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Comment by variodot | Hacker News Reader

ShopSpec is a deterministic parametric furniture generator (bookshelves, cabinets, shop carts, leg-and-rail frames, multi-carcass composites) that encodes real woodworking intelligence and outputs shop-ready artifacts.

Most recently, introduced the concept of value engineering by sweeping across dimensions to batch evaluate candidates that ranks based on sheet purchases. Also have in beta an MCP connector to let agents explore the deterministic engine.

I'm building a number of items for home and shop and ShopSpec has been instrumental to plan, visualize, and execute on these new ideas/projects.

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Hi there! I'm a woodworker and love seeing new woodworking software! Thank you for making this.

I could tell from the layout screenshots, but one thing to make sure is that you are accounting for the size of the kerf. Being able to set a different kerf size for different cuts would be ideal as your rip vs crosscut are often different blades.

Also, one of the more daunting parts of casework for me is sorting out exactly how undermount slides go. I would highlight any help your tool does with raising confidence in getting those installed. Even having an undermount installation tool separate from the spec work I think could be useful.

Don't forget about the rest of the world which does not use imperial and have access to plywood stock that is e.g. 18mm birch in metric standard dimensions for the cut sheet. Being able to customize what stock I have access to locally and adjust measurements and cuts automatically, e.g. rounding to cm not quarter inches.

This is beautiful and I'm now itching to make a workbench (finally! that initial "how many sheets and what for what size" problem has been the mental blocker)

+1.0mm vote to adding metric please!

Glad ShopSpec helped get you over the hump and appreciate the feedback. I am building a tool that I find useful for myself and previously encountered a similar pattern to what you mention.

Wow that's really cool! I'm actually trying to learn about woodworking and using those example as a base are really great! You could consider having an option for metric users as well!

+1 for metric. This looks really cool, indeed.

Is this related at all to sawdust.diy which was posted last What are you working on? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234277. Has a really similar look and feel but different feature set

Not related, but similar. You'll see a reply from me in the thread you linked.

I've added ShopSpec to a couple Ask HN threads in the past too.

Cool! Looks like a really cool project.

ShopSpec is now also capable of handling metric measurements; this is configurable in the Shop Profile section.

Love your work and vision. This tool could be used in a lot of ways.

This is amazing, I may use it for a built-in pantry i'm planning to build.

In my use case, I end up with one side at an angle, is there a way to support that?

I have not opened up that can of worms yet, but have been thinking more about tapers and other non-rectilinear forms. Longer-term I very much want to support a "fill this space" mode for built-ins.

One other note, is there a way to see the bay map larger? I am trying to see the height between shelves and the measurement does not show because there is not enough space for it.

I know I could do the math :P

You can also visualize the measurements between shelves by clicking 'Show Sizes' on the 3d scene options and having a bay selected. Let me know if that helps.

Ahh, the bay selection was what I was missing!

That works wonderfully. Thank you!

P.S. I showed this to a friend, and he asked if we could mock something up, export the dxf, and send it to a cut shop... you could end up with your own flatpack pipeline.

I previously added dxf and ruby export as part of validation efforts with capability to import into SketchUp Pro and other CAD. This is available in the Reference Rail by clicking `All Exports` or scrolling down to the design interchange section in the rail.

In a recent project the countertop contractor digitally measured the walls, even ones that look square weren't, not a 90 degree corner to be found! You should build cabinets as squared boxes and level them when installing. The trim work that surrounds it will hide gaps, etc.

Generally if there is space because of odd angled walls there really isn't any advantage to trying to use it. You're talking square inches of drawer/cabinet space, it really doesn't matter as far as usable space is concerned. Its a huge hassle to try and build cabinets that are not square - things like how do you screw/nail parts and not have the screw/nail blow out a finished side? It can be done, but should it?

Awesome, is there a way to use metric system on it?

It is not currently implemented but planned for the future based on all of the feedback here.

Nicely done! I'm a fan

Really great work.

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