Adam AI CAD
Ranked 15 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
Open-source AI CAD tool that builds parts from prompts and selections; praised for quick simple designs. Critics say outputs aren't manufacturable and credits run out fast.
Open-source AI CAD tool that builds parts from prompts and selections; praised for quick simple designs. Critics say outputs aren't manufacturable and credits run out fast.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 61%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong results from simple prompts
“after 5 minutes of prompting I have four custom bumpers printing. This is a great product.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “CADAM is pretty good at building Gridfinity”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “It built a toy car for me with one prompt.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Anthropic Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron” - Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD”
Open source, runs locally
“The architecture is MIT licensed and reproducible.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “We gave an AI persistent identity and free access to a quantum computer” “Awesome it can run locally, very helpful!!”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “See our opensource text to cad editor”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Show HN: AI CAD Harness” Connects to CAD and engineering software
“if you want to connect to your CAD applications or use generate real breps”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “Here you can connect to your engineering software and use AI to generate”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “we have a number of mechanical engineers using our extensions”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” Parametric sliders and mesh mode
“The parametric slider part is what got me.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “mesh mode which is very strong for this”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Output not manufacturable CAD
“This isn't a CAD model. It's a fantasy 3d model that looks like it's straight out of Gearhead Garage (1999).”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “The design is non-manufacturable and doesn't have any actual intent baked into it”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “It's the CAD equivalent of idle doodling.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” No time savings over manual CAD
“How can this approach be better than just selecting the edge and click the extrude button”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” “There is no time savings here.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Launch HN: Adam (YC W25) – Open-Source AI CAD” Feels like marketing hype
“reads like someone starting a new company called Google”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Show HN: Adam – An embeddable cross-platform AI agent library” “this is just advanced seo. seems neat though”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Show HN: Adam – An embeddable cross-platform AI agent library”
Other CAD software people recommend
The four most recommended other CAD software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeCAD | 199 | 95 | 68% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| OpenSCAD | 173 | 87 | 66% | 12 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| Onshape | 65 | 21 | 76% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Autodesk Fusion 360 | 60 | 37 | 62% | 12 | — | — |
| Adam AI CADThis page | 14 | 9 | 61% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
29 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“after 5 minutes of prompting I have four custom bumpers printing. This is a great product.”
“Awesome it can run locally, very helpful!!”
“The parametric slider part is what got me.”
“CADAM is pretty good at building Gridfinity”
“It did a great job with this prompt.”
“For professional workflows you can use”
“This new release is a big upgrade!”
“if you want to connect to your CAD applications or use generate real breps”
“The design is non-manufacturable and doesn't have any actual intent baked into it”
“a solution to an oddly specific problem I didn't know existed”
“There is no time savings here.”
“Here you can connect to your engineering software and use AI to generate”
“mesh mode which is very strong for this”
“I dont think it's even close :(”
“damn credits are consumed fast. And they are pretty expensive, $20 for 2k credits won't last long at all”
“your onboarding and first design experience has been pretty awesome”
“Being able to select faces and edges as context in addition to prompts can be quite a powerful interface”
“How can this approach be better than just selecting the edge and click the extrude button”
“we have a number of mechanical engineers using our extensions”
“It's the CAD equivalent of idle doodling.”
“This isn't a CAD model. It's a fantasy 3d model that looks like it's straight out of Gearhead Garage (1999).”
“It's a neat product, but I am also a bit confused by the choice to use C as the primary language.”
“this is just advanced seo. seems neat though”
“reads like someone starting a new company called Google”
“I need to sign in just to try your tool ?”
“See our opensource text to cad editor”
“It built a toy car for me with one prompt.”
“The architecture is MIT licensed and reproducible.”
“We open-sourced the first Silicon-Based Artificial Life Form.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.