Solvespace

[marcos-diaz]

Intro

Solvespace is a 2D and 3D CAD application, the 2D sketcher and constrain engine is full featured and used as a library by other applications, while the 3D geometry engine is a very limited minimalistic implementation, but with a great UI.

Requirement notes

• Multiplatform: ✅
• Free / Open source: ✅
• Active project: 🔴
  • Seems that there was a push to revive the project between 2016 and 2022, but after the release of 3.0 version it looks like there is no further development.
  • Despite having some very enthusiastic followers, the project has otherwise what it seems to be a very small community.
• Low entry barrier: ⚠️
  • Despite the dark neon look of the UI, it is a very simple and well executed interface.
  • Since the project is not very popular, there is almost no learning materials for it.
• Non-linear: ✅
  • Solvespace provide a very streamlined non-destructive parametric modelling solution, its minimalism makes it "immune" to the complicated topology mapping issues that most other CAD applications have to deal with.
• Fast prototyping: ✅
  • The simple UI and minimalistic approach could make it a good prototyping tool, despite the strict parametric modelling limitations.
• Collaboration: ✅
  • The savefile format .slvs is textual.
  • Seems that such files are populated with a lot of (redundant?) geometry data which makes the files a bit noisy, but still good enough for GIT collaboration.
• Assembly: ✅
  • Solvespace allow to import other Solvespace files or even .stl files as reference.
  • Boolean operations can be performed on imported .stl too.
• Common tools: 🔴
  • Linear and circular extrusion are available.
  • Fillets and bevels have to be done manually, which is inconvenient, and in some cases impossible.
  • There is absolutely nothing to loft from one shape to another, not even manually. This is a deal breaker limitation IMO.