It is also possible that the enlightenment only happened because of protestant reformation, which only happened because of the power and abuses of the Catholic Church. So in a way, we have the Catholic Church to thank for modern society.

The reformation was highly religious of course, but it was also about reading original sources, devolving power from a central authority, and allowing individuals to discover the truth.

Sometimes I think that the catholic church is like Leto II in Dune - ruling people so that they will rebel in a way that there can never again be a central power structure.

I’ve been using cadquery and build123 with Claude code and I find it incredibly painful.

What is your workflow for llm integration to openscad?

I just ask it for what I’m looking for (doing very simple “spare part” level at home 3d printing, nothing fancy or elaborate) and it gives me a starting point. Then I sometimes just edit the scad code by hand, and some times I ask the AI to revise, sometimes a mix (many iterations).

For very simple geometries it works great, but it very quickly becomes apparent that there’s a bit of a disconnect between “LLM views image” and “LLM emits scad that looks like that image” when it comes to anything non-trivial.

Still gives me a starting point I can mess with, which is great since I have zero CAD training or experience.

(I’m not the commenter you replied to)

Tbh that sounds harder than just learning CAD, which is really not that difficult if you use a proper parametric editor - I would recommend SOLIDWORKS first. It's got the easiest UX so is ideal for learning. They actually have a vaguely reasonably priced subscription now, but IMO it's still way too much for occasional hobby use so I'd recommend just pirating it (which is easy).

Once you have learnt a bit then the only FOSS options that are worth a damn are a) SolveSpace which is quite good and light, has a slightly quirky UI (but not in a bad way) but unfortunately has some critical missing features at the moment - notably bevels/chamfers. Although I did see someone made a sloppy PR to add them so we'll see where that goes.

Or b) FreeCAD which is actually good now and fairly close to SOLIDWORKS (at least for the basic stuff you're likely to use) and has a reasonably good UX. Some rough edges still but overall it's very usable. Good enough that I reach for it instead of pirating SOLIDWORKS these days.

The basic workflow is pretty simple:

1. Make some planes, referenced from existing geometry. 2. Make sketches on the planes. 3. Extrude/revolve them (either adding or subtracting from the existing geometry). 4. Repeat until you have the right shape. 5. Add a load of chamfers to make it pretty.

So, steps 1-5 can be done by clicking (tools you recommend), or writing lines of script (OpenSCAD). Once you grok those steps by just doing it yourself, you quickly get to a point where an LLM is quicker at editing the text file that represents the steps to generate the model. Things like "Make the extruded face I labelled blahblah do xyz", and it's quite good. Even better: "Parameterize curve abc and generate this spread" or something. You get it.

For LLM-assisted bespoke model generation it's still fine if you specify a process to follow, and can "speak the language" (knowing 1-5).

This is no different than purevibe vs LLM-assistance, IMHO. What TFA refers to is a more end-to-end, no iterative process, with no single touchpoint script like OpenSCAD offers, so it's very much _not_ a collaboration and requires no knowledge of how CAD models are made.

But this thread is moreso about iterating on an OpenSCAD specification using LLMs.

Tell it to use the existing libraries. https://openscad.org/libraries.html, in particular BOSL2

I've one shotted a light saber hilt with threaded parts and it worked flawlessly.

Not OP but I just ask Claude Code to make me an openscad file. If I need changes I ask for them in plain english. If you are specific, it's not the quickest loop but it works. I usually ask it to parameterize the model enough so that I can quickly print small prototypes in my 3d printer. Once I am happy with the mini version I print the full-size model.

check this out: https://modelrift.com/blog/openscad-llm-benchmark LLMs are getting pretty good at OpenSCAD, especially if they work in agentic mode and can inspect intermediate results.

You don't need WSL to run Claude code on windows.

True, it works fine in an ordinary DOS box or in PowerShell, but you have to use WSL2 if you want a sandbox.

Where can I find out more information about sandboxing Claude and other agents?

TBH, you could do worse than to simply ask Claude.

Unlike conventional cars that require expensive safety systems such as air bags and seat belts, the mover3000's top speed of one mile per hour makes it intrinsically safe.

This authorizes an attack on Iran?

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This joint resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Authorization for Use of Military Force’’. SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. (a) IN GENERAL.—That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

I love the visual of humans desperately trying to preserve what they consider the natural world, and when they turn their backs evolution does it's thing.

In this analogy though, maps are the only things we have access to. There may be Truth, but we only approximate it with our maps.

It's very true that we only approximate truth with our maps. All abstractions are leaky, but that fact does not imply "catastrophic relativism" (as the grandfather post phrased it). It just implies that we need better, more accurate, maps.

Or, to return the topic of the post, it just means that our translations need to try a little harder, not that human quality translation is impossible to do via machine.

I think it's very important to remember that objective truth exists, because some large percentage of society has a political interest in denying that, and we're slipping ever closer into Sagan's "Demon Haunted World."

How do you give cc the ability to compile in a loop?

simply tell it what command it should call to compile, or better yet add that info to Claude.md

Slack is orders of magnitude better than Teams.

Google docs is better than Microsoft office, but only by a little.

Google drive is many many orders of magnitude better than Sharepoint.

It sounds like you are making a distinction between digital (silicon computers) and analog (biological brains).

As far as possible reasons that a computer can’t achieve AGI go, this seems like the best one (assuming computer means digital computer of course).

But in a philosophical sense, a computer obeys the same laws of physics that a brain does, and the transistors are analog devices that are being used to create a digital architecture. So whatever makes you brain have uncountable states would also make a real digital computer have uncountable states. Of course we can claim that only the digital layer on top matters, but why?