Backflip AI has launched its AI copilot for CAD and made it available via its add-in for Autodesk Fusion and as a standalone web application.
The AI copilot for CAD is powered by a new foundation model that can convert 3D scans, STLs, and other mesh files into fully editable, parametric CAD models.
Backflip has developed the product in an attempt to address the hours of skilled reverse-engineering work that has typically been required to convert physical parts into usable CAD models. This process would also incur high costs, with Backflip estimating a typical cost of $1,500 per part. Now, however, Backflip suggests that users will be able to go from physical part to workable CAD in minutes and for as little as $10.
The company expects its AI copilot for CAD to eliminate the reconstruction backlog, multiplying ‘what a single CAD engineer can produce’ and letting ‘anyone with a 3D scan or an STL produce a real, editable CAD model.’
Key to the Backflip offering is a second-generation foundation model, built specifically for 3D geometry and trained to construct increasingly complex geometry by ‘chaining together’ CAD operations like extruding, revolving, and patterning. Parametric models with full feature trees following the order of operations of engineering CAD conventions yield accurate and editable CAD, while the tool can also reconstruct meshes, check its own work, and iterate to improve fidelity and dimensional accuracy.
Per Backflip, the AI copilot for CAD excels at moderate-complexity 3-axis CNC milled and turned parts, but the company’s focus also extends across 3D printing and other manufacturing methods.
“Most frontier models have limited 3D comprehension that emerges more or less as a byproduct of their training on large-scale internet data,” said Kairo Morton, Founding Engineer at Backflip. “We built ours with 3D CAD operations as a first-class primitive and trained it to design the way engineers actually do – breaking down a bulk geometry, then rebuilding it feature by feature, operation by operation. The result is the first foundation model whose output you can open in your CAD package and just keep working. Today, that unlocks scan to CAD, and it’s the base on which everything we build next stands.”
Backflip says that the technology is already in use with early customers, including a ‘top automotive manufacturer.’ Plugins for additional CAD packages are in development and expected to be released later this year.
