem. Many will try to
| solve this with a better email or kanban workflow or internal
| tooling. It takes some imagination to build something better.
| This solution looks very creative (i'm not in the industry so
| would not know what is the normal for this) and congrats on
| the launch!
| an_aparallel wrote:
| Building services bow down to their structural overlords, we
| generally dont have a say unless we absolutely cannot squeeze
| duct in a given space.
| itishappy wrote:
| As somebody outside of the industry, what's the final output of
| this product? I don't see doors, so I'm assuming this tool is
| intended to be used to rough out shapes and costs
| collaboratively? I totally see the utility in having a
| collaborative tool at those early stages. How far does Arcol go?
| Can it spit out blueprints?
|
| Also, being asked to login to view the demo vid is jarring. The
| play button signifies a video to me, if it's a demo I'd choose a
| different symbol (and put it somewhere other than the center of
| the video).
| joeld42 wrote:
| Exactly, at this stage, the output is mainly for feasibility,
| presentations and communication. But we can also export models
| to Revit or 3D formats like GLTF to use in the next steps of
| the process, or for renders, etc. But we're planning to
| continue to add features to make it useful further down the AEC
| pipelines.
|
| Good point about the play button, I'll pass that feedback
| along. :)
| itishappy wrote:
| Neat, love it!
| realitysballs wrote:
| Huge fan of anyone daring enough to take on Autodesk , also
| product is top notch design.
| joeld42 wrote:
| Thanks! We love to hear it!
| shocka_z wrote:
| How does this compete with Autodesk's Revit & BIM Collaborate?
| joeld42 wrote:
| It coexists with Revit right now, and is a good place to do
| feasibility and early design and get instant metrics and
| feedback. We think it's a lot more collaborative and design
| friendly.
|
| One day we'd love to take them on directly, I think there's a
| lot of architects out there looking for something better.
|
| As far as collaboration features, we've built it from the
| ground up with collaboration in mind, so you can work with
| other users directly in the same scene and see their actions
| and updates. We've got collaborative presentation boards with
| views and metrics that can update live, and of course workflow
| features like commenting. And since it's browser based, there's
| not the friction of installing a desktop app, which can be
| significant at some orgs.
|
| We'd love to know what you think though, give it a try and let
| us know what collaboration features you'd use!
| the_arun wrote:
| Will there be a workflow? For eg. review & approvals and changing
| state of the final design?
| joeld42 wrote:
| We're hoping to provide tools that let firms build whatever
| workflows they need.
|
| Right now, we have design options to present and compare
| different options and variants of scenes, and boards and
| comments, but we don't enforce any workflow.
|
| Looking at how customers use these features and adding tools to
| enable this is definitely a big focus in the near term.
| dfex wrote:
| This looks amazing!
|
| I'm working on a construction project right now (not as an
| architect/engineer) and I can tell you right now that live
| collaboration is THE killer feature (your slick UI not
| withstanding).
|
| If this job is anything to go by, the current state-of-the-art
| appears to be a single Revit model file released once a month,
| 10,000 excel spreadsheets and 3,000 PDFs of various versions and
| quality spread between Sharepoint and a Document management
| server.
|
| I'm sure you've got an amazing roadmap, but it would be great to
| see you apply a modern take on:
|
| - how to handle version control in a multi-user environment
| (endless designing is fun, but at some point you need to draw a
| line in the sand so that people can start work, then changes need
| to be highlighted for the guy on the ground swinging a hammer)
|
| - collaboration with 3rd-parties that may have a subset of design
| responsibilities (e.g. HVAC, electrical - they can place things
| in a room, but can't adjust the dimensions of a room)
|
| - design reviews - current state-of-the-art seems to be marking
| up PDFs of DWGs with comments (which the supplier completely
| ignores on their next revision)
|
| I look forward to watching this product evolve!
|
| Small typo on your Love Letter to Designers post:
|
| "A promise we will make at Arcol is _tolisten_ first "
| joeld42 wrote:
| Exactly! It's great to see that this idea resonates!
| xeonmc wrote:
| How suitable might this also be for game level design, for more
| vertical arena-like maps?
| an_aparallel wrote:
| Ive started work recently as a Revit MEP modeller. Id recommend
| your team look into a way of supporting common services models
| like vav/fcu/flex ducts/rect ducts, pipes, cable trays, conduit
| and so on.
|
| Im not experienced enough to know if early stage mep designers
| will find this useful.
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