- Alibre https://www.alibre.com/ (note that there is a CAM option which is a re-badged MeshCAM)
- Moment of Inspiration 3D https://moi3d.com/ (this is probably the next commercial package I try)
and of course FreeCAD has a CAM Workbench which has seen great strides and Solvespace has a basic facility for G-code generation and some folks just program G-code/CAM directly --- I've been working on a tool for that myself: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
Can it be locally installed in docker or something? It's kinda a bummer when I need to do something and there's a connection problem or the server is down.
In fact I had that only a month or 2 ago with fusion 360. Something in their cloud was down so I couldn't export to STL and i really needed that urgently.
- 100% free, no subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud
- Local-first: all slicing and toolpath generation runs on your machine
- Works in any browser, even offline once loaded
YES!
I think a new type of open source is emerging centering around what is now possible in browsers. Browsers have a great track record when running legacy projects. Relying on a backend could be a liability for longevity.
I built opal editor myself, a local first open source free markdown editor with these same principles, https://github.com/rbbydotdev/opal
That's an interesting take. I've never really thought of it that way before, but I think you are right that you'll have an easier task running an HTML file with embedded JavaScript from 15+ years ago in a browser than running a 15+ year old binary.
That, my friend, is not how offline works.
You will be required to have internet access in one way or another.
Offline works 100% locally no matter if you have internet or not.
But you have to get the software somehow? Once you get it, it works offline. The same here I guess: once you download the source code/binaries into browser's cache (that can store things indefinitely) it's offline.
Umm, I’m confused about this comment… the concept of a web app that gets saved into browser cache and then can be loaded and used while offline definitely isn’t new. See Photopea etc
probably adaptive milling, which will be in an upcoming release. sharp path changes in harder metals can wear or break tools if you don't go slow, which has other issues.
no shared lineage. Cura and Kiri started around the same time (2011/2012), but as completely separate projects. Cura is a C++ desktop app and Kiri has always been 100% browser-based (no cloud, all computation in the browser sandbox). the licenses are different, too. Cura/Prusa/Orca are GPL based and Kiri is MIT.
OT: Why is that Alphabet, Mozilla, Apple, etc can get together to create web standards that allow anyone to create software that works cross-platform - only a browser is needed, but Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Canonical, etc can't get together to create standards that allow anyone to create software that works cross-platform?
The browser is an extremely poor medium to deliver applications. It works, but barely, is a huge resource hog, fragile and it breaks way too often due to a lack of backwards compatibility between browser versions of the same manufacturer. I have a small app that I support and it's been fun to get it to work in the browser (instant cross platform support was indeed the driver) but the experience is still sub-par compared to what I could do on a local application.
Apple make money from the App Store and from selling their hardware, so why should they want to invest on something that let people install software bypassing the App Store or that works on other platforms?
Alphabet make money from ads, so they want web pages, apps on Android and Chrome everywhere.
Mozilla make money from Google.
Microsoft make money from software licenses and subscriptions and from cloud services. They might be interested in cross platform installation.
At the moment what we have is PWA and WASM and icons on the desktop.
There are many projects that try to make cross-platform mobile apps easier, including Google's own Flutter. I haven't heard of them getting much cooperation from the teams working on Android or iOS, though.
At least for stuff that doesn't use device API's much, it seems like websites are the way to go. They're a whole lot easier to build than mobile apps.
The API surface becomes the lowest common denominator of all the platforms it supports, possibly with a path to support platform-native features, but probably in a way that’s necessarily not as good as native.
I think we already have plenty of avenue in ‘solutions’ like Electron to let people build bad apps.
The boring answer from Capt. Obvious. Incentive alignment.
That said, WebAssembly might be the trojan horse. While it started as a browser compile target, WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) is extending it beyond browsers into filesystem, networking, etc. etc. etc.
Fingers crossed, we may get cross-platform standards by accident.
this. webkit is intentionally hobbled and years behind the standards. browsers on iOS are forced to use webkit for ginned up security excuses/reasons so that no real browsers that implement full standards can complete with heavily taxed app store spyware.
Am I weird in not being too surprised? It don't have experience with wire EDM but every toolpath generator or slicer I've ever used was just local software.
Also what's weird is that this project seems to be primarily written in javascript. I can't imagine that's a pleasant user experience for generating tool paths...
it's a combination of JS, WASM, and WebGPU. the JIT engines are so much faster than you would imagine, especially if you tune your code right. workers allow for parallel processing on all of your CPU cores. WebGPU, at least in Chrome, is kind of amazing.
