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- AI will be the primary medium for creating mechanical designs just like it is in software today.
- The best paradigm for CAD generation is to generate CAD as code (text -> code -> CAD).
We’re building CADAM, an open source Text to CAD platform. It's a React app (TanStack Start) with a Supabase backend for auth, database, and file storage. Think of it like AI TinkerCAD.
Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iESOr7EGWqk Try it: https://adam.new/cadam/
What it does:
- Generates parametric 3D models from natural language, with support for both text prompts and image references.
- Outputs OpenSCAD code with automatically extracted parameters that surface as interactive sliders for instant dimension tweaking
- Exports as .STL or .SCAD (plus OBJ, GLB/GLTF, FBX, and DXF)
Under the hood:
- One agentic endpoint with two modes that swap system prompts and tools: a parametric mode that writes/edits OpenSCAD via a build_parametric_model tool, and a mesh mode that generates 3D textured meshes.
- Simple parameter tweaks bypass the model entirely; adjusting a slider does a deterministic regex update on the SCAD source, requiring no LLM call.
- Model-agnostic via the Vercel AI SDK: Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini), and OpenAI/others through OpenRouter, with adaptive thinking auto-enabled on newer models. Surprisingly, in our evals Gemini 3.1 Pro is the top model.
- Runs fully in-browser by compiling OpenSCAD to WebAssembly (in a Web Worker, so the UI never blocks) and rendering with Three.js via React Three Fiber
- Supports BOSL, BOSL2, and MCAD libraries, plus custom font support (Geist) for text in models
Future improvements:
- Support both build123d and CadQuery. This will allow us to move beyond CSG primitives to constraint-driven modeling and provide direct comparisons to other code-as-CAD primitives.
- Better spatial context: UI for face/edge selection and viewport image integration to give LLMs spatial understanding
You can clone the repo and run it locally! Contributions are very welcome.
Discussion (56 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
There are so many reasons why I, as an engineer, will never even attempt to use AI for mechanical design, that trying to list them all is about to give me an autistic screeching fit.
Even if all I need is a simple little bracket or something, I can model that and know it's right much quicker than I can ask the AI to do it and then check it's work. There is no time savings here.
Heck, for any of the stuff I need that is simple enough to plausibly ask AI to draw, I don't even bother to model in the first place, I would either sketch it with a pencil or just make the piece right off the top of my head.
If it's more complicated than that, then my approach grows to include things like what stock I have available, what tooling, fixturing and machines are present, whether I can use any COTS hardware to simplify the design, the tolerancing scheme I want to use...and my output needs to include not just the model, but toleranced drawings and any other assemblies and such that are required.
And besides all of that, and with love....OpenSCAD is a joke, and if you seriously try to tell me that "the best paradigm for CAD generation is to generate CAD as code", I cannot take you seriously.
However, you can drive any professional CAD software though code. As we drive Autodesk Fusion via python through agents.
Some comments here mention tolerances/functional requirements. Do you think the LLM/screenshot loop will scale to that too? Maybe rendering subassemblies individually until they make sense? Still feels like a full functioning V8 engine block needs _a lot_ of ghost-view screenshots to verify it works. What's your thoughts on a "simulation" approach, since it's not aligned with your bitter-lesson-blog-post?
Are you able to reveal more about what kind of traction you have? 10s/100s/1000s of companies?
Very cool open source project, and thanks for sharing so much!
The majority of our enterprise traction is on our flagship product: https://adam.new/
Here you can connect to your engineering software and use AI to generate:
- CAD - Renderings - Slides for design review - BOM
and much more!
https://www.tooltrace.ai/
"Done — I've created a heavy-duty, fully parametric engine mount bracket that fits a typical four-bolt block pattern and a single-stud chassis isolator with an alignment pin, much like what the 1KZ-TE requires."
I dont think it's even close :(
PS. Your entry message should be "Madam, I'm Adam" ;)
As far as I know, the way that these reproduction hardware companies operate is that they have physical cars that they can design around.
I have a 1993 Subaru WRX and I needed to replace the coolant header tank because mine had a bunch of leaks. I ended buying one from a specialty fab shop in the UK and I had to make a few measurements for them because there was varying bolt spacing for GC8 Impreza models.
This is improving greatly in recent model releases
So basically you have a good enough code that’s “intuitive” for a model, screenshots, and that’s it?
no tricks, I'd definitely be curious to know how much screenshots help
- wrong pitch
- wrong pins position
- missing pins
let me know!
An existing LLM could drive the generation while the MCP can render the final result?
ive found a process by which the llm gives me a picture, then i draw on it and hand it back works fairly well
I suspect that your VLM might do a bad job at transcribing sketches into CADs, and you wrongly interpreted the adoption data as a preference for text-based interaction
hobbyists and makers use CADAM
Yeah, no, that's a lie. This isn't a CAD model. It's a fantasy 3d model that looks like it's straight out of Gearhead Garage (1999).
Any time I see these 'AI CAD' solutions it's always toys, toys, toys. Show me something functional that you've actually manufactured (shitty 3D prints don't count). Or at least show me something that can actually be assembled and isn't just a bunch of boxes with no fasteners to hold them together.
Why not? The 3D print market is pretty large and tools to generate some designs that can then be tweaked are pretty useful in that context. I don't think that type of AI CAD tool would replace professional CAD work, that's something that requires way too much context and human judgement. But being able to prototype something to be 3D printed via an AI thing is one of the few places where I see AI being genuinely useful.
I personally enjoy designing my own things with Plasticity, so wouldn't be the perfect target audience
Fable 5 in our Fusion Extension.
For anyone doing CAD at a professional level (ie not 3d printed trinkets), the important parts are the physical parameters and tolerances designed into the model. For example I suspect your crankshaft would rip itself apart at engine speeds, not to mention all the plumbing, oil and coolant delivery, and auxiliary pumps and belts are missing
Do you have a single person on your team that's actually a mechanical engineer with practical industry experience?
For the Fusion demo we intentionally didn't include the block or any accessories in the visualization as we wanted demonstrate Adam's ability to reason through the mechanical workings of an engine, like how the cams push the valves or the way the the crankshaft drives the connecting rods.