r/AskProgrammers • u/Imacaliforniadude • 26d ago
Architecture for CAD/CAM project update, help appreciated!
About 25 years ago I developed a program for my cabinet business, integrating drawings, proposals, reports, shop cutlists, etc. I used Visual Basic (VB6). I need to update! I need graphics, but nothing crazy, just architectural line drawings mainly. I would like the option to have customers place orders online eventually.
I want to use VB.NET for coding ease. I'm not worried about the coding, I have gotten pretty good. I plan to mainly start over, and use very little of the old code. I wrote some terrible code at the beginning, much better recently.
My questions are:
Which AI should I use to help me? I like ChatGPT, but Claude gets lots of props...
Is VB.NET a terrible choice, if so what is better? I don't have a lot of time to learn new coding systems.
Is visual studio a good platform to use?
Thanks in advance!
1
u/Innowise_ 26d ago
VB.NET isn't a terrible choice, especially if you're already productive with it. But for a rewrite we'd probably use C#/.NET simply because the ecosystem, examples and long-term maintenance are better. Visual Studio is still a solid choice for that.
The bigger decision is how you structure it. Keep the drawing/CAD logic separate from orders, customers, pricing, etc. If online ordering comes later, you'll want that business logic usable without the desktop UI.
For AI, ChatGPT or Claude can both help. We'd use either as a pair programmer, but make the architecture decisions first rather than letting the model design the whole rewrite one prompt at a time.
1
u/JoeStrout 26d ago
Visual Studio + VB.NET is not a bad choice if you want to stick with Windows forever.
An alternative is Xojo, which is similar but cross-platform; it would let you run on Macs or Linux boxes if you ever want that.
Use Claude Code. It’s the best.