Road Less Traveled
What does it take to create a CAD Kernel? This question lingered in my mind for weeks. I was restless. I reached out to a notable industry leader for some resources.
He replied, "Not really unfortunately :/ since most kernels are proprietary".
Today marks a year since I asked that question. I don’t remember the exact day we began working on OpenGeometry, but I’ll count 11th July as the start. Back then, we had only a seed of an idea, an open-source CAD kernel.
We had neither the direction nor the skills a year ago. We were misfits in this industry. Some would say this was a foolish endeavor. They are right, we are foolish! No sane person wants to chase the unknown. Yet we ventured out. We had grit. We loved designing and building, and believed we could build something beautiful.
Every pursuit needs an objective, that's how the world works. We always need to have an agenda before we do anything, that is what MBA books teach us. People would tell you to define a plan, and companies have metrics for it.
We at OpenGeometry were boxed in by this thought and were trying to define why we're building a CAD Kernel, trying to define the bullet points. We were looking for directions when there were none. It was only until we found this book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which provided the foundation of our mindset.
Some pursuits differ! You begin to enjoy the journey once you accept that you don't have a plan. We know this might not sound right to some, but a few can understand what we are trying to say.
Inventions are rarely born from clearly defined goals, they are not conceived in meeting rooms. Inventions are born out of curiosity to explore. It's the will and effort to explore something that brings seismic changes. This is our "Why", we felt we had found our zen! A burning desire to build something truly great.
We have always believed that we all possess the innate ability to achieve greatness and create our own dents in the universe. The ones who are creating dents aren't defining goals, and we won't as well.
We see ourselves as a music band. We don’t play music for the crowd. We play because we love the music. Likewise, we want to create great software, the best CAD tool out there, and we would do whatever it takes, even if that means writing a Geometry Kernel from scratch.
We are taking the road less travelled. We are building, breaking, and learning. Many would have given up in a year. But when the desire runs deep, you don't care about who's listening to your music. Nothing holds you back. The road is yours. You embrace the dust and the journey. Others may see pain. We see opportunities and stories worth living.
We missed out on sharing our experiences for the last few months on the blog, we were exploring. We were testing our Kernel, we built POCs, and talked to numerous people in hindsight.
Today, we would like to thank you for believing in us. It feels like our music has found its audience. We are now starting with something based on our insights, and we are building an MVP using our OpenGeometry Kernel. We are keeping our promise to build a tool.
(Ahm!)😷
Let me say something bold. We might build the next CAD tool you'll want to use and it will be open-source
Yes, that’s our next foolish adventure. More on that in the coming months.
Do you want to hear more from us? Let us know, we are really talkative. But if we’ve already bored you, feel free to unsubscribe. We promise more of this.