Ask HN: CAD for wood working with LLM support? I’m a hobbyist woodworker. I manually design simple things in Shapr3d with a lot of patience when I build things. I wonder in the time of LLMs if there is an effective way to accelerate the 3D model design using AI.. Anybody tried using AI to model wood projects? Any tools to recommend? |
It's a woodworking domain engine and parametric furniture builder focused on projects like bookshelves, cabinetry, and shop furniture. It works out the parts, joints, cut list, etc.
There is an MCP component in beta (https://shopspec.io/agents) that allows an agent to explore designs while the engine still does the math. To take a design to CAD, a project can be exported as DXF or as a Ruby script that rebuilds it in SketchUp Pro.
It's narrower than Shapr3D, but it might fit the projects you describe.
I'm also the developer of FluidCAD. It has an MCP you can wire to any LLM. It runs locally on your machine.
It is still missing features for splitting the model into parts, but that is coming in a future release.
MCP config (node.js required): https://fluidcad.io/docs/cli/#fluidcad-mcp
I will say the differential wheel module was on the edge of what it was able to do. I had to bump it up to Fable and if I didn't already have a clear model in my head of what I wanted I don't think it could have pulled it off.
Recently, Sonnet 5.5 got quite good, too, but not at the level of Opus/Fable for complex geometry
Disclaimer: I use it for very precise 3D printing, not woodwork.
I had it design a model sailboat hull, and it fucking nailed it. It even designed it for printability. I’m genuinely really impressed.
Everything is stored locally (with cloud feature coming soon as well as desktop versions.)
I have gotten just "ok" at CAD. I'm not as productive as I should be because I avoid it. Really looking forward to this.
1. First several 3-d design iterations are throwaway reworked because I am constantly measuring the design, clearances and studs. And paper works best here instead of working with clankers which takes way longer.
2. Choosing the right kind of materials: thickness and type of plywood, type of hinges, panels, finished or unfinished. Optimize for simplicity of putting components together is most important.
3. Once the design settles the actual joinery needs to be as simple and efficient e.g. butt joints work well most of the time. A good jig for pocket holes is generally the most needed. You will be surprised how well a staple gun works for creating back panels of cupboards.
Its not that they are not useful, shopspec looks great(good job variodot), its just that I can get further and faster without them for most hobbyist pursuits. I invoke YAGNI most of the time because I constantly ask myself one question: "How can I make this be less time consuming?".
The local version has a MCP server.
Isn’t this closer to being an architect or a designer now?