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  variodot
  I'm building ShopSpec (https://shopspec.io/) for this kind of workflow. I'm a woodworker and use it for my own home and shop builds.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.
• cui
  I'd say Claude/Codex plus whatever CAD modeling tool you want to use. But if you want to find some existing AI-assisted CAD design platforms, take a look at https://thecadhub.com/category/ai-assisted-design/
• reacharavindh
  OP here. writing for my own reference. Found great pointers so far.I'm going to try https://sawdust.diy and https://fluidcad.io/ for the short term.For the long term, I have noted FreeCAD + Blender + $ai_model to be a good general purpose workflow that yields more control, and will probably get me lost into the details.https://janne-alatalo.fi/en/articles/silhouette-modeling/ and its accompanying SKILL - https://github.com/janne-alatalo/image-to-cad-skillFreeCAD MCP: https://github.com/neka-nat/freecad-mcpWoodworking specific FreeCAD resources : https://github.com/dprojects/WoodworkingTwo YouTube Channels related to FreeCAD + woodworking :1. https://www.youtube.com/@dprojects.woodworking2. https://www.youtube.com/@ga3d_._tech528There goes the weekend! Cheers HN!
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  seemaze
  A friend of mine was borrowing the shop of a very well known luthier to build some furniture. I stopped by to check the whole situation out and I found them both with their brows furrowed trying to work out some tolerances for a joint on a scrap piece of paper. As an architect by training, I quipped "at some point you'll have to start making proper drawings of you projects ahead of time", to which the luthier replied "the plans are always the problem, you're better off letting the wood tell you how it should be put it together." to which I had no reply..
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  maouida
  I'm a developer and hobbyist woodworker too :)I'm also the developer of FluidCAD. It has an MCP you can wire to any LLM. It runs locally on your machine.It is still missing features for splitting the model into parts, but that is coming in a future release.https://fluidcad.io/MCP config (node.js required): https://fluidcad.io/docs/cli/#fluidcad-mcp
• c00kieslayer
  crosstrees.1puni.com, mostly built from my phone while hanging out in her saloon!For you specifically; if all you want to do is manually have a session and describe the thing you want, and see it take form — that's OpenAI's expertise. Pay 20$, get the desktop app, tell it what you want with as much precision as you can. Don't tell it how (don't force CAD if you don't specifically need it). Give it pictures or a photo of a drawing, any data like wood type, maybe even the machines you have at hand... Just dump it all in there. You'll be amazed.Anyway, I'll plug India, the boat I've reconstructed and had the absolute privilege of helping design the rig for. So that's my weird hobby that AI helps with... rigging Pirates of the Caribbean-style boats.(Yes, we actually sail them in our community. There was a race a couple of weeks ago. India's yet to be rigged, so she just tagged along as a fender against the cliffs.)
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  Mazer23
  Shameless plug: I’m workin on http://partforge.ai right now it’s mostly aimed at 3d printing but it can create laser cut sheet parts with dxf file exports and will support cnc routed parts with drill holes and socket diagrams built in in the near future. Board cut lists as a export is a little further out, but you can ask it for measurements of anything you build and it would probably be a pretty useful tool.
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  taylorfinley
  Give my tool a try, https://sawdust.diy
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  cladopa
  OpensCAD and FreeCAD.I learned OpensCAD manually but it was so painful because you needed to take into account the most minimal and ridiculous thing using code, so I used Freecad in the end that is way more intuitive and fast with graphical tools.With code like OpenScad it was just too exhausting just to have to think rationally every single detail. And you spent hours doing the most minimal project.Then LLMs appeared...Now I use OpenSCAD a lot because with LLMs you have the absolute control that code gives you without the pain of using your logical/rational mind all the time and taking 1/20 of the time for that.I create my own furniture as hobby. Mostly I use standard IKEA metallic pieces, standard metric screws.I generate paper blueprints automatically of how the wood panels must be cut and they cut it for me. My Blueprints are pdfs that I print very similar to IKEA blueprints so the one that cuts the wood can not make a mistake. I choose and provide the panels myself.It is ridiculous how easy it is now with LLMs to do all of that. I can do a new design in a couple hours, including the pdfs. Most of the code is already created and I just have to reuse it.I use Claude Code. From time to time I voluntarily teach children to do just that. Some of them are really good after a couple hours of instruction and some mentoring.
