Cartesian – AI 3D Modeling for Design

These all seem backwards.

I like to think in shapes. I like to draw and sketch, as that has the lowest barriers between the mental concepts and physical ones.

I do not like to use cad software. It is painful to express ideas with it. Also same for all kinds of drawing software. It's just very cumbersome.

I hate explaining spatial or shape concepts to people with words. I hate having them explained to me in words.

A photographer doesn't explain his work, he shows photos he has taken.

Adrian Newey used to work with pen and paper while others had been using CAD for a long time, and won F1 championships.

Can we now make the computers less clunky and less about typing or hunting with the mouse. We want low friction to express ideas.

This seems the opposite. You're not expressing your idea, you're asking for the computer's idea.

I'm so excited about this sort of stuff. ForgeCAD [1] for me was the first mind-blowing application of this a few months ago, where I'm able to just have claude (or codex) write JS that creates 3D Models that I can then print in my 3D printer.

- Built a ring for my compost bin that can properly hold down the plastic bag. This was originally a multi week project because I was also learning Fusion 360 in small 2 hour chunks over many weekends, then with ForgeCAD I had a good prototype in 60 mins with multiple iterations.

- I also built a cover for my overheating Logitech Circle doorbell, snapped a photo, gave it to claude, and claude found all the dimensions on Logitech's website, and then we iterated with 3-4 prints until we had it just right.

This is a whole new set of workflows that are unleashed with agents, even for hobbyists.

1: https://forgecad.io

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

From my experience trying to build parametric CAD modeling using FluidCAD [1] using its MCP, the biggest breakthrough is ASTRA. It seems to work well actually with any CAD if it has ways to verify its output. No otjer models was able to match its accuracy even Fable.

[1] https://fluidcad.io

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.

GPT-6 Astra with computer use has gotten some of architects and 3d modelers wondering what their future is. Astra does such a good work with SketchUp 2026 and computer use, here is video, but it is well worth it because the author actually knows his stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ECbD14g_8

The video game applications are truly pretty cool ... though I don't know who would admit to using such a tool in the current environment.

Some of the other things like the `Residential`, `Structure and Complex Shape`, and `Large Scale` seem like they'd need review by engineers to be useful in real world scenarios? Do architects just sketch whatever looks good as a first pass?

Minecraft style designs work but complexed geometry yields presentation quality in a triangular hell, which is and has been the problem with all Ai CAD since day 1. What Ai is good at in CAD is finding applicable formulas but anything functioning in a civil space is a nightmare on wax. There's not even enough correct Ai in sensory to make it reliable for self-driving cars and now they want to make the car itself with Ai? I guess in for a penny...

i can't even read the website because you're animating the background, why would i trust you with architecture?

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

"Architecture and product design" but no STEP/IGES/BRep output, just triangles?

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.

Considering the ability of men to aim in urinals, Cornucopia is really one of the worst idea.

Is the site owners are here: that background and scroll effect is terrible.

The moving dotted background makes it impossible to read anything..

I love the web design though! Formas.ai has been doing great work in the visualization space, and it’s great watching them tackle 3D via the very apt name Cartesian. Defo support what they are doing. Maybe I can finally sleep better too!

I've just started working on 3D modeling software of my own, though this looks to be far ahead. Mostly focused on 3D printing - creating printable models is pretty expensive and tedious at the moment, and fully native.

[1] https://tomasimodeler.com (pardon the AI-slop, it's just a placeholder)

"What you keep is never redrawn. What clashes is said out loud."

I keep seeing people in this thread lamenting that "There is no good way for LLMs to design/generate parametric STEP models yet", while I've spent the past 6 months working on this exact problem.

So, yesterday, I've had Astra build a moving assembly of Babbage's difference engine with it with 400+ parts and real parametric geometry, and you can also download the full STEP model assembly there.

https://aetheris-difference-engine-showcase.yuechenli.worker...

And here's a STEP file that I've had GPT reconstruct of a popular phone with exact parametric dimensions just from the 2D drawing, took like an hour:

https://github.com/yuechen-li-dev/Aetheris/blob/master/sampl...

Completely free and open source, you can use your own Claude/Codex to start vibe-coding and generate perfect STEP file right now.

So, no, it's not a matter of time on "when can AI do CAD", we are already here.

Sorry if I sound a little frustrated and a bit too self-promotion-y, but I just really want people who says "I wish this capability exists sometimes in the future" to know that it already does, and you can use it right now, for free.

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