Text to CADDescribe It, Get the Model
1,200+ reviews
Text to CAD in three steps
Describe the part
One object per sentence: what it is, the material, the main sizes and anything that defines its shape, like a bolt circle, a slot or a number of teeth. Write it the way you would explain the part to a machinist on the phone. Plain English works, and so does most other languages.
The model is built
The sentence becomes a reference picture of the object first, and that picture becomes the 3D model, in colour and with its materials. You see the picture the moment it is ready, then watch the real progress of the build. It takes two to four minutes, and nothing needs to be approved on the way.
Download the 3D file
STL for a slicer, OBJ or FBX for Blender and Unity, GLB or USDZ for the web and AR. The model is a closed mesh you can print, render or import into CAD as a reference body. When the job needs a sheet a shop can quote from, the same sentence goes to Text to Drawing and comes back as a dimensioned DXF.
What text to CAD gives you, and what it does not
What comes back is a 3D mesh: a closed surface of triangles that holds the shape you described, its proportions, holes, ribs and teeth, in colour. That is exactly what a slicer, a renderer or a game engine wants, and it is how most text-to-3D tools work. It is not a parametric solid with a feature tree, and no tool that starts from one sentence can honestly promise one, because a sentence leaves hundreds of dimensions unsaid. The model keeps the proportions you give it rather than the millimetres, so scale it to one measured size before it goes anywhere that cares.
When the real need is a CAD file a shop can make the part from, the answer is a drawing, not a mesh. For plates, turned parts such as shafts and flanges, and angle brackets, Text to Drawing reads the same sentence, computes the views and writes a DXF or DWG at true size, with the sizes you gave as real dimensions. Most people who search for text to CAD want one of those two things. This page builds the first and hands you the second in one click, and it is worth knowing which one you need before you start.
Sentences, and the models that came back
Every tile is one sentence and the 3D model built from it, drawn here as a CAD program shows a part: shaded, with its edges. Open any pair to read the exact words that were typed. The machined parts lead because that is who this site is for.
Parts described in words, built in 40+ countries.
“My shop foreman asked which drafter made these sheets. It was just me and TechDraw AI lol. Did 3 parts in one afternoon.”
“found a tolerance error my old drawings missed for years. The AI flagged it and fixed the callout automatically.”
“I use this for client handovers now. Upload a part, get fully dimensioned views in 10 minutes. They think I have a whole drafting team.”
“Just started at a furniture workshop and had no idea how to do a cutting list. This generated the whole BOM from one photo. Way faster than I expected.”
“Tested every projection angle in 5 min. love it.”
“pretty impressed honestly. Full orthographic set in under a minute and the dimensioning was spot on.”
“I used to redraw everything by hand. Now I sketch on paper, photograph it, and get clean editable geometry back. Saved me hundredss of hours already.”
“found the GD&T symbols it placed were textbook correct. Nice.”
“Drew up my whole assembly in one evening. Showed my boss and he tought I outsourced it. Nope, just AI.”
“I'm not a draftsman at all but this made me feel like one. Tried an exploded view for a bracket and actualy sent it to the machine shop.”
“Only tool where the title block and standards come out ISO-correct every time. Huge diffrence compared to others.”
“used it to document my dad's workshop jigs. He saw the sheets and was like okay do all of them lol.”
“Been using it for 3 months on a product line. The AI keeps every view and the BOM in sync when I change a dimension. Saved me probably 2000+ hours of rework.”
“genuinely fun to use. The auto-dimensioning is addicting.”
“This replaced my drafting board, my templates, and half my CAD busywork. Not even exagerating.”
“section views that used to take an hour now take seconds. Worth every penny.”
“Changed one hole diameter and it updated across all four views and the parts list instantly. Mind blown.”
“Does in seconds what took me hours in CAD. Clean lines, correct scale. No lerning curve at all.”
“On the free plan and its been enough for my prototyping. Already exported 3 drawings to DXF. Will upgrade when the project scales.”
