About the Project: Chisel

Inspiration

It all started around 1 AM on a caffeine-fueled night of brainstorming. We had one rule: build something meaningful. While scrolling Reddit for inspiration (read: procrastination), we stumbled upon post after post of people hating AutoCAD — not for what it does, but how it makes them feel.

“I feel like I need an engineering degree just to place a door.”
“I can draw faster by hand — what's the point?”

That struck a chord. We realized CAD tools, for all their power, are still intimidating, technical, and frankly outdated in how humans interact with them.

So we asked ourselves:
“What if designing something didn’t require knowing the software — just knowing what you want?”

That’s when Chisel was born.

What We Built

Chisel is an AI-powered 3D modeling platform that lets anyone bring their ideas to life — using natural language, sketches, or images.

With Chisel, you can:

Talk to describe your idea
Draw your vision and convert it into a 3D model
Upload reference images to guide design
Refine with ongoing chat, adjusting dimensions and parameters
Collaborate live with teammates in real-time

You don’t need to know OpenSCAD. You don’t need to memorize commands. You just need an idea — we built the rest to meet you there.

How We Built It

Our tech stack combined several powerful tools under the hood:

Natural Language Processing to convert descriptions into OpenSCAD-style logic
A chat-driven interface for iterative, real-time design updates
Image and sketch input pipelines that translate visual ideas into base geometry
Parameter controls for users who want to adjust without redrawing
A collaborative front-end for real-time editing and visual feedback

The backend parses descriptions, validates shapes and constraints, and returns dynamic 3D scripts. We store designs, enable tweaks, and even allow sketch-to-model transformation — all driven by AI.

Challenges We Faced

Translating vague user input into structured code: Natural language is messy. We had to design an intelligent parser that didn’t break when someone said “a fat square arch that’s tall-ish.”
Making OpenSCAD more accessible: SCAD is amazing… but not friendly. We had to build a bridge between human intent and SCAD logic.
Sketch interpretation: Drawing-based inputs were tricky. We learned how to detect shapes, orientation, and rough proportions in user-uploaded sketches — and it took iteration.
Keeping the experience collaborative and fast: Real-time collaboration meant syncing design states and edits across users without lag or confusion.

What We Learned

Good UX isn't about adding features — it's about removing barriers. Chisel works not because it's complex, but because it feels natural.
Real people have real frustrations. Reading angry Reddit threads was surprisingly effective user research.
You don't have to be an expert to create. That belief guided every design decision we made.