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Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

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Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#21

Post by jrflo »

fofoz wrote: post #15

These products are still in their early stages, but it is clear that the AI wave is reaching 3D modeling as well. It will impact mechanical and civil engineering just as it has impacted software development.

I don't think so. As a mechanical engineer, CAD is only half of the design process. The other half is actually building and assembling your design and testing/debugging what you've created. You still need the mechanical knowledge and intuition to take something in the physical world, figure out why it doesn't work, and apply that to the CAD design to improve it. It would be incredible to have AI help me model faster, but there's no validation loop like there is with software, so you can't have an agent run wild and endlessly iterate.

Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#23

Post by ur-whale »

jrflo wrote: post #18
throwitaway222 wrote: post #8

I've been using Astra to just create things in Blender. It's great. Kill the scroll jacking. It's a sign you're on Windows.

CAD is a different beast than mesh modeling. For product design you need a parametric model that can have precise dimensions and is constructed mathematically step by step. Mesh modeling is just moving a pile of triangles around in a very imprecise way. Works fine for 3D printing or digital assets, but if you want something that can be manufactured that's not good enough. And there isn't a good way to go from STL ->…

> there isn't a good way to go from STL -> Parametric CAD

yet.

as a matter of fact, you should try what AI can do on that problem, you'd be surprised.

Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#25

Post by idid »

I love to see more of these tools build on rhino's kernel. Arguably the best modelling (parametric, manual, or SDK) ergonomics when it comes to, from my experience, early stage aec workflows. A similar tool launched recently [0] that i found interesting. I'm also biased as it's my first and only true love when it comes to "coding things" for the built environment.

My take was that designing buildings was always the cheap part, and not core to what moves the needle in AEC (architecture, engineering, construction)

[0] https://illoca.com/ , not affiliated

Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#26

Post by ur-whale »

jrflo wrote: post #21
fofoz wrote: post #15

These products are still in their early stages, but it is clear that the AI wave is reaching 3D modeling as well. It will impact mechanical and civil engineering just as it has impacted software development.

I don't think so. As a mechanical engineer, CAD is only half of the design process. The other half is actually building and assembling your design and testing/debugging what you've created. You still need the mechanical knowledge and intuition to take something in the physical world, figure out why it doesn't work, and apply that to the CAD design to improve it. It would be incredible to have AI help me model faster,…

None of the things you list in the "other half" are out of reach for AI.

Also: disagree about the lack of validation loop:

   a) AI can actually build one for you in many cases

   b) if you give agents an actual validation toolkit, you'll be surprised what AI can do
Of course, if you expect to prompt "give me a NURBS model of a complete, working v8 motor" and get a result, then yeah, sure, we're not there yet.

I've actually built a bunch of stuff with a combo of astra, blender, openscad and tiny bits of AI written helpers ... giving the AI the proper "hands" to work with the models is key.

One particularly useful tool to provide the AI with is to be able to "look" at the model as it iterates on it (measure dimensions, shoot arbitrary rays at it that return exact intersections and normals, see if the object obeys engineering constraints, etc ...).

Works pretty well for many, many things and saves a TON of time.

Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#27

Post by fragmede »

tadasv wrote: post #19
fofoz wrote: post #15

These products are still in their early stages, but it is clear that the AI wave is reaching 3D modeling as well. It will impact mechanical and civil engineering just as it has impacted software development.

3d modeling for use in software (games or similar) imo is fine, but I would love to not see this stuff in civil engineering. People without AI are unable to design buildings that don't collapse (e.g. recent NYC apartment highrise), adding AI into the mix will just make things worse.

Why do you presume it will make it worse instead of better? Humans, as you point out, could not manage to competently review buildings that don't collapse. Why would adding an additional level of checks (human or AI) do worse than not adding one?

Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#28

Post by altcognito »

jrflo wrote: post #21
fofoz wrote: post #15

These products are still in their early stages, but it is clear that the AI wave is reaching 3D modeling as well. It will impact mechanical and civil engineering just as it has impacted software development.

I don't think so. As a mechanical engineer, CAD is only half of the design process. The other half is actually building and assembling your design and testing/debugging what you've created. You still need the mechanical knowledge and intuition to take something in the physical world, figure out why it doesn't work, and apply that to the CAD design to improve it. It would be incredible to have AI help me model faster,…

> CAD is only half of the design process

I'm not a mechanical engineer but I would be surprised if it was even 30% of the process. Materials, manufacturability, durability, fitting into other requirements. Some of those things can be part of the CAD design, but there's so much more.

Not to say that CAD isn't a big chunk!

Re: Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

#30

Post by jdiff »

ur-whale wrote: post #24
IChooseY0u wrote: post #12

Looking at a bunch of these: I don't think they are even manufacturable. This is something you would use in a video game.

> This is something you would use in a video game. You say it like it's a bad thing.

They're saying it as if it were contrary to what's being claimed. The tagline says "for architecture and product design." The supported file formats are not video game formats.
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