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Comment by ModernMech | Hacker News Reader

I don't really like Astra either. It doesn't seem noticeably better than Sol, and it uses more tokens. Some people said ultimately it's cheaper because it can solve problems faster but I haven't really noticed that.

The way I use it now is I'll ask a chat 6 Pro session to make a plan and then have Sol implement it, then 6 Pro reviews it. This seems fine and it doesn't use my Codex minutes, so I'll use Astra. But on the metered tasks I don't see the utility.

This is a problem for OpenAI because if Sol is good enough, and they don't have a moat, then it's only a matter of time before Sol-level models are open sourced and running locally. I know I'll be doing that as soon as I can.

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I'm still working through my first few days, but I've had to deal with Opus ADHD for a while. I built a task management system which is closer to old school remedy with reviewers. The stylistic guidelines on task creation have a seven part problem statement, goal, success, ancillary data and such. By framing the task diligently it does keep the work on target. The review logic is basked into the task management software so the agent can't declare done. On open ended issues it can still wander. It's been remarkable to drive down issues over these last few weeks. I was annoyed I had to stop for 3 days and build management infrastructure, but it's paid for itself.

I had a few problems which Sol was bumbling around with and giving mediocre results (e.g. in a toy planet app, Sol was taking several iterations to get a half decent looking render of the weather I still wasn't pleased with) but Astra managed to implement well in one go.

Much the same as you're saying, I never got around to verifying how much of that was because of Astra being better vs just being a different model sent specifically to those tasks because the token usage didn't make sense to spend unless it was something not working in Sol. So even if it was all due to Astra being fantastic I'd still not like to use the model for the cost being even more fantastic.

I have tested it out with CAD and PCB circuits and it is a huge jump compared to Sol. I agree though when trying it with programming I don't notice a huge jump.

I'll have to try it for a PCB circuit because that's where I'm going next. Were you asking it to use specific software to build the circuits?

Using KiCad by uploading their _sch and _pcb files. Originally with Sol, I stuck to using it for finding parts and double checking my KiCad schematic. Definitely good at finding parts quickly from JLCPCB's stock and for quick cosmetic edits of the schematic. I found its PCB editing abilities pretty bad, though it was useful for cosmetic edits (quickly relabeling silkscreen labels) and for creating a nice custom DRU file. With Astra on the other hand it can actually make good PCB edits. Still not great but usable and editing it quicker than starting from scratch. I do doubt you can go 0-100 with just Astra but definitely sped up my work. For reference my circuits are high amperage, noise sensitive, and interface with sensors. They are pretty simple circuits though, just fairly simple ICs with no MCU or anything like that.

Anecdotally (I did try it myself, but wasn’t blown away) many seem to like it for 3D modelling. That was emphasized in the promo too. I think this kind of ”general intelligence” is what is meant to set it apart from 5.6.

Yeah my scenario was we had old paper drawings without actual CAD models. Fed those into Astra and it did it 100% perfectly. Honestly might be the easiest scenario for it, but that's also what I thought for Fable and Sol and those completely butchered it. Wish I could share pictures of those attempts but just imagine a completely mangled model that barely looks good if you squint. These were not simple models either, pretty large/complex machinery.

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