Introducing Text-to-CAD

Today we are excited to share Text-to-CAD with you! This is an alpha launch for us to get feedback and make the underlying model even better. For every seemingly obvious prompt that should work and doesn’t, we hope there is a prompt that shouldn’t work but does!

There are lots of text-to-3d models that exist for gaming asset use cases but there are no Text-to-CAD models. The distinction being that we do not use point clouds, we generate B-Rep¹ surfaces. So you can import a STEP file from Text-to-CAD into any existing CAD program and edit it. The existing text-to-3d models generate meshes so if you were to import that into an existing CAD program, it would just be one large amorphous blob and not editable in any useful way.

Generating CAD models is a lot different than generating images or video. Models generating 2D images, 2D video, and 3D point clouds are learning from datasets with dense, highly descriptive and strict representations of data that each have one and only one representation. In contrast, there are multiple valid feature trees for each CAD model, so training and validation are not straightforward.

We ask that you try different things and use the thumbs up and down buttons to give us feedback. By opening this up for use by the community, we can see the models you are trying to generate and improve the model for those.

Today, you can take the generated STEP file of any CAD model from Text-to-CAD and import it into an existing CAD program and edit it. Even more exciting, in the future, we will give you the generated KCL (KittyCAD Language) code so that you can edit it in our Modeling App! Being able to edit code for a CAD model will make generated models even more useful. You can keep up with the Modeling App 1.0 roadmap here.

Here are some fun models we’ve generated:

• "involute helical gear with 36 teeth"

• "a 9 pointed star"

• "create a plate with 4 holes near each corner and rounded corners"

• And one we thought was funny, tis the season: "a sketch of a christmas tree with a star on top"

• A fun one using emoji in discord...

• One in french, "un cube avec un chamfer du bord haut"

Pro tips: It is better to describe the feature tree of what you want (chamfered edges, fillets, etc) versus just saying a noun (car).

We cannot wait to see what you generate! You can use our discord bot or the Text-to-CAD UI to try it out today. Both of these applications are open source so you can see how easy it is to build your own applications on top of our API. Have fun and remember to leave feedback, that will help us tremendously!

Footnotes

1. B-Rep, or Boundary Representation, succinctly defines 3D objects using surfaces composed of vertices, edges, and faces, outlining their external shape. Unlike implicit modeling, B-Rep provides precise control over the object's geometry and topology, facilitating accurate and efficient design modifications, essential for manufacturing processes where exact dimensions and tolerances are crucial. ↩