IA2CAD — AI-powered CAD Assistant

Describe a mechanical part in natural language → get a 3D model.

Pipeline: User input → GPT-4o-mini → Structured JSON → CadQuery → STL → Three.js viewer

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Setup

1. Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or 3.11
• pip

2. Install dependencies

cd backend
pip install -r requirements.txt

Note: CadQuery requires a compatible platform wheel. If installation fails, try:

conda install -c cadquery -c conda-forge cadquery

3. Configure API key

Create a .env file in the project root (next to backend/):

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...

4. Run the server

cd backend
uvicorn main:app --reload --port 8000

5. Open the app

Navigate to http://localhost:8000

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Usage

1. Type a part description (e.g. "A cylinder 40mm diameter, 80mm tall")
2. The AI may ask 1–3 clarifying questions
3. Once confirmed, a 3D model appears in the viewer
4. Iterate: "Make the hole bigger", "Add a flat base", etc.
5. Download the STL with the Download STL button

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Project Structure

IA2CAD/
├── backend/
│   ├── main.py            ← FastAPI app + routes
│   ├── ai_service.py      ← OpenAI calls + JSON extraction
│   ├── cad_generator.py   ← JSON → CadQuery → STL
│   ├── session.py         ← in-memory session store
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   └── output/            ← generated STL files (auto-created)
├── frontend/
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── app.js             ← chat + Three.js viewer
│   └── style.css
├── .env                   ← your API key (not committed)
├── .env.example
└── README.md

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Supported Part Features

Type	Parameters
box	width, depth, height (mm)
cylinder	diameter, height (mm)
hole	diameter, position [x, y] from center (mm)

All features are centered at origin. Holes are drilled along the Z-axis.