Robert,
That's and amazing project that Andrew is working on! I like that it can run on Mac, Linux and Windows.

I think I've got the tech working that I'll be using to build my software. And I've figured roughly about how long it will take to make a 'useable' product. I think I'll have to put in an average of 2 hours a day for about a full year.
Let me know what you think about that. If it's a good use of my time, or if I should be doing/building something else.

As far as the tech goes I'll be using Tauri to package it as an application, Svelte for the front end framework and threejs for the 3D.
I have the dev/build stuff all set up and working. Here's a preview:
https://cabinetry2023-demo.netlify.app

I plan to have it work as a website and downloadable application.
As a website it will use localstorage and indexedDB to store the projects and settings locally.
As an app it will use the file system.
Using something like this where the two diverge:
if (window.__TAURI__) {
const { message } = window.__TAURI__.dialog;
message("Tauri App");
}
else {
alert("Website");
}

https://cabinetry2023-demo.netlify.app

Eric,

It sounds like you have a plan.

Have you watched any of the YC video? They have a bunch of great videos on MVP development.

I've some experiments with threejs and sketchfabs platform, I'm just not code tech savvy enough to implement anything advanced. I'm more on the product design side of things. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/bookcase-rev08-1-0428cde057184280a37dac1d8303eb86 here is an experiment of a piece designed.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/bookcase-rev08-1-0428cde057184280a37dac1d8303eb86

That's some amazing work Robert! How long would that have taken you to design?

I've only watched a few of their videos so far. I'll look for the MVP videos next.
Indiehacker is a nice resource as well. They have a podcast that I'll listen to on occasion.

cabinet vision v9 is the best thing we have ever used,...i had a terrible experience with the other versions (primarily, the support , thank go this website is here)
We make furniture, radius desks, commercial cabinets. everything is ADA AWI spec,

You should capitalize on your extensive experience in the cabinetry industry to develop a user-friendly cabinet design program.

Sorry, these should be on top of the previous post, but I missed:
--------------------------
Hi, Eric

I haven't visited this forum for a long time, so this reply maybe outdated. But I still want to say something, becase I'm doing the same thing, in China.

My suggestions:
........

Hi Bai,

I fixed the code for the Sketchup cut list program years ago for the guys that threw their hands up in the air and outsourced their coding.

They got someone that knew their coding, but he then chose to sort the cutlist incorrectly and completely unneeded, which destroyed the most practical functionality of it.

One cannot make this stuff up.
Sketchup is built on the code of a first person shooter video game that stamps all created objects with a matrix that is always updated when it is transformed and translated from the get go Simply transforming any Sketchup object (multiplying the current retrived matrix by itself and overwriting the database with the new numbers) will orient in the correct direction to get a clean boundingbox.

I had to add that stuff to acad with the xdata dxf codes. It's the only way I know of to get around the limits of double point precision to get decent accuracy in the dimensions of the objects regardless of rotation and symmetry.

With that said, I am just trying to point out that people who understand the real needs of others and can code are far and few between, and when they do, many are employed by companies making proprietary software that are continuously stifling innovation and productivity to make more money for themselves and have a continuous revenue stream for work that is old and outdated and not really thought though from the get go. JavaScript is good idea. It allows anyone with a modern browser to run the program.

Money can be made writing plugins, but the proprietary nature of the underlying cad platform means that as soon as someone releases a JavaScript app that is open and using JSON in a simplic fashion those cad platforms will then generally be obsolete tech just like vcrs and cassettes, cd's, and crt's.

Plugin's don't take as long to write, but their dependency on their core cad platform will likely limit their lifetime, returning a loss of the value of the time put in to creating them.

Eric has some very good ideas and knowledge. I don't want to see him waste that fixing outdated tech with workaround plugins as the endgame. In-between is fine. Let's all not lose sight of the goal though.

Take care

P.S. Take a look at Deepnet.io

That is an open source material optimizer. Free as im free speech. Free as im free beer.

It's a port of the open source boost C++ library of one Hermann Minkowski's algorithms.

It clearly blows away every other material optimizers costing in the thousands for speed and accuracy.

There are many other ports of it.
meanwhile, it is completely ignored by the people making the cad platforms and is fairly easily deployed into existing code bases because they are not thinking about letting anyone know what is really available. One setting their future on depending on other cad platforms for income are locking themselves into being controlled by the people who make those platforms, and will be promoting them to control others and mislead others about what is really available to them and others and other completely vaild and working options.

It's terrible when someone spends all they have, thousands, to fix something that never gets fixed, only to find later that it was only a 35 dollar part.

It's legal to sell people proprietary software and take advantage of them. We should always be leaning away from doing that.

Hi, David

First, I'm very happy that I can meet someone that doing similiar software product!

You know, woodworking software is a small market segmentation in all IT industry. It's really difficult to find someone who can talk with :)

So, based on friendly mood, I want to explain a little more:

-----------------------
1. I don't suggest web-based software, because there are already two big companies in China, have did it.

1.1 https://www.kujiale.com/
1.2 https://www.3vjia.com/ (https://www.aihouse.com/ in English)

Each of these two companies, have 300+ employees, and both have worked in this industry for 5+ years.

They spend huge resources not only on developing, but also on marketing. Because industry software takes much longer time for industry users to accept it, than common end user application.

So I don't think individual developer can afford this.

-----------------------
2. Yes, plugin is controlled by it's mother CAD platform, so maybe its lifetime is not so long. But:

2.1 plugin is a reasonable compromise between cost and value. Even plugin's lifetime is not long as standalone app or B/S site, but it's long enough to start business.

2.2 Sketchup/Blender take their plugins as a very important part of their ecology. So they don't easily overturn their plugin community, which would be a disaster for themselves.

-----------------------
3. I think both technical and business point of view are necessary to evaluate a software startup.

For https://deepnest.io/, I've heard of it, but I found it hasn't been updated for 5 years when i visited its github, I lost my interest.

So technically, maybe it's great. But businessly, maybe not.

Yes, something looks unreasonable from technique point of view. I agree with you because I'm a developer as well. But looks reasonable from business point of view, because we are human.

I hear you and we all have to make a living.

Is the source code for those programs completely open, are they extremely easy to use, are they free and make money on providing another optional service that they manage and pay for?

You have to get real. Any software coming from China that is closed or questionable in code is never going to fit everyone. If it really is just about making money, then it seems to me that investing in the US dollar is a sure thing because if it doesn't just keep going up there won't be a world left where money or gold, etc., will matter. It's just an educated guess based on how seriously people in the USA take their freedoms. If you have something good to do over there and do well, they will just steal it from you later anyway.