I am one of the creators of Cuttle. It stems from my research building direct manipulation + programming environments like http://recursivedrawing.com/ and http://aprt.us/
From a programmer's perspective, you can think of Cuttle as a direct manipulation vector editor (like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator) that can be driven with parameters and JS code where you need it.
Unlike my previous research projects, this is a commercial startup mostly catering to laser cutting small businesses, though you can use it for anything where you want a 2D vector editor + some programmatic capabilities.
I'll try to answer questions that come up in this HN thread.
Thank you for sharing your work Hannah! Very cool stuff!
Cuttle is v cool, congratulations! I had previously seen Apparatus and liked it, so I can clearly see the genetic resemblance now ;)
I’m wondering how many of you are on the team, and does it actually support you as a business yet? Even for a quite niche-y app Cuttle deserves to be better known, and higher-priced, imo.
I'm mainly curious whether the concepts in Cuttle could be exposed as plugins in Inkscape, or as a standalone application written in Qt-Python.
A Cuttle project is — behind the scenes — a program. Each “component” is a function. “Modifiers” are functions that take input geometry (and parameters) and use JS code to create arbitrary output geometry. All of this code can be live edited.
At the same time you can do arbitrary “drawing” with a bezier pen tool and move/transform shapes. In this case you are essentially using the canvas drag-and-drop to manipulate literals in the program.
But fundamentally a Cuttle project is a program and the Cuttle Editor is an IDE that looks like a vector editor on the surface.
Because of this I’m not sure how much of Cuttle could be grafted onto a program whose architecture is more rooted as an editor of static vector graphics. I do know that Inkscape has some “live effects” which are similar to Cuttle’s “live” modifiers.
If you are interested in Cuttle’s architecture, I did a one hour walkthrough on this interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2el-85vG-IU
Very cool work.
FWIW the aparatus site says
> Apparatus is under active development. Discuss how Apparatus should evolve on the Apparatus Google Group.
Which seems like it's no longer accurate. Has it moved to a different repo?
It would be neat to have STL and STEP output for 3D printers.
Thanks for the suggestion! Yes, we should do this. I've been seeing more and more people use Cuttle for 3D printing (exporting a DXF, then bringing that into another program to extrude and output a STL).
there's openscad
I got excited when I read "parametric"… thinking it would be akin to what Autocad Inventor had 20+ years ago (setting angles between lines, setting lines to be parallel etc.) since I was recently looking for a simple CAD tool that could do that. Alas.
For hobby/maker/semi-pro that would be Fusion360, Onshape, FreeCAD or Solvespace. And more, probably...
Check out SolveSpace! It might be just what you want, don't be deceived by its retro UI.
Pedant alert. Learning curve is skill/time.
> with an exceptionally shallow learning curve
I'm used to long learning time to incorrectly described as steep, but I haven't seen shallow used as short.
Time to officially deprecate steep and shallow, and use short and long instead.
“The common English usage aligns with a metaphorical interpretation of the learning curve as a hill to climb.” Wikipedia
Both steep and shallow work in this context
Maybe the fault such as it is belongs to the original coiner.
Should've been time/skill not skill/time.
I was briefly a member of a makerspace with a laser cutter - and it was brilliant! The ratio of effort to results was far better than any other CNC tools I’ve used.
But then COVID and moving house put an end to that. I’d love to recreate something similar at home - but at a budget.
Does anyone have a low cost laser cutter that actually works? It seems like there’s an increasing number of Chinese ones out there, but quality and capabilities are unclear.
There is a saying among those that operahe makerspaces: "people come for the 3d printer,and stay for the laser".
We have Redsail CO2 lasers for nearly 10 years now, in our volunteer ran makerspace in Oslo. It works, but does requires a bunch of setup and maintenance. Of course with hundreds of different users yearly, anything will need that... But it is more and gives poorer results than GCC/Epilog (which another local lab has, albeit with more professional maintenance crew). GlowForge targets a user group which accept less tinkering. PS: expect to spend at least the same amount of money/time on ventilation system as the machine itself!!
Perhaps someone on this thread will know the answer to this: is it possible to make V shaped grooves with a laser cutter, or would they end up stepped?
A laser cutter has no inherent depth control. But you can modulate the power, which depending on the exact laser+material combination will give varying depth. In "raster" mode it can be modulated continuous so smooth transitions/slopes are possible. But the exact effect will need to be tested on samples.
Maybe. Many laser cutters are 3dof so there is no way to tip the cutter to a different angle. Find one with a couple extra axis and then sure.
That would be a lot easier with a CNC mill/router and the correct shaped cutter.
Always so wowed by posts about maker spaces :)
Is it normal in the states? And is it full of cool projects?
Cuttle looks amazing for 2D geometric patterns. I really must find time to play with it some day and make something. Maybe on leather.
What do they mean by "create 5 free projects"? Will they laser-cut it for you and send it to you by mail?
On a free account you can create up to 5 projects in the Cuttle Editor (and you can delete them if you want to create more...)
We don't laser cut anything for you. You can download your project as an SVG file (or DXF, etc) which you can then send to a laser cutter hooked up to your computer.
The product is designed for people who have access to a laser cutter, e.g. at home or at a makerspace.
I am loving your program making designs for my 3d printer. Thank you for sharing it to the world!
Totally dig this, especially the doorbell chime cover & music box!