Curated Code CAD (2020)

Re:Curated Code CAD (2020) by sfvisser on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @03:38AM (#27672984)

There is an OpenCascade version compiled down to wasm [1] that we're currently using embedded in our own app. Rendering to WebGL is relatively straight-forward and the system as a whole works well. Gives me a lot of power when designing mechanical systems and running simulations on the resulting models. Perf of the CAD kernel on the web is not great, but 'just good enough'.

Troubleshooting issues is tricky though. If something doesn't work debugging is nearly impossible and the (C++) docs are very challenging.

OpenCascade is very powerful, but the ergonomics of the API aren't great. Writing a simple FP-style immutable wrapper around it has proven very fruitful and we can now describe relatively complicated models with a bare minimum of TypeScript code. Lot's of fun!

[1] https://github.com/gabrielcuvillier/opencascade-emscripten-p...

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Re:Curated Code CAD (2020) by Asooka on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @12:28PM (#27678182)

What do you use for running simulations of your mechanical models?

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Re:Curated Code CAD (2020) by sfvisser on Wednesday June 30, 2021 @02:08AM (#27685456)

We’re running some custom code to test basic robotic locomotion, we’re not doing anything fancy with material properties or stress testing.

Very basic stuff, but still useful to quickly change your model in code and have your domain specific sims pick up on it automatically.

Additional advantage is the ease of building custom UIs to configure your model and scenes.

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