cadSet/text-to-cad/skills/cad-router/references/capabilities.md

Backend capabilities

build123d through CAD Skill

Use as the default STEP-first backend.

Best fit:

• Brackets, connecting rods, cranks, levers, shafts, bushings, flanges, plates, housings, covers, enclosures, fixtures, and machined features.
• Parametric Python sources with holes, pockets, slots, bosses, ribs, shells, fillets, chamfers, lofts, sweeps, and revolves.
• Source-level assemblies, named datums, joints, imported components, measurements, alignment checks, and existing STEP inspection.
• STEP primary output with STL, 3MF, or GLB sidecars.

Weak signals: a specialized mechanical family already implemented by SimpleCADAPI, SCAD-native output, browser-only execution, or decorative repeated CSG where OpenSCAD is substantially shorter.

SimpleCADAPI

Use for its standard mechanical factories and replayable modeling graph.

Best fit:

• Spur, helical, and herringbone gears; internal ring gears; racks; cycloidal discs; ball bearings.
• Planetary and cycloidal reducers, joint actuators, and mechanism-heavy assemblies.
• Parameter expressions, operation-graph JSON, replay, semantic tags, topology queries, and FreeCAD translation.
• Reusable mechanical product families whose formulas should become deterministic library functions.

Before invocation, inspect the installed package and Skill versions together. Do not mix the current single-Solid boolean API with older *rsolidlist documentation. If the installed runtime and docs disagree, stop that route and use build123d or repair the installation.

CADAM

Use CADAM's separately installed OpenSCAD WASM runtime for fast CSG authoring and printable parameterized models. Execute generated SCAD through scripts/cadam_compile.mjs; do not copy CADAM's GPL runtime into this Skill.

Best fit:

• Vases, containers, knobs, adapters, printable threads, lattice/honeycomb patterns, repeated details, decorative models, and quick concept geometry.
• SCAD source, STL output, simple projected DXF, and UI-facing parameter controls.
• BOSL/BOSL2/MCAD-backed printable features.

Do not use as the primary route for editable STEP, stable face/edge references, fit-critical source-level assemblies, or modification of imported STEP.

CADDesigner workflow profile

CADDesigner is not a fourth geometry engine. Apply its ECIP workflow to every route, then enable requirement expansion and visual repair when requirements are vague, reference images carry important intent, or visual complexity makes one-pass generation unreliable. Do not launch CADDesigner's separate LLM/Redis stack:

1. Refine the request into a measurable brief.
2. Confirm important fit- or safety-critical unknowns.
3. Generate and execute backend source.
4. Validate deterministic geometry facts.
5. Inspect a multi-view render against the brief.
6. Repair visual mismatches, capped at three automatic visual rounds.

Focused downstream Skills

• $dxf: 2D profiles, flat patterns, laser/plasma/waterjet drawings.
• $urdf, $srdf, $sdf: robot structure, MoveIt semantics, and simulation models/worlds.
• $gcode: slice validated meshes with a real slicer.
• $sendcutsend: vendor-specific manufacturing preflight.
• $bambu-labs: cautious local printer handoff.
• $cad-viewer: visual review of supported generated artifacts.