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What is a Geometry Kernel? C3D vs ACIS vs Parasolid

nickkallen1 · 25.1K views · 2022-06-17 · 9:27

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Overview

The Plasticity creator explains what a geometry kernel is and compares commercial options C3D, ACIS, and Parasolid, describing his months of research and why he chose as he did.

On Hacker News

Cited in CAD threads as a rare plain-spoken comparison of commercial geometry kernels and their limitations.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2023–2025

Topics

Computer graphics & rendering3D printing, CNC & maker projects
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parasolidc3dacisplasticitycad

What people said

awhitty · 2024-03 · Recommendation

The creator of this app, Nick Kallen, has a nice YouTube channel where he talks about some of the behind-the-scenes work on the project. I think his video comparing geometry kernels [0] was posted to HN a while back, but it's worth a watch if you're curious! [0]: [VIDEO]

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s1mon · 2023-02 · Recommendation

Nick Kallen has been working on an BREP based CAD tool with the sort of ease of modeling that things like Blender has. Originally it was based on C3D, but he switched halfway through to Parasolid.[0] It’s amazing the amount of features he has built considering it’s a one person project. It’s worth going through his progress report videos.[1] [0] [VIDEO] [1] [LINK]

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virtualritz · 2023-02 · Recommendation

See also this thread[1] from yesterday which has some interesting comments on the limitations projects based on the OpenCascade kernel face. Mentions an interesting video[2] going through the commercial geometry kernel options and their resp. limitations from the author of [3]. [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO] [3] [LINK]

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Sources

Video by nickkallen1, played through YouTube.

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