Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 111 posts

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#21

Post by sem4 »

zachdive wrote: post #16
q3k wrote: post #12

> A complete V8 internal combustion engine 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 b…

We could defo update our readme! What do you think of this?: https://x.com/aaronli/status/2064876123109089742?s=20 Fable 5 in our Fusion Extension.

not to say this isn't cool, but it's about as useful as having claude generate a JavaScript illustration of how a v8 works and then expecting someone to manufacturer an engine from that

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

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#22

Post by tapia »

zachdive wrote: post #8
jrflo wrote: post #5

Can you talk more about the UI for face/edge selection that you're working on? Is that only going to be in the OnShape/Fusion plugins?

It's currently in the plugins and we're working on bringing it to CADAM. Basically you'll be able to use the GUI, and give face/edge selection context to your prompt "extrude a hole through this face". It's directly tied to us adding brep support.

How can this approach be better than just selecting the edge and click the extrude button/write extrude command? Now you have to start writing a prompt and hope that what you want to do is understood by the LLM. I mean, CAD is really not so complicated with the tools we currently have. You just have to learn how to use them.

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#23

Post by zachdive »

tapia wrote: post #22
zachdive wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's currently in the plugins and we're working on bringing it to CADAM. Basically you'll be able to use the GUI, and give face/edge selection context to your prompt "extrude a hole through this face". It's directly tied to us adding brep support.

How can this approach be better than just selecting the edge and click the extrude button/write extrude command? Now you have to start writing a prompt and hope that what you want to do is understood by the LLM. I mean, CAD is really not so complicated with the tools we currently have. You just have to learn how to use them.

That's more of an example to address the point. We've find our users often use this feature in our onshape/fusion extensions in complex assemblies. Being able to select faces and edges as context in addition to prompts can be quite a powerful interface in more complex projects where users need to adjust tolerances or edit multiple objects to prevent interference

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#26

Post by zachdive »

murkt wrote: post #24

I find all current LLMs to have pretty poor spatial awareness. It is becoming better, but still very poor. How are you dealing with that? Got any special tricks, any advice?

I write about this in detail here: https://adam.new/blog/bitter-lesson-ai-cad

This is improving greatly in recent model releases

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#28

Post by murkt »

zachdive wrote: post #26
murkt wrote: post #24

I find all current LLMs to have pretty poor spatial awareness. It is becoming better, but still very poor. How are you dealing with that? Got any special tricks, any advice?

I write about this in detail here: https://adam.new/blog/bitter-lesson-ai-cad This is improving greatly in recent model releases

Opus 4.5-4.7 was pretty bad at it, 4.8 was a bit better, and I have not tried Fable much.

So basically you have a good enough code that’s “intuitive” for a model, screenshots, and that’s it?

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#29

Post by dgellow »

q3k wrote: post #12

> A complete V8 internal combustion engine 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 b…

> shitty 3D prints don't count

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

Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD

#30

Post by 8note »

murkt wrote: post #28
zachdive wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write about this in detail here: https://adam.new/blog/bitter-lesson-ai-cad This is improving greatly in recent model releases

Opus 4.5-4.7 was pretty bad at it, 4.8 was a bit better, and I have not tried Fable much. So basically you have a good enough code that’s “intuitive” for a model, screenshots, and that’s it?

fable is a fair bit better, but to an extent its that it tried more things to get an understanding of whats happening than opus does
Post reply on HN