Open Source CAD in the Browser

Diablo

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Some people love tools in their browsers. Others hate them. We certainly do like to see just how far people can push the browser and version 0.6 of CHILI3D, a browser-based CAD program, certainly pushes.

If you click the link, you might want to find the top right corner to change the language (although a few messages stubbornly refuse to use English). From there, click New Document and you’ll see an impressive slate of features in the menus and toolbars.

The export button is one of those stubborn features. If you draw something and select export, you’ll see a dialog in Chinese. Translated it has the title: Select and a checkmark for “Determined” and a red X for “Cancelled.” If you select some things in the drawing and click the green checkmark, it will export a brep file. That file format is common with CAD programs, but you’ll need to convert, probably, if you want to 3D print your design.

The project’s GitHub repository shows an impressive slate of features, but also notes that things are changing as this is alpha software. The CAD kernel is a common one brought in via WebAssembly, so there shouldn’t be many simple bugs involving geometry.

We’ve seen a number of browser-based tools that do some kind of CAD. CADmium is a recent entry into the list. Or, stick with OpenSCAD. We sometimes go low-tech for schematics.
 
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