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by ur-whale 53 days ago
Not sure I understand ... no mention of an actual CAD engine backend ... did I miss it?

Or is this capable of generating STEP files directly from an LLM (which I doubt)?

[EDIT]: haha. the answer is hidden in:

.agents/skills/cad/requirements.txt

TL;DR:

    build123d

    ezdxf

    numpy

    trimesh

    vtk
and the engine is build123d, which, from its home page:

Build123d is a Python-based, parametric (BREP) modeling framework for 2D and 3D CAD. Built on the Open Cascade geometric kernel, it provides a clean, fully Pythonic interface for creating precise models suitable for 3D printing, CNC machining, laser cutting, and other manufacturing processes. Models can be exported to popular CAD tools such as FreeCAD and SolidWorks.

prbly worth mentioning in the README, I can't be the only one wondering out there.

Also: these things seem to be sprouting all over the place these days (a good thing!) ... CAD modeling using LLMs is clearly an idea whose time has come.
2 comments
GorbachevyChase 53 days ago
I don’t think its time has come. I think there are a lot of software folks that don’t understand what the actual pain points of professional engineers and CAD technicians are. I think there is a niche where text-to-CAD is good: hobby users who don’t want invest in learning a CAD software UI. For professionals, where results have dollar values, there needs to be a much deeper understanding of the problem domain to understand why enterprise CAD software sucks.
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imtringued 53 days ago
I think the primary strengths of a text based format would be in defining the assembly of parts and parameterizing them.

E.g. you want to build a gear box so you draw a sketch in the GUI with the positions of all the gears and name each axle where a gear would be attached, then you open a text editor where you specify all the gear parameters and to which axle they should be attached to. You then go back to the GUI to move the axles around. After assembly, you can start designing a housing for the gearbox.

The assembly could then be loaded directly into any simulation environment of your choice.

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akiselev 53 days ago
Based on requirements.txt it uses build123d so OpenCascade is the geometric kernel (CAD engine backend)
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ur-whale 53 days ago
> it uses build123d so OpenCascade is the geometric kernel

yup, found it as you were typing this :D

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