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  kentlyons
  Claude Code is now WAY better at the freecad python api. My product (related to ceramics) does a whole bunch of custom 3d modeling and the new generation of LLMs can go in and make significant changes and basically get it right. They can also deal with a lot of annoying corner cases when you run into them.
• aleksiy123
  Wow i was just thinking the same thing. Going to take a cbc course at my local shop.Does anyone know what the SOTA is for cad models from image or multiple images?I was hoping to try doing some reproductions of stuff i saw in museums/palaces in Europe.
• janne-alatalo
  I've tested different ways to use agents to model stuff from images with accuracy. Maybe this is something that can help or give you ideas: https://janne-alatalo.fi/en/articles/silhouette-modeling/If you have some physical reference, for example a coffee table, you can create an accurate 3D model of that quickly. The agent creates model that can be converted to STEP format and opened with any CAD software.This might help you? You get a good model that you can start editing towards your own design.Here is agent skill that works with OpenAI models and Codex https://github.com/janne-alatalo/image-to-cad-skillBasically you take few pictures. Three is usually enough of furnitures. The agent uses the pictures to find the exact camera poses and creates a 3D model that minimizes the difference between the object's silhouette in images and in the 3D-model when projected with the virtual cameras to the 2D planes. The agents create the model with python scripts. First using numpy for faster optimization and finally CadQuery for easy exports to CAD formats.
• edg5000
  Astra in Codex CLI is good with FreeCAD if you let it use the FreeCAD Python runtime in a headless session. It is good at relying purely on natural language to design and revise. To follow specific CAD techniques you need additional prompting. Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.
• bob1029
  Be aware that AI is really bad at certain kinds of geometry. This can either go very well or very poorly. I'm not aware of many happy cases in the middle.A simple test is that if the object you are modeling could be described by a brief python program (automating blender/CAD APIs), then the LLM will probably one shot it perfectly. If what you are modeling is a human face or bird, then the LLM is at best a clumsy apprentice. High Kolmogorov complexity is the common thread behind all things that LLMs will struggle with.It can sometimes be easier to lean on a diffusion model and then trace over the results the old fashioned way. Diffusion completely sidesteps the geometry which helps with design speed.
• bobd123
  Might be worth a look at https://openscad.org/ which is a free tool which designs in 3d based on a programming language that LLMs find easy to use. Then https://cutlistevo.com/ for optimization and nesting of your cut list.
• m4rkuskk
  I'm a developer and a previous commercial concrete superintendent. I built a 3d model designer similar to Autodesk Revit as well as a pdf editor similar to Bluebeam. You can connect MCP to it to build full buildings based of drawings.https://builder.auxx.ai/Everything is stored locally (with cloud feature coming soon as well as desktop versions.)
• uxamanda
  I am not a woodworker but wanted to make a simple dehydrator and had good results getting a cut list and build steps with pictures from Claude and the Sketchup integration.
• evek
  I’m using Plasticity with an MCP and Astra for 3D printing work, haven’t tried it for woodworking projects yet. It’s decent at modeling medium complexity enclosures and structural supports, so might be worth giving it a try.
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  wg0
  Since relevant community is here - what are some of the good online resources to learn woodwork? What tools/power tools one needs to know specifically?
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  tcdent
  For realizing designs in physical space, I create a Python library with a DSL that allows us to express all of the components and how they relate with each other. The most important thing this provides is a deterministic way to test the assembly. Then, you take the parameterized relationships between the components and export them into things like three-dimensional views or cut lists, rather than trying to manipulate three-dimensional software as your source of truth. (Although Claude is pretty effective at driving Blender via Python, too.)
