Istvan Kiesz

Code@Shapr3D

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

@NeumannXYZ is my 3rd CAD company. Distilled 20 years of learnings into it; everything from CAD technology to gtm strategy. It feels like it is going to change everything. And when I say everything: it will change what’s possible to build. Very excited for what’s to come!

[Istvan Kiesz @kieszistvan]

In case you are just joining the Claude / Codex movement and started to wonder where we are heading...

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

Your design, literally anywhere.

Factory floor. Coffee shop. Moon. Generative Render puts your model in photorealistic context, no app switching, no geometry distortion.
Just prompt and place.

Try it out and share your results!

#Shapr3D #GenerativeRender

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

Jensen was right, in the future every pixel will be AI generated, not rendered. So we added Generative Rendering into Shapr3D. It's awesome. 3D CAD modeling workflow fully integrated with genAI rendering. Go and try it. Now.

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

👀

#WWDC25📷 #AppleEvent #Apple #WWDC2025

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

If there is anything that could replace and disrupt the b-rep ecosystem, it will be implicits/Signed Distance Fields. It would completely change the world of engineering software. Here is why 👇

I wrote a lot about b-reps before, and why it doesn’t make sense to write yet another b-rep kernel:
1. It’s basically about covering a zillion corner cases, which has been done by all the commercial kernels
2. Because of that, reaching industrial grade robustness takes a decade.
3. But you still miss the application layer and the ecosystem integration, so what’s the point then?
4. B-reps are intrinsically broken due to the double book keeping of the separate data structures of topology and geometry.

However, there is a magical representation, that’s almost too good to be true…

Meet implicit geometry - or Signed Distance Fields (SDF).

While b-reps describe geometry with their boundaries defined as surfaces and curves, SDFs describe geometry with a function S(x,y,z):

- Positive values: Outside the shape.
- Negative values: Inside the shape.
- Zero values: Exactly on the surface of the shape.
- Encodes both distance and orientation information (sign indicates inside/outside).

Implicits have some magical properties:

1. they can be directly rendered (ray traced!!!) on a GPU without tessellation
2. many operations that are insanely hard with b-reps are literally free for SDFs. For example an offset is simply just adding a number to the function. A boolean is simply a min/max function of two SDFs, for example a union is max(S1, S2). These operations literally cannot fail, unlike in b-rep kernels, that are famous of their lack of robustness.
3. because of this they are insanely fast. These operations are not only O(1) operations, but they are literally just appending an arithmetic operation. Imagine a feature tree with 10000 steps, where you can change or drag a parameter, and the entire thing updates real time.
4. they can describe infinitesimally detailed geometry, and insanely complex geometry structures, where b-rep just dies.
5. the memory consumption of the geometry representation is literally <1% of a similar b-rep especially for complex geometries.

So why are implicits not taking over the world?

- actually I think they will eventually
- implicits don’t have topology like b-rep. The concept of faces/edges don’t exist, and because of that the implicit workflows are very different compared to legacy CAD workflows.
- however there are already fantastic results in production, using the leading implicit modeler, @nTopology. @nTopology is an implicit CAD system specifically designed for ultra high end applications, like designing heat exchangers for space rockets and lightweighting drone parts in the defense industry. However, nTop is specifically focused on designing things that are impossible to design with b-reps, like lattice structures, where implicits truly excel. These applications are extremely high value applications, but not mainstream, partly because these parts need to be 3D printed, often from metal.

What needs to happen for implicits to go mainstream?

Someone needs to figure out how to create a workflow with impicits that is suitable for legacy workflows. This can be done either by redefining workflows with implicits or by figuring out how to make implicits behave like b-reps (but without bringing in all the crap that comes with b-reps). The former is an formidable go-to-market challenge, as it requires the entire industry to relearn CAD. The latter is a formidable technical challenge, as it is an insanely hard computational geometry problem, and it’s not even certain if it is doable.

