> To clarify, can this method be used as a fully functional replacement to BREP for a mechanical (machine design) CAD system?

I think so, but there are some open problems. Also it depends on the senior people. Inigo Quilez is a world class expert in this domain, and for the most part we're copying his work, get him on board and you'll be golden.

Fundamentally it makes sense, BREP is about representing boundaries and you can definitely use SDFs to represent the area under a boundary (infinite SDFs are possible, although obviously you can't turn them in to a mesh). Enclose a volume with boundaries and you can mesh that out just fine. A bit different from CSG-based SDFs, but entirely plausible.

>what approach would you recommend?

If I was to do this I'd take the constraint solver from solvespace (same one used in this post) and start using it to generate SDFs. At that point you're already 80% of the way to your end goal.

I mean if I was personally to do this I'd start by making a system that implements everything openscad can do, try to get some funding going, and than add in a solvespace based workbench for doing 2D cad that you can import into an openscad-ish language. You can see my efforts here: https://github.com/traverseda/PySdfScad

That's tackling it from a different angle than BREP though. I think that openscad but better is a surprisingly viable thing though, especially if you use it to do things like generate the gears/screws/whatever you import into your BREP based CAD project. Use scriptable CAD as the underpinning for more advances CAD.

> How long would you estimate it would take for three full time senior developers to get a useful system out?

Well define "useful"? Honestly I think you can get 80% done in under a month. I built the first pysdfscad in a week or two and replicated 80% of openscad's features. Fogleman built the library I used for pysdfscad in under a month.

I'd expect something pretty good in under a year at that kind of rate. There would be some outstanding problems, like it would be a challenge to figure out how to apply a fillet/chamfer to an edge, but not an insurmountable challenge. Geometry import is another place where you're going to spend a lot of time/money but is very important.

So let's say two or three years with three very competent seniors working on it to get a pretty good CAD program, with a GUI.

Depends on exactly what I'm making, the answer is probably different if I'm making like a chat app or something more data centric.

For something really minimal, an internal tool, I'd probably use grist. Grist is a "no code" spreadsheet program that is open source and works on a relational database. I just threw together an inventory management system for my weekly dnd group in a few minutes, and I've shared it with the group. I find the relational mindset grist uses a lot easier to reason about than traditional spreadsheets.

The next level up would be django with htmx. Very minimal javascript, I might embed a javascript "applet" like a map into it if needed. This covers 99% of data driven apps.

If I wanted to build something like say discord I'd probably use a pretty similar stack for the MVP, but with server-sent-events (htmx with server sent events is nice) and web components for more complicated interactions. That's probably why I'm not in charge for building complicated single page webapps with a lot of interdependent state though. I maintain this approach should work but haven't had a real chance to test it in the wild.

If I'm writing CAD software I'm probably going with QT/python/(numpy/jax/compute-shaders/sympy/etc). Python might not be the fastest, but when you're accelerating it with one of those machine learning libraries it can be really powerful. I've actually been working on something CAD-ish using that stack here: https://github.com/traverseda/PySdfScad

That's probably roughly the same stack I'd use for things like computer vision, machine learning, etc. Ironically anything where performance is important I'd probably choose python over a compiled language.

Mind you the QT python documentation is really not great, for a really minimal MVP I might swap qt out for pyimgui which is amazing for rapid prototyping but is going to be a real pain to do things like syntax highlight a text editor or embed HTML content.

Embedded electronics? Probably micropython on an ESP32 for an MVP. A REPL on your microcontroller is really nice. Robotics I'd probably use buildroot to build a custom linux distro.

I don't have much experience with mobile development, so I'd probably end up using QT with python and pyqtdeploy, but that's not an approach I'd recommend anyone else follow. I'm keeping an eye on Tauri in that space, although I really wish they made it easier to bundle in things that aren't single page javascript web apps (like a python application).

