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Printytron – Describe a part, get a printable STL

83 pointsby statenjasonyesterday at 2:22 PM36 commentsview on HN

Comments

pyuser314yesterday at 10:47 PM

This is implemented well.

FWIW: I find explaining to Claude or Gemini what I want and that I’m using Openscad works super well. The bonus is that I can make further changes in Openscad or continue the chat to further refine the code.

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Corradotoday at 3:16 AM

This is pretty cool. I recently purchased some used rims for my car and they have some pretty bad road rash (scratches). I've been playing with TinkerCAD for a bit trying to create a sanding block that would conform to the rim and the bead but it's been harder than expected. Printytron knocked something out in 3 requests and I think it will work pretty well. So, thanks for this project.

If these models can be converted to a parameterized FreeCAD model (or something similar) then it would be cool to be able to download them and change them dynamically. Say, I want to sand down my 22" rims. I wouldn't have to rerun Printytron, I could just change the parameter in the FreeCAD model. Of course, this could be a paid option.

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Flux159yesterday at 7:58 PM

It's a nice demo and appreciate the guides on what won't work well. Also pretty nice to be able to try it out anonymously without having to sign in.

It'd be nice to have some info on how it's substantially different from something like https://github.com/earthtojake/text-to-cad (besides from being hosted). Is there a 'document' format you're working with besides from being able to export to stl? Can we download that / continue our work with another editor if we need to make updates? I guess how far into production parts is this project aiming to go?

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dkarptoday at 3:24 AM

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for and so far appears to work much better than my attempts with Claude code and opencad.

Tomorrow I’ll try the real test… printing an object. But so far I’m impressed how smart and accurate the models are.

The site is really well polished already and thanks for the loginless option to try it out. I appreciate you building and sharing this

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efxhoyyesterday at 8:19 PM

This is really cool. I'm interested in getting into 3d printing parts to help with my wood working but I can't find the time to get productive in CAD software. Something like this feels like it might tip the balance into having a 3d printer actually save me time instead of becoming another black hole of tinkering time.

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ThomasBbyesterday at 9:28 PM

Seems similar to https://nurb.dev/ which can run entirely local.

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Printytronyesterday at 10:41 PM

This was very unexpected to wake up to this morning! I'm seeing about 10 to 20 times the traffic I normally would.

Please if you have any user feedback or bugs or feature requests - let me know! I'm listening.

I'm just trying to make a product people love and delivers value.

And if you find it useful, please share it with a friend.

anthonjyesterday at 9:25 PM

Refused to design a dragon dildo :(

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panki27yesterday at 9:06 PM

Oh wow. I ran FreeCAD today to design a little block with 2 holes to 3D print - just a little spacer.

This did in in 2 messages, I'm impressed.

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joebigyesterday at 9:02 PM

I'll like to extend my compliments to the creator (is it op?). Generated a 17*17 MURA mask within 3 messages.

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ChaseRensbergeryesterday at 10:21 PM

I can't believe how well this works!

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dgellowyesterday at 9:27 PM

Pretty impressive demo. Though I’m not looking forward to even more slop models to go through in 3d print catalogs such as makerworld

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valcarvalhoyesterday at 10:11 PM

Dude! This is so freaking cool. Curious to know how much are you spending in LLMs to generate each model.

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fragmedetoday at 12:07 AM

Now just need to glue a machine shop to it like sendcutsend.com