“Boss approved the drawing on the first pass wich never happens lol. Sent it to production same day.”
“Was redrawing a frame for weeks. Fed the photo into TechDraw and had the full set inmediately. Should have done this first.”
“used it for a tender submission and won the job. Big time saver.”
“upload a render, pick the views, export the sheet. 20 minutes total.”
“Tried 4 or 5 CAD tools before this. The line quality here is noticably better and it actually places dimensions correctly wich none of the others did. Game changer.”
“quick, easy, accurate. Using it for all my fabrication drawings now.”
“My colleagues kept asking who drafted my sheets. Told them it was AI and half the team signed up the same week haha.”
“As a mechanical engineer I was skeptical but this speeds up my workflow so much. Clients get drawings AND a parts list right away.”
“Where was this when I documented my first machine?? Now I run everything through the AI first and export production-ready sheets.”
Frequently asked questions
What is text to CAD?+−
Text to CAD means describing a part in words and getting a 3D model or a CAD file back, without modelling it yourself. On this page you type one sentence, such as "steel spur gear, 40 teeth, 80 mm across, with a hub and keyway", and a 3D model of it comes back in two to four minutes, ready to download.
Is the result an editable CAD model, like a STEP file?+−
No. You get a mesh, a closed surface of triangles, not a parametric solid with features and history. It opens in SolidWorks, Fusion or FreeCAD as a mesh body you can measure, section and model against, but not edit feature by feature. If you need a real CAD file of a plate, a turned part or a bracket, Text to Drawing turns the same sentence into a dimensioned DXF or DWG at true size.
Which file formats can I download?+−
STL, OBJ, GLB, FBX and USDZ, all from the same model. STL goes to a slicer for 3D printing, OBJ and FBX to Blender, Unity or Unreal, GLB and USDZ to the web and to AR on a phone. The model comes back in colour, with the materials you described.
How accurate are the dimensions?+−
The model follows the proportions of your description, not its exact millimetres. Sizes in the sentence keep the parts in the right relation to each other, so a 160 mm flange with a 40 mm bore looks like one. Fine detail is approximated: threads, knurling, small text and deep undercuts come out softer than they would from a CAD program. Anything that has to fit another part should be scaled to a measured size, or drawn.
How do I write a good description?+−
One object per sentence. Say what it is, what it is made of, the overall size and the features that define its shape, like the number of holes, teeth or slots. Matte materials come out cleaner than mirror chrome, and a part described on its own comes out better than one described in an assembly.
How long does it take?+−
Two to four minutes. The picture takes a few seconds and the 3D build takes the rest. You see the picture as soon as it is ready and the real progress of the build after that, and the finished model is saved to your projects.
What does it cost?+−
Text to 3D is part of the Studio plan, and each model spends 85 credits from it: 5 for the picture and 80 for the 3D build. If the build fails, it retries from the same picture and the picture is not charged again. Text to Drawing, the DXF route, is free with an account.
Can I describe it in another language?+−
Yes. The description is read by a language model, so a sentence in German, Spanish or Slovak works as well as one in English. Units can be millimetres or inches, as long as you say which.
When the part needs a drawing instead
A model is the right answer when you want to print the part or see it. When somebody has to make it, they need dimensions, and that is a drawing. These pages show what the drawing side hands back in each trade.
Furniture
Shop drawings with joinery detail, real sizes and a cut list.
Clothes & Fashion
Front and back flats with the callouts a tech pack needs.
Machine Parts
Views, tolerances and a DXF your machine shop can quote from.
Sheet Metal
Bend lines, a flat pattern and a DXF for the laser table.
Woodworking
Plans you can build from, or a 1:1 template to print.
3D Printing
Wall thickness, clearances and fits, checked before you print.
Or start somewhere else. Describe the part in words and get the sheet or a 3D model without a photo, or get the object back as a 3D model from a photograph of it or from the drawing you already have.
