Show HN: JermCAD – A YAML-powered, vibe-coded, browser-based CAD software
github.comI mean it's nice that it exists, I guess, but there are already quite a few project (my list here isn't exhaustive) that seem (on the surface at least) equivalent beside the input format (YAML, but maybe some support that, I don't know).
So I don't want to imply that this has been vibe coded just to avoid searching what already exist, why they exist, why they don't support one specific feature... but still now that we are in this situation, namely 1 more item on the least, how can we compare it with the rest in order to know which one to use for our own needs?
(which to be fair, is getting integrated into OpenSCAD Dev/Nightly)
which was a sea change for me in terms of both my usage, and my learning as a programmer, making my own project far more capable --- working on one last re-write (making use of skin() for straight-line moves), and it should be ready for general usage.
Also, there is an easy to learn basic cad. It's called Tinkercad.
though I just use BlockSCAD:
> Why
To scratch an itch. I wouldn't have ever made this if /I/ had to make it. I wanted a way to express the primitive solids in a way that my autistic brain understands (through rigid object definitions in code). I have another neurodivergent trait called aphantasia which doesn't let me easily (at all really) conjure images in my mind, everything is described as text in my head... literally like reading a book, bringing up an "image" takes me multiple seconds while I read through all my brain comments about an image, especially if I'm supposed to focus on one feature. So I had an LLM build a tool for me (why it is called JermCAD and not something more professional sounding) that works how my brain does.
> How does it compare
100% doesn't. All of those tools are light years more advanced, and while I did try to use a CadQuery JS port, and another threejs CAD plugin, I couldn't get them to work, and I'm not a fan of python, so I stuck with what I knew font-end, web development.
> AI Slop
Yes. But again, this is a personal project that scratched an itch for me. It is a testament to how far you can get something in a few hours with an LLM, that would have taken months or years, but likely never would have happened, because who is going to invest months into redefining CAD to work the way that their specific neurodivergence works (Well maybe an autistic person hyperfixated on it, or me when I was 25 years younger).
---
This software as it is probably isn't useful to anyone except for myself. I originally shared it a few days ago to start a conversation, it got no traction. I am not saying that this or any vibe-coded, AI slop should ever be production software, but why not use it for a very specific implementation of something?
Declarative constructed solid geometry sounds like how OpenSCAD works. I was curious if you took any inspiration from that project, or if you had found it but didn't suit your needs for some reason...
They have to be done manually, usually using the Minkowski feature iirc.
There's another similar tool called implicitcad that handles them better (it's also the only useful piece of software written in Haskell I've ever encountered) https://implicitcad.org/
pandoc and xmonad are super useful
They don't. So save yourself that trouble. You design the fillets right into the extrusions doing them after the fact is prohibitively expensive.
It looks like an okay CSG modeler, but it's missing a thousand features that it would need to be CAD software. There's no PMI, no views, no simulation, no unit handling, no material properties (like material, density, etc.), no product structure, no measurement and dimensioning, ...
"action shape center_x center_y width height"
But he said that everything was "conjoined" by default.
He could be wrong (it was 45 years ago, and he's in his 70s now), but he would type: a {return} c {return} 0 {return} 0 {return} 1 {return} 1 {return}
That would add a cube. All the commands/params could be shorthand or long hand, but he was a two finger typist, so there is no way he'd have typed out an entire word that spanned multiple sides of the keyboard like "cube".
You could subtract a sphere with "s {return} s" and I'm assuming you could intersect with "i" or similar, but he doesn't remember ever doing that.
Worth mentioning OpenSCAD & ImplicitCAD. There's also Antimony which has a graph-based modeling approach.