What will a world look like if someone cracks this problem?

- assemblies with a million unique parts seamlessly running on an iPad
- parametric parts with 10,000 features updating real time when parameters change
- million part assemblies opening up in an instant on any computer
- no geometry operations will fail ever again. No non-manifold body errors, no failed booleans or shells. Everything will just work.
- real time simulations using monte carlo methods
- real time ray traced visualization of large geometries
- CAD data shrinks by 99%

Almost too good to be true, isn’t it?

Picture: heat exchanger designed using implicits in @nTopology cc @brad_rothenberg

[Istvan Kiesz @kieszistvan]

@elonmusk Same for Hungary! 🇭🇺🇭🇺

We need alternatives to the state propaganda Orban and Co are pushing. Their legacy media outlets are spinning the same titles word-by-word, and the state media (which we taxpayers pay for) is their soapbox… 😞

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

Big news: Shapr3D is a finalist for Mac App of the Year at Apple’s @AppStore Awards 🚀

Thank you to our incredible users for proving that CAD can be both powerful and intuitive. Here's to reshaping the future of design, together!

#AppStoreAwards #Shapr3D

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

Discover how Shapr3D on Vision Pro transforms model development.

Collaborate seamlessly with real-time feedback and with minimal setup, creating 3D models that feel like physical prototypes.

Watch our latest video to see it in action!

#Shapr3D #VisionPro #CAD

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

Our ambition at Shapr3D is to increase global GDP by 1%.

How?

16% of the world's GDP is in manufacturing. The current manufacturing software stack is old and inefficient. We believe that with better software we can increase manufacturing companies' efficiency by 6%.

Which would lead to increasing the world's GDP by 1%.

And I think we can build that next generation manufacturing software stack with just a few hundred people.

Let's gooo!

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

A thread of all of my CAD deep dive tweets 👇

1/N

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

Stress testing the M4 iPad with @Shapr3D ... An absolute beast. This is 17,000 (seventeen thousand) "unique" (not instanced) parts. Rendering is super smooth, editing lags a big, but still usable. On an iPad. 17,000 unique parts. 🤯

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

Over the years I learned a lot about CAD, but some of my most important insights came from a website called CadHistory(.net). It was a basically a book, written by David E. Weisberg about the history of CAD. Unfortunately Mr. Weisberg passed away a few years ago, and the website got abandoned. We reached out to his relatives, and they kindly let us republish his work on our website. If you are interested in the world of design and engineering software, it's an invaluable read - now available on https://t.co/rGZ0x9g7Y4

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

Not us being featured at #appleevent2024 👀

[Istvan Kiesz @kieszistvan]

@zsoca87 Nalam Tim Ferriss magasra tette a lecet avval, h elkepesztoen erdekeks embereket tud osszeszedni, akik jol is tudjak elmeselni a temat, ami engem amugy total nem erdekelne. Es elkepesztoen jokor kerdez bele jol egy-egy reszletbe. Ezt egyedul csak az elet+mindenben tapasztaltam…

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

Tonight

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

🚀 Collaboration mode is coming to Shapr3D on Vision Pro

We’re making sure you can edit and feedback on your model in real-time together with colleagues and decision-makers. Here’s a little sneak peek of what you can expect:

Details ➡️ https://t.co/UTXvmzUGdL

[Shapr3D @Shapr3D]

Something big’s in the works 🚀

Shapr3D on Vision Pro is on the way! Check out what editing CAD on Vision Pro actually looks like. Let us know what you think.

More details: https://t.co/XzLOfWuZ1X

#Shapr3D #AppleVisionPro

[Istvan Kiesz @kieszistvan]

@zsoca87 ok boomer… 😅

[István Csanády @istvan_csanady]

1/ 🥁Part 2 of our “How CAD actually works” series🥁

Direct modeling is a misunderstood concept. Since the inception of modern direct modeling, we’ve seen a lot of confusing messaging around it from legacy CAD vendors.