My exit has been FreeCAD with an MCP-bridge, letting me talk to an agent that implements my requests directly in the FreeCAD file I have open. Works super well with FreeCAD which has all the features I need, but where they can be hard to discover.
You can set up a digital twin of your actual workshop, with config-driven models of table/band/miter/hand saws, router tables, drill press, chisels and rasps, all sorts of fun.
I recently added a jig system too, so you can build jigs that you can actually use, both in your shop and in the tool. It's all drivable by a human or an MCP, and has video and plan authoring and sharing built in.
I've been building this as a labor of love since getting laid off in April, it's all completely free to use and people have made some really damn cool plans with it.
- Flatten aboard: https://studio.flet.dev/run/46tp8GPq9g/
- Make rabbeted box w/ optional sliding lid: https://community.carbide3d.com/t/rabbet-box-designer-on-fle... (working on a hinged option now)
drawing on what I learned putting together: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview and https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d
Sawdust has support for laser cutters [0] and has procedures for generating finger joint boxes, with svg export. It can also do more advanced forms via mcp, like this arcade cabinet design [1]. G-code is high on my to-do list because LightWorks isn't getting updates on linux any more would be great to send a design straight to my diode machine.
Sawdust also has support for 3d printing, both for including printable components in designs as well as printing scale models of your build [2]. No slicing built in, but full .step output for any slicer you like, with build volume aware scaling so you can print it on your machine.
[0] https://sawdust.diy/knowledge-base/how-to-use-the-laser-work...
[1] https://sawdust.diy/whats-new/laser-fabrication-enclosures-a...
[2] https://sawdust.diy/whats-new/woodworking-models-can-be-expo...
I signed up inside a minute of opening it :)
If you ever have/get any, a photo of any of the things on your site, actually built, would be a cool addition—make it real.
I have a few projects that are in progress while continuing to build out ShopSpec. This is so that I can address any rough edges as they come up. For instance, material handling and safety during sheet breakdown.
If you go to the plans section in the 'my shop' tab [0] and click a plan, e.g. this Pinocchio puppet [1] that someone requested via the public feature/plan request board, you can upload photos of anything you build and share a comment about how it went. Credit where due, I modeled this on Instructables and Thingiverse and similar project sharing sites. I for one cannot wait to see some pics of what people build!
[0] https://sawdust.diy/myshop
[1] https://sawdust.diy/plans/8088707d-db0a-4d2a-a73a-686f2c5e2c...
I'm embarrassed that "drag to orbit. The page scrolls past." has escaped my notice til now, yikes. I have an entire skill [0] devoted to eliminating this kind of ui slop, sadly it missed this one.
The landing page is very old at this point and definitely needs a freshen-up. The exploded view feature was built before fastener support, so you are absolutely right about that. Sawdust already can do much better, here's the same Sawhorse project's guide [1], take a look at the video there to see the fasteners driven in with respect for actual physical collisions :)
If you do try the product out you can easily submit feedback through the MCP or via the ui chat, I get paged for every feature request and love working on things users actually want. Would highly value any additional feedback.
[0] https://gist.githubusercontent.com/birep/bb865b2799d3f86d55f...
[1] https://sawdust.diy/share/882f2473-d283-46d0-8f38-7b289253d6...
There is a name for it: "enshitification" is the strategy of maximizing short term gains, even if that results in product suicide on the long run.
Trimble bought Sketchup 14 years ago. In the world of commercial software, that's a decent run and they seem to be going strong. They just aren't interested in the nickel-and-dime world of selling to and dealing with consumers.
Unfortunately, that's not a problem with the strategy. That was taken into account by the business when the pivot was made, and it was determined to be an insignificant amount of users. The strategy worked without any problems, given the increase in sales. Anyone who used it during the consumer period is no longer the intended customer.
I used it since the first demo version came out on CDs, and I disagree with that. It was definitely not fully featured and professional enough for professional use in the AEC market. It was a tool easy to use for tinkerers who wanted to CAD something simple at home without the cost and steep learning curve of AutoCAD.
The big problem for architects is it never got to be able to do architectural drawings while other software came in with easier 3d modelling and visualisation (revit which autodesk bought and built out fully for industry use, rhino etc. Even blender).
Google did very little with it and Trimble too. Google i can understand ignoring it after Google earth stopped being a focus. Trimble I dont really understand what they want it for
Also it was notable for being a major commercial success for the ruby programming language, outside ruby on rails.
Monopoly rent extraction targeting a captive audience
Business customers don't pay for "having more buttons than mere consumers". Their business depending on such a crucial tool makes them reliant on swift and extensive support, negligible down times and so on. They are being cornered by ecosystem lock-in and workflow dependencies.
You could sell the same software at low prices to both "classes" of customers and charge extra for the services relevant for businesses. But then the fiction of "professional" whatever would be gone on the business side. And more importantly, companies like SketchUp would have to admit, they are merely SaaS with bad scaling prospects.
The point here is, the actually largest share of consumers doesn't get served by the "market".
It's a systemic failure and people fail to grasp the exemplary nature of it.
The kinds of large scale projects I like to make in SketchUp really began to feel constrained at a certain point. A modeler with SketchUp's incredible UI that can take full advantage of any computer's available graphics hardware to render large amounts of geometry more efficiently would be a wonderful thing.
I'm very possessive of my SketchUp models, and so the idea of storing them on any kind of cloud server I don't have control over is abhorrent to me. I was not happy to see Trimble putting so much effort into making a web-based modeler.