I’m looking at a new free online tool called “CADScribe”, which can seemingly generate 3D models.
Yes, this is another text-to-3D tool, one of many we’ve seen recently. Last year such tools were science fiction, but today there seems to be a new one every other week.
Most of these tools are at the parlor-trick level of sophistication, and can produce only rough organic models. Most systems are focused on specific model domains. For example, I tried a system the other day that was specialized in generating 3D models of sofas. They did a very good job at making sofas, but that’s pretty niche. They also charged US$5 per download.
CADScribe is a bit different because they are focusing on the CAD market: generating actual parts. That’s something we haven’t specifically seen in this area, so CADScribe just might be the first on the case.
It works much like ChatGPT: you type in a sentence describing your desired part, and CADScribe then generates the result. At this early stage, however, they do have some constraints and they recommend trying to generate simple parts.
I gave it a try, and it actually worked quite well on my first try. At top you can see the results of my prompt “10cm plate with central 4cm hole”.
It worked — but then I realized that I did not specify the shape of the plate, and by chance CADScribe generated a circular plate.
I tried something a bit different: ”10cm sphere with flat top and 2cm hole”. This didn’t work at all, and resulted in the above “fail”. Apparently when CADScribe fails, they give you a 3D model of a “fail”.
The folks at CADScribe explain:
“We’re on primitive part and some more complex shapes like gears and airfoils, more to come in the future!”
The good news is that CADScribe generates models very quickly. Most of my prompts were serviced in only 10-15 seconds. That’s much faster than many 2D image generation services.
So it seems that they are working on ways to enable CADScribe to generate more complex parts.
Their home page lists a few features that don’t seem clear from the rest of the site, suggesting that they may still be in development. These include:
- API: A method of calling CADScribe from a program. This would enable applications to generate 3D models, which could be quite interesting when combined with AI agents executing a lengthy workflow.
- Model Parametrization: CADScribe shows a set of slider bars that could adjust the dimensions of the part’s elements after generation. This is very interesting, but doesn’t seem to be available yet.
- Iterative Generation: This seems to be available, in the sense that you’re having a conversation with CADScribe, much like you’d have with ChatGPT. For example, I asked CADScribe to “make the hole 2cm” on my plate example, and it did so correctly.
CADScribe is currently available at no charge, and that’s likely because they’re in the very early stages of development and are seeking feedback. As the system gets more capable, it’s possible they may introduce a pricing model.
However, for now it’s completely free to use, and very quick. Give it a try!
Via CADScribe
