why is text the setup, rather than sketches? pictures?
ive found a process by which the llm gives me a picture, then i draw on it and hand it back works fairly well
Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
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Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#32why is text the setup, rather than sketches? pictures? ive found a process by which the llm gives me a picture, then i draw on it and hand it back works fairly well
you can upload an image or a sketch! we actually have drawing suppor in our extensions, but we've found our users use it far less than we expected!
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
Fable is considerably better from my experience: https://x.com/LLMJunky/status/2065229625702109340?s=20
Fingers crossed it comes back!
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#34I'm pretty skeptical of AI products, but your onboarding and first design experience has been pretty awesome. I will definitely spend a bit more time experimenting with this
damn credits are consumed fast. And they are pretty expensive, $20 for 2k credits won't last long at all
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#35why is text the setup, rather than sketches? pictures? ive found a process by which the llm gives me a picture, then i draw on it and hand it back works fairly well
you can upload an image or a sketch! we actually have drawing suppor in our extensions, but we've found our users use it far less than we expected!
Who are your users? Are you working with professionals that use similar commercial products or hobbyists? I have a hard time imagining that seasoned industrial designers prefer text over sketches…
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
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
I understand the goal, but describing complex geometries with specific tolerances with natural language is much more complex than creating the geometry programmatically. There are geometries that I could not clearly describe with words, but it's clear the operations I need to do to create them. But who knows, maybe I'll be proven wrong.
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
you can upload an image or a sketch! we actually have drawing suppor in our extensions, but we've found our users use it far less than we expected!
Who are your users? Are you working with professionals that use similar commercial products or hobbyists? I have a hard time imagining that seasoned industrial designers prefer text over sketches… 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
generally professionals our flagship app at https://adam.new/
hobbyists and makers use CADAM
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
I understand the goal, but describing complex geometries with specific tolerances with natural language is much more complex than creating the geometry programmatically. There are geometries that I could not clearly describe with words, but it's clear the operations I need to do to create them. But who knows, maybe I'll be proven wrong.
I largely agree with you. It's case by case and the ideal ux imho is to have both.
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#39I asked it to create 3d model of "AMF-O97L45-DB". It pulled datasheet and generated 3D model. Left is reality, right is what was generated: https://imgur.com/a/oNaz51q - wrong pitch - wrong pins position - missing pins
did you try to iterate? copypasting your brief message here to the prompt would probably fix something.
Re: Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD
#40"I need an engine mount for 1999 toyota land cruiser j90 for the 1kz-te engine with a manual gearbox. Can you generate me a cad to send to a company in China to 3d print it?"
"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" ;)