from Hacker News

Arcol simplifies building design with browser-based modeling

by joeld42 on 6/2/25, 4:16 PM with 27 comments

• by dfex on 6/2/25, 9:24 PM

  This looks amazing!

  I'm working on a construction project right now (not as an architect/engineer) and I can tell you right now that live collaboration is THE killer feature (your slick UI not withstanding).

  If this job is anything to go by, the current state-of-the-art appears to be a single Revit model file released once a month, 10,000 excel spreadsheets and 3,000 PDFs of various versions and quality spread between Sharepoint and a Document management server.

  I'm sure you've got an amazing roadmap, but it would be great to see you apply a modern take on:

  - how to handle version control in a multi-user environment (endless designing is fun, but at some point you need to draw a line in the sand so that people can start work, then changes need to be highlighted for the guy on the ground swinging a hammer)

  - collaboration with 3rd-parties that may have a subset of design responsibilities (e.g. HVAC, electrical - they can place things in a room, but can't adjust the dimensions of a room)

  - design reviews - current state-of-the-art seems to be marking up PDFs of DWGs with comments (which the supplier completely ignores on their next revision)

  I look forward to watching this product evolve!

  Small typo on your Love Letter to Designers post:

  "A promise we will make at Arcol is tolisten first"

• by joeld42 on 6/2/25, 4:18 PM

  We're launching Arcol today! Check it out. Modern CAD tool, built for the browser with Rust+Typescript for high performance and an elegant UX.

  Check out the announce video that explains some of the ideas behind it: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paul-o-carroll-38aaa1105_arco...

  Feel free to post any questions and I'll do my best to answer!

• by realitysballs on 6/2/25, 7:25 PM

  Huge fan of anyone daring enough to take on Autodesk , also product is top notch design.

• by itishappy on 6/2/25, 7:01 PM

  As somebody outside of the industry, what's the final output of this product? I don't see doors, so I'm assuming this tool is intended to be used to rough out shapes and costs collaboratively? I totally see the utility in having a collaborative tool at those early stages. How far does Arcol go? Can it spit out blueprints?

  Also, being asked to login to view the demo vid is jarring. The play button signifies a video to me, if it's a demo I'd choose a different symbol (and put it somewhere other than the center of the video).

• by hooverd on 6/2/25, 5:24 PM

  Hehe, I imagine the back-and-forth between the architects and structural/mechanical/HVAC guys will be glorious.

• by an_aparallel on 6/2/25, 9:50 PM

  Ive started work recently as a Revit MEP modeller. Id recommend your team look into a way of supporting common services models like vav/fcu/flex ducts/rect ducts, pipes, cable trays, conduit and so on.

  Im not experienced enough to know if early stage mep designers will find this useful.

• by dbetteridge on 6/3/25, 1:54 AM

  Looks good!

  Did a brief stint at one of your competitors and it's really cool how far browser based engineering tools have come in the years since I worked on them at Arup.

  Webassembly is a blessing for that I imagine.

• by bhouston on 6/2/25, 5:18 PM

  Looks a bit like the ThreeJS editor reskinned. Is it using ThreeJS?

• by polskibus on 6/3/25, 6:32 AM

  Shouldn’t this be a launch HN/ shown HN?

• by the_arun on 6/2/25, 8:39 PM

  Will there be a workflow? For eg. review & approvals and changing state of the final design?

• by xeonmc on 6/2/25, 9:41 PM

  How suitable might this also be for game level design, for more vertical arena-like maps?

• by shocka_z on 6/2/25, 7:28 PM

  How does this compete with Autodesk's Revit & BIM Collaborate?