Things, Pieces and Connections

Traditional CAD makes you pick a mode early: are you making a part or an assembly? Solid Vibes removes that decision. Instead there are three simple ideas.

Thing

A Thing is anything you make. A wall hook is a Thing. A desk lamp is a Thing. A robot is a Thing.

A Thing with one piece behaves like a traditional part. A Thing with many pieces behaves like an assembly. You never switch between the two. If your wall hook later needs a hinged flap, you ask for it, and the Thing grows.

Piece

A Piece is a physical bit that gets made or bought separately. Each piece has its own Recipe (if you make it) or its own catalog entry (if you buy it).

Pieces come in three flavors:

• Made pieces are modeled in Solid Vibes. Each has a Recipe, a material, and a manufacturing process.
• Bought pieces come from the library with real dimensions: screws, nuts, heat-set inserts, bearings, motors, dev boards like an ESP32, Arduino or Raspberry Pi, and sensors. A bought piece can be configured when you add it ("M3 x 12, pan head").
• Nested Things are finished Things you drop into a bigger one. Nesting is just containment.

When does something become its own piece?

A new piece is created when something:

1. moves (a lid on a hinge, a drawer),
2. is bought (a screw, a board),
3. needs a different material (a rubber foot on a plastic base), or
4. needs a different process or printer (a CNC bracket holding a 3D printed housing).

If none of those is true, keep it as one piece with more features. A box with a fixed handle is one piece. A box with a handle that swings is two.

Connection

A Connection describes how two pieces attach or move relative to each other. There are seven kinds:

Connections can carry physical limits, such as "Hinged 0 to 110 degrees". Connections in depth covers each one with practical numbers.

Working with pieces

• Focus. Double-tap a piece to edit it in context while everything else fades. Tap outside to zoom back out.
• Split and Join. Say "split this to fit my printer" to cut a piece in two, or "make these one piece" to merge. Split a part to fit your printer shows the whole workflow.
• Connect by intent. Say "bolt the motor to this plate" or "put the lid on the box". You can also drag a piece near another, and it snaps to the likely fit, with ghost alternatives if there are several.
• Auto fasteners. Say "fasten these" and the agent chooses correctly sized screws, nuts and heat-set inserts.
• Wiggle. Grab the Thing and move it to test the motion, with live collision flashes where parts interfere.
• The Make list. Every piece appears with how it is made, its material, time and cost. Bought pieces appear with their specifications.

A worked example: a hinge box

You say:

Make a small box, 80 by 60 by 35 mm, with a lid that opens on a hinge along the back edge. It opens to 110 degrees. Use two M3 screws as the hinge pin hardware. Print the box and lid in PETG.

You end up with:

• Box (made, PETG)
• Lid (made, PETG)
• M3 screws (bought, quantity 2)
• A Hinged connection between the box and lid with a limit of 0 to 110 degrees

Drag the lid in the viewport: it swings, stops at its limits, and flashes where something collides.

Pro terms

If you prefer traditional language, turn on "Pro terms" in your settings. Thing, Piece and Connection show up as part/assembly, component, and mate. BOM replaces Make list, and feature tree replaces Recipe.

Try it

Start from the Hinge box template and ask:

Why is the lid a separate piece, and what would change if I made it part of the box?

The agent can answer using the reasons recorded on each piece, which is a good way to learn the "moves, bought, material, process" rule on a real model.