91 pointsby cyrusradfar3 hours ago7 comments
  • cyrusradfar3 hours ago
    Surprised this hasn't been shared here before.

    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.

    • WJW2 hours ago
      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.
      • pestsan hour ago
        Bambu Labs ~recently had some drama around requiring an account / harvesting data for their machines. Might be what that's about.
  • SethTro2 hours ago
    I've used kiri:moto for several simple CNC projects!

    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.

    • cyrusradfar2 hours ago
      Curious if you can elaborate on what's missing or failing, to require Fusion 360?
      • s0aan hour ago
        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.
  • abdullahkhalidsan hour ago
    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?
    • auggierose20 minutes ago
      You answered the question yourself: There is already a standard that allows anyone to create software that works cross-platform: the browser.
    • chungyan hour ago
      Given you have two of the same names on both sides of the list, it looks like your question is self-contradictory. Could you clarify?
    • cyrusradfaran hour ago
      Ah, I'm always up for a tangent.

      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.

  • bsimpson2 hours ago
    More open source, browser-accessible tools is a good thing.

    That said, aren't Prusa/Orca/etc. all already open-source (and part of the same lineage)?

    • s0a2 hours ago
      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.
      • bsimpsonan hour ago
        I'm not talking about Kiri; I'm talking about the mainstream derivatives of Slic3r.
  • eseymour2 hours ago
    This looks great. I was hoping it would have been a good OrcaSlicer replacement for my FDM printer, but unfortunately it didn't generate any top surfaces (except for the topmost one) for a model I imported in. I didn't know if it was the printer profile (Creality.Ender3) or something else, but it seems I'm still using OrcaSlicer for the time being.
    • s0a2 hours ago
      this does look like a bug in the default Ender 3 profile. easily fixable.
  • danfunk2 hours ago
    Great tool for a Makerspace - really appreciate the ability to use the same tool for laser cutting, 3d printing, and CNC. These are big jumps for people typically - having a familiar tool would help people transition from one area to another.
  • reactordev2 hours ago
    Now if we can only get an offline printer…
    • bityard34 minutes ago
      I bought a bambu p1s recently and it can be used entirely offline.

      You can import models to orcaslicer (open source), do your slicing, and export the g code file to SD card.

      If you want to skip the SD card, block the printer's mac/ip address at the firewall and set up WiFi. Then send the print directly from orcaslicer.

      That being said, my gut says bambu is going to slowly require a persistent connection to the cloud at some point. Maybe they think they are an EV car company.

    • observationist2 hours ago
      Elegoo printers can be offline - you can run everything from the machine itself, as long as you have your model/s on a thumb drive. Or is that not what you mean?
      • reactordev2 hours ago
        https://youtu.be/kS-9ISzMhBM

        They’re trying to introduce legislation that would require 3D printers to be online so that if you try to print a firearm, it won’t let you…

        Granted, today, you can print offline.

        Tomorrow? A firmware update might just brick it the next time it goes online or won’t be able to read the grbl

        • observationist2 hours ago
          These people are so ridiculous. It'll fail on 1A and 2A grounds, not to mention challenges implicit from 4A and 5A considerations. They can't ban arbitrary information, even dangerous information, and there's a presumption of regularity - you're presumed innocent of wrongdoing absent evidence, so they can't legislate the assumption of criminality by default. They can't ban private creation of firearms and weapons, so long as other aspects of the law are being followed. They can't assert control over private property and mandate being online, this is equivalent to a warrantless search of private home activity. Arbitrary compliance costs and increased prices can amount to violations of 5A takings clause, and you can't bake in a violation of your right to refuse to incriminate yourself, especially with the vague, subjective nature of the proposed legislation. There's also 5A due process concerns, with the legislation being overbroad and arbitrary. 14A presents equal protections and lays the basis for discrimination between hobbyists and manufacturers and interstate commerce concerns.

          The whole notion is about as anti-American and authoritarian as laws get, I don't see it as anything more than political grandstanding, and even if Washington passes it with statewide, unanimous endorsement, it won't last a year before 9th circuit court strikes it down on purely 2A grounds.

        • mikestorrent2 hours ago
          How would it know what is a firearm and what isn't? Seems trivial to defeat for someone who knows CAD, no?
          • observationistan hour ago
            They'll just run it through BigBrotherGPT, a CAD aware multimodal censorship bot specially trained to recognize Bad Things that must not be printed. And while this is sarcastic, it also occurs to me that it's also really, really achievable. OpenAI could probably whip one up in a weekend office hackathon.
            • an hour ago
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          • reactordev2 hours ago
            That’s the tricky part of this whole mess. Online servers would have to mesh and volume your model and determine if it matches a likeness of any known models. So much for printing NERF.

            I don’t think this will pass as is but it shows you where lawmakers heads are. They would rather brick your capability than do actual policing.

            • Gigachadan hour ago
              What gets me is this doesn’t even seem to be the most effective way to regulate this. 3D printed guns require a lot of non 3D printed gun parts. You can’t 3D print bullets for example.

              The is really just a US specific issue where 90% what you need for a gun can be purchased easily, but the non functional handle requires registration, etc.

              They could just make buying gun parts as strict as buying a whole gun

        • dheera2 hours ago
          Bleh, just wire into the steppers and extruder directly, not that hard.

          To be clear I have no desire to print firearms but I do not want my tools online and getting bricked when the company who made it goes out of business.

          • reactordev2 hours ago
            Right to repair.

            Right to use.

            I don’t think a company should have a say in what you do with their product after you have purchased it. Whether you intend to print firearms or not. The acts of the few should not withhold liberty of the many.

            • xcf_seetanan hour ago
              I would add right to build. I have built my 3D printers and i control the firmware. No need to go online.
      • snapetom2 hours ago
        Same with Bambu's. They include microSD slots.
    • dheera2 hours ago
      Prusas are easily offline, pop an SD card or USB in and print