For those wondering why having a browser based slicer is useful: teaching. The site mentions this, but I'll add my own experience that having good in-browser software like this is incredibly useful when you have a classroom full of students who a) aren't used to installing desktop software, b) are running a bunch of different operating systems (including chrome os), and c) have firewalls prevents them from installing local software anyway.
I wouldn't want online tools to be come the default (like google docs) but having them as an options is great. (I find onshape and photopea useful in this way as well).
A fun thing you can do with this excellent sw is to slice a 3d object into slices to cut with a laser cutter. Ie you'll get a bunch of layers of eg cardboard or plywood, which you can assemble into a large object. Increase layer height to thicker than your material to create gaps in between. This operation is the basis for some very nice looking creative stuff you can find on etsy or even high-end wood working stuff.
Readit News
Built by my former colleague, Stewart Allen (Co-Founder/CTO of WebMethods, CTO of AddThis, Co-Founder/CPO of IonQ, et al.).
What caught my attention:
- 100% free, no subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud
- Local-first: all slicing and toolpath generation runs on your machine
- Works in any browser, even offline once loaded
- Supports FDM/SLA, CNC milling, laser cutting, wire EDM
- Fully open source: github.com/GridSpace/grid-apps
Refreshing to see a tool that isn't trying to lock you into a subscription or harvest your data.
I wrote up a bit on Carbide Create at:
- https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/2d-drawing (note that there is a link to a free (as in beer) download for Windows or Mac OS at that link)
- https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/toolpaths
Other commercial programs which one licenses and installs and which don't intrude beyond that include:
- MeshCAM https://www.grzsoftware.com/
- Alibre https://www.alibre.com/ (note that there is a CAM option which is a re-badged MeshCAM)
- Moment of Inspiration 3D https://moi3d.com/ (this is probably the next commercial package I try)
and of course FreeCAD has a CAM Workbench which has seen great strides and Solvespace has a basic facility for G-code generation and some folks just program G-code/CAM directly --- I've been working on a tool for that myself: https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
Edit: looks like yes! https://github.com/GridSpace/grid-apps I will try it then.
In fact I had that only a month or 2 ago with fusion 360. Something in their cloud was down so I couldn't export to STL and i really needed that urgently.
- Local-first: all slicing and toolpath generation runs on your machine
- Works in any browser, even offline once loaded
YES!
I think a new type of open source is emerging centering around what is now possible in browsers. Browsers have a great track record when running legacy projects. Relying on a backend could be a liability for longevity.
I built opal editor myself, a local first open source free markdown editor with these same principles, https://github.com/rbbydotdev/opal
That, my friend, is not how offline works. You will be required to have internet access in one way or another. Offline works 100% locally no matter if you have internet or not.
This probably won't scroll to the correct place on the page but there's some images of my project at https://hcc.haus/propmania/#2024-palm-torches and https://static.cloudygo.com/static/Prop%20Making/2024%20Palm...
I used it instead of the terrible closed source Easel App for a CARVEY hobby CNC. For metal milling I find Fusion 360 is necessary.
That said, aren't Prusa/Orca/etc. all already open-source (and part of the same lineage)?
Which one exactly ? IE ? Dillo ? Lynx ? Pale Moon ? Firefox version 126 ?
Alphabet make money from ads, so they want web pages, apps on Android and Chrome everywhere.
Mozilla make money from Google.
Microsoft make money from software licenses and subscriptions and from cloud services. They might be interested in cross platform installation.
At the moment what we have is PWA and WASM and icons on the desktop.
At least for stuff that doesn't use device API's much, it seems like websites are the way to go. They're a whole lot easier to build than mobile apps.
I think we already have plenty of avenue in ‘solutions’ like Electron to let people build bad apps.
The boring answer from Capt. Obvious. Incentive alignment.
That said, WebAssembly might be the trojan horse. While it started as a browser compile target, WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) is extending it beyond browsers into filesystem, networking, etc. etc. etc.
Fingers crossed, we may get cross-platform standards by accident.
Also what's weird is that this project seems to be primarily written in javascript. I can't imagine that's a pleasant user experience for generating tool paths...
I wouldn't want online tools to be come the default (like google docs) but having them as an options is great. (I find onshape and photopea useful in this way as well).