RattleCAD

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

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  • solvespace

    Parametric 2d/3d CAD

  • > If you like Linkage, you might also like Solvespace.

    No, I mean Brent Curry's Linkage[1] bicycle design software, not David Rector's Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator[2].

    You should read Wikipedia article.[0]

    N.B. About SolveSpace, as I'm its experienced user[youtube,patreon], I may say next: yes, it could be used for bike mockup, as any other CAD, but it still has a lot of limitations and even does not export correct STEP files yet[3], and in FreeCAD such STEP could fixed only partially.[video]

    So, for serious 3D CAD work I highly recommend use FreeCAD (and LibreCAD for 2D CAD work) instead of SolveSpace, and use SolveSpace only as a helper tool like a calc or as a notepad for noting ideas.

    About Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator, it is only useful for planar (2D) kinematics analyze, and if You are looking an alternative for it take a look on Pyslvs[4], that is in part based on SolveSpace's solver.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rattleCAD#History

    [1] https://bikechecker.com/

    [2] https://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-mechanism-designer-and-...

    [3] https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/206

    [4] https://github.com/KmolYuan/Pyslvs-UI

    [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3LJMeqUDrU

    [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/@appsoft

    [patreon] https://patreon.com/app4soft

  • Pyslvs-UI

    An open source planar linkage mechanism simulation and mechanical synthesis system.

  • > If you like Linkage, you might also like Solvespace.

    No, I mean Brent Curry's Linkage[1] bicycle design software, not David Rector's Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator[2].

    You should read Wikipedia article.[0]

    N.B. About SolveSpace, as I'm its experienced user[youtube,patreon], I may say next: yes, it could be used for bike mockup, as any other CAD, but it still has a lot of limitations and even does not export correct STEP files yet[3], and in FreeCAD such STEP could fixed only partially.[video]

    So, for serious 3D CAD work I highly recommend use FreeCAD (and LibreCAD for 2D CAD work) instead of SolveSpace, and use SolveSpace only as a helper tool like a calc or as a notepad for noting ideas.

    About Linkage Mechanism Designer and Simulator, it is only useful for planar (2D) kinematics analyze, and if You are looking an alternative for it take a look on Pyslvs[4], that is in part based on SolveSpace's solver.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rattleCAD#History

    [1] https://bikechecker.com/

    [2] https://blog.rectorsquid.com/linkage-mechanism-designer-and-...

    [3] https://github.com/solvespace/solvespace/issues/206

    [4] https://github.com/KmolYuan/Pyslvs-UI

    [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3LJMeqUDrU

    [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/@appsoft

    [patreon] https://patreon.com/app4soft

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  • Bike-Draw

    Draws plans for a bike based on a few settings

  • > A while back, I put together a list of bike-oriented software at:

    > https://old.reddit.com/r/BicycleGear/wiki/software

    Nice list. It yet complete, but has some I not seen before, such as "Bike-Draw".[0]

    One I've found recently is Brent Curry's Linkage[1] bike design app, which looks like a serious competitor for BikeCAD and rattleCAD.

    And there are few other not listed in your list SaaS for bike design, I've listed in previous comment.[2]

    Also, I'm trying to create own bike design template/macro for FreeCAD.[3]

    [0] https://github.com/occamsshavingkit/Bike-Draw

    [1] https://bikechecker.com/

    [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38096780

    [3] https://fosstodon.org/@app4soft/111282227406105616

    [4] https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=82131

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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