• anon
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• vanrysss
  Shameless plug since I work for them, but have your tried Vizcom? We're in the ai-assisted prototyping and design space. Our focus is industrial design but I don't see why you couldn't get assistance with woodworking projects. :)
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  meetingthrower
  I am a woodworker mostly but do it all on pencil and paper. That said I have a 3d printer and cnc and fusion360 with the Claude mcp connector has been pretty amazing in my tests. One more year and it will be a new world.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.
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  antoineMoPa
  Not yet fully baked, but I am planning to add a woodworking mode to claydash with natural cutting UI - For now I have a couple of wood materials and there is the ability to extrude + cut faces à la sketch up, which should work for simple projects.The local version has a MCP server.see https://claydash.com/
• diogopmonteiro
  I use a combination of openscad, blender to render previews of the full thing, and opcut to generate cutlists. I usually ask the models to generate a workshop pdf with the cutlist and the exploded view of the assembly.I'm doing mainly simple furniture and cabinets.
• CubsFan1060
  At what point is it no longer being a woodworker? Ai does the design and the modeling work. A robot actually does the cutting.Isn’t this closer to being an architect or a designer now?
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  statenjason
  https://sawdust.diy/ uses LLMs for wood designs
• Sevii
  I've had good results with Claude Code + OpenSCAD.
• greenpizza13
  I used blender mcp and Astra to do a woodworking design a few days ago, plans came out great.
• itissid
  I do home improvement projects (I've in wall built-in storage, benches and nooks) I am on a clock and i have very little room in which to work. The only tool I have relied on https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com/ I have found that the CAD based tools to be pretty much beside the point for _most_ wood working projects for hobbyists, for a few reasons: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?".
• mihaaly
  I recently used Opus 5.5 to diagnose and discover a certain (niche) cleartext format CAD file. Also for generating small, new CAD files containing a small model for test purposes. All with satisfaction.Coincidentally, I also seen a (private) demo using GPT-6 Astra designing wall panel joints based on some pre-determined rules, 2D lines specifying the layout, and later altering the design following a hand sketch (photo of a sketch). That looked promising too. It was claimed that spatial reasoning of Astra is elevated, can work well with 3D models and formats.None of those are production (something to manufacture) level just yet. But if I had time I'd explore this manipulating CAD files by an agent route, opening those files in the usual tools I have at my disposal.Talking/chatting about 3D is like dancing about architecture in my view, so I think this LLM use route is not sustainable straight, still, my above casual encounters suggest, for simple things, combined with manual adjustments, it may be alright.
• pseudorandomnum
  Model wood with AI? How are you going to carve it? Which machine?
• Jemm
  RapidCAM.app (https://rapidcam.app) has excellent support for AI. The file format specs are published and open source so AI can easily write an ".rcam" file.RapidCAM.app is a parametric 2.5D CAD/CAM for CNC and laser with support for rotary axis. RapidCAM.app runs in the browser or as desktop apps. There is no login required. The app is free to use. Privacy is respected. rcamhub.com is the sharing site for .rcam files.Within the App, you can define your project and then use the built in prompt generator. This creates a prompt with all the details AI could need. Once the AI replies with the file, you can paste it back into the app which will then verify the file for you.Desktop versions of the app have MCP server built in so AI can control the app directly if that is a route you prefer.I started RapidCAM for my own use as I found that the CNC was sitting idle simply because firing up a full CAD/CAM package took too long. The idea with RapidCAM is that you can quickly sketch out your job from as simple as you need to as advanced as you want going from unconstrained to full parametric/constrained as required.
• dboreham
  Ask Claude to generate OpenSCAD files.
• xyst
  I use blender
• pseudorandomnum
  Model wood? How are you going to carve it? Which machine?
• dackdel
  zoodev?
• adileo
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• basketwill
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• hushpadapp
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• autocaptioner
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