[HN Gopher] Show HN: ChatToSTL - AI text-to-CAD for 3D printing
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Show HN: ChatToSTL - AI text-to-CAD for 3D printing
        
       Hey HN,  I'm a beginner at CAD so I built an app that does it for
       me ;) Describe a part and ChatToSTL writes the OpenSCAD code, shows
       a live render with size sliders, then exports the STL/3MF file.
       Because the output is parametric, it's easy to modify (unlike mesh
       models like Shap-E or DreamFusion).  Try it (needs your own OpenAI
       key): https://huggingface.co/spaces/flowfulai/ChatToSTL  How it
       works: Text prompt - o4-mini generates OpenSCAD code - live render
       + sliders - refine in chat - export.  Examples & Code:  *
       Walkthrough + real prints (bowl, hook, box, door stop):
       https://medium.com/@nchourrout/vibe-modeling-turning-prompts...  *
       90-sec demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK_IDaNn1Mk  * MIT
       repo: https://github.com/nchourrout/chat-to-stl  Current
       limitations (it's not replacing Fusion 360 anytime soon):
       - Simple shapes only. Even a mug can end up with a misplaced handle
       - Works best with CAD-style language ("extrude 5mm")       - AI
       can't see the render, so no self-correction yet       I'm
       particularly interested in feedback on improving the 3D generation
       quality: should I add vision feedback so that it can self critique?
       use CADQuery instead of OpenSCAD? use a different model?  Thanks!
       Nico
        
       Author : flowful
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2025-06-12 17:58 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (huggingface.co)
 (TXT) w3m dump (huggingface.co)
        
       | Haeuserschlucht wrote:
       | Try again without the need for an OpenAI-Key.
        
         | wds wrote:
         | Most individuals cannot afford to subsidize free-but-not-free
         | API calls like companies can. BYOK is perfectly reasonable for
         | a solo project like this.
        
         | flowful wrote:
         | Fair point. I went with BYO key since I can't cover OpenAI
         | usage at scale for a hobby project, but I might look into free
         | LLMs on Hugging Face.
        
       | gillesjacobs wrote:
       | Looks very cool!
       | 
       | I prototyped something like this with build123d for Python and
       | Cursor + OCP VSCode plugin.
       | 
       | Build123d is too new with too little examples out there, unlike
       | OpenSCAD. I can only get it to generate good code with largr
       | reasoning models that access the latest docs. No fast iteration
       | for build123d yet.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-06-12 23:01 UTC)