So yeah, mostly I'd use python. Master of some trades, jack of a bunch of others, it's flexible and powerful enough that I feel happy to have specialized in it, even if deploying apps to end users can be finicky and annoying. I'd avoid the javascript ecosystem as much as possible, and where I'd have to use javascript I'd prefer to make self-contained web components.

import { unstable_noStore as noStore } from "next/cache"; import Link from "next/link"; import { CreatePost } from "~/app/_components/create-post"; import { getServerAuthSession } from "~/server/auth"; import { api } from "~/trpc/server"; export default async function Home() { noStore(); const hello = await api.post.hello.query({ text: "from tRPC" }); const session = await getServerAuthSession(); return (

Create T3span> App h1>

First Steps →h3>

Just the basics - Everything you need to know to set up your database and authentication. div> Link>

Documentation →h3>

Learn more about Create T3 App, the libraries it uses, and how to deploy it.div> Link> div>

{hello ? hello.greeting : "Loading tRPC query..."}p>

{session && Logged in as {session.user?.email}span>} p> {session ? "Sign out" : "Sign in"} Link> div> div> div> main> ); } async function CrudShowcase() { const session = await getServerAuthSession(); if (!session?.user) return null; const latestPost = await api.post.getLatest.query(); return (

{latestPost ? (

Your most recent post: {latestPost.name}p> ) : (

You have no posts yet.p> )} div> ); }

I thought he was making stuff up - "t3 stack vs t4 stack". But about 2 minutes in, I realized that I'd heard of a few things that he's talking about so I looked it up and they're real!

I think it's possible everything he's saying is true, more or less. LOL

t3: https://create.t3.gg

t4: https://t4stack.com

We start with a project that was bootstrapped with create-t3-app. For internationalization we use next-intl and set it up as described in the getting started guide. With this initial project setup we can jump into implementing localized error messages.

I used create-t3-app to scaffold the Next.js app, with TypeScript, Prisma, and "app router" enabled in the options. You can also use create-next-app for the job and install Prisma manually.

I agree that the quantity of publicly available code isn't the most reliable indicator of someone's seniority.

My issue with this individual arises from the discrepancy between his public claims of significant expertise in the content he produces. He positions himself as a highly experienced developer, attracting a large following of junior developers who take his advice at face value.

I am trying to collect data points supporting his claims of seniority. For instance, his website prominently features a statement that he is the creator of the T3 Stack. However, a review of the contributor statistics for the T3 Stack (https://github.com/t3-oss/create-t3-app/graphs/contributors)... minimal contributions from him, which raises questions about the validity of his claims.

I would recommend - https://create.t3.gg/

It uses the following, which as of late are pretty well know and common, so you can punch in your problems to stackoverflow, google, or chatgpt and get some pretty good answers.

It uses:

Nextjs (React), typescript, trpc (typescript rpc), auth, tailwind, and Prisma (ORM)

Though of course these could go out of fashion tomorrow, but I don't think the essential idea behind these libs and frameworks are that wacky, unique or unordinary.

Prisma ORM, is a little opinionated, and you could swap it out for Drizzle, which is basically typescript side sugared SQL.

TRPC might be also be a little sticky because it is tied to typescript, this is the tradeoff for the buttery smooth coupling for the fullstack experience. I think there exists a typed-rest solution out there, but haven't used it.

Personal anecdata, I used this stack for a little hobby project and it was FUN.

Open SaaS was built with Typescript, and because it’s a full-stack app, type safety from the back-end to the front-end can be a real lifesaver. I mean, some opinionated stacks have gotten hugely popular on this basis.

Let's start by creating a Next.js application. We will use the T3 stack (TypeScript, TailwindCSS, and Prisma ORM) for this tutorial to skip installing and configuring all the dependencies which is out of the scope of this article. You can find more information about the T3 stack.

https://github.com/t3-oss/create-t3-app

You still would need to add Stripe but there are so many examples publicly available that it should be straight forward