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Comment by smartmic | Hacker News Reader

As is often the case in the GenAI space, this also appears to be a solution to a non-existent problem.

I very much have this problem. I am uninterested in the art of sketching and constraining. I have spent many hours attempting and am content with the knowledge that I don't have the touch but still sometimes have problems I want to solve with 3D prints. LLMs could offer a solution, but they are bullshit machines and by their nature over promise. Drafting is not a trivial skill that we just wave a wand and magically have it automated. We'll get there eventually, but we're not there.

A little suggestion in case you decide to try again, just don't worry about constraints. If you're making one-off parts for yourself, just sketch what you need and don't worry about trying to make it parametric. Get the part done and move on.

That's what I've done. It's just such a chore. I see what my ME counterparts can do in an hour and it takes me days. I could likely get myself to be a better MCAD designer with discipline, but there's little guarantee it would make me enjoy it. I enjoy ECAD and I'm good at it, so it will always be a fine hobby for me.

MEs take at least a course in it, and its a great course to take. you could probably audit it

across MEs, its also the most fun couple classes of the degree, since they build a skill other tha math - visuallizing objects in 2d and 3d at the same time, and guessing whats on the back side of drawings.

it will also inprove your sketches on paper, so they

a different option would be that if you know what you want, but cant be bothered to draw it beyond a sketch, you might actually want a small mill instead of a 3d printer.

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