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AI assistant for CAD · runs on your PC

Your prompts and your CAD work stay between your PC and your AI.

Type the job in plain English. SphereHarness runs real operations in Inventor, NX, Solid Edge and AutoCAD and reads the result back. The desktop agent talks straight to the AI you choose, your own API key or a coding agent on your PC, and to the CAD add-ins on the same PC. Our server handles your account, licence and updates.

Start free trial Download What goes where

Applies to the desktop agent and CAD add-ins version 1.3.0 and later.

Works inside Inventor NX Solid Edge AutoCAD
  • Real operationsRuns the CAD system's own features, not a drawing of them.
  • Read backMeasures what was built and tells you the numbers.
  • Your AIYour own API key or a coding agent already on your PC.

Privacy by design

No SphereHarness server between you and your AI

The work happens on your PC. The AI is the one you pay for. Our server knows who you are and whether your licence is valid. It does not see what you ask the AI or what it answers — unless you send a request from Microsoft Teams or your own WhatsApp number, which it relays to your PC and does not store.

  • Your choice Your AI provider Its API with your own key, or a coding agent on your PC
  • Prompts, CAD context, answers
  • Your PC SphereHarness desktop agent local connection on the same PC CAD add-ins Your CAD system, your files
  • Teams and WhatsApp: relayed through SphereHarness, not stored. Telegram: direct
  • Your messaging apps Microsoft Teams The SphereHarness Teams app; WhatsApp on your own Twilio number; your own Telegram bot
  • Sign-in, licence check, update check, support requests you send, community posts and packages you publish; Teams and WhatsApp messages you relay, passed on and not stored
  • SphereHarness server Account, licence, downloads and updates, support, community No prompts typed on your PC, no answers, no CAD operations. Teams and WhatsApp messages relayed in memory, never stored
Where your data goes with the desktop agent and CAD add-ins version 1.3.0 or later. Earlier versions still send CAD operations through our server on the way to the add-in.

  • Your AI, your agreement

    Prompts, answers and the CAD context the AI needs go to the provider you chose, under your own agreement with it. Your key is stored encrypted on your PC.

  • CAD work stays on the PC

    The desktop agent reaches each CAD add-in over a local connection on the same PC. Chat history and usage counts are files in your Windows profile.

  • What our server does get

    Your sign-in, a licence check with a machine id and the computer name, update checks, and the support requests you choose to send. Teams and WhatsApp messages you relay pass through in memory and are never stored.

See every data flow

Results

Real results from our own test runs

Every model, picture and number below comes from a SphereHarness test run in a real CAD system: the files the CAD exported, frames from the recordings, and the values SphereHarness measured and read back.

Sheet metal

Nesting the whole order, read back from the cut files

The SH-CS500 conveyor control station: 15 sheet-metal parts, 30 pieces per station, ten stations ordered. SphereHarness exports every flat pattern from the CAD, nests each material on its own stock sheet and writes one cut file per sheet layout.

14 → 11
sheets for the whole order of 300 parts (Inventor 2026)
88.3 %
utilisation on S235JR 2 mm, 8 → 7 sheets
The assembly in Inventor 2026.
Result card: steel 8 to 7 sheets at 88.3 percent, stainless 3 to 2, aluminium 3 to 2, whole order 14 to 11 sheets
Measured, 300 of 300 parts placed.

Batch processing

One job across every part and every file

Give it a folder, a parts list or a whole order and it works through all of it: builds or changes each part, exports each file and checks each result. Record a change once as a macro and it replays over a whole folder with one approval, and a macro run calls no AI model at all.

  1. You typestart recording a macro

    It watches every CAD call while you make the change on one part, then drops the failures and the read-only lookups.

  2. You typestop recording and save it as "Set project property"

    You get a macro script. The values it saw repeated are offered as parameters: a folder, a file pattern, a number.

  3. You typerun it over C:\Projects\Frame

    One approval card, then it works through every file in the folder. No AI model is called, so the run costs no tokens.

STEP to parametric

A dead STEP file back to an editable feature tree

Suppliers often send a solid with no history. SphereHarness recognises the shapes, rebuilds them as the CAD's own features in a new part and compares the result with the imported solid.

1 → 17
dumb body to 16 extrusions and 1 round, editable (Solid Edge 2024)
264 × 60 × 122
mm bounding box, identical before and after
2 × 10⁻¹⁰ mm³
volume difference between rebuilt and imported part
The crankshaft as Solid Edge 2024 rebuilt it from the dumb STEP solid, 264 × 60 × 122 mm. Drag to orbit.
Solid Edge with the rebuilt crankshaft and the comparison table: one dumb body before, 16 extrusions and one round after
Solid Edge 2024: the rebuilt crankshaft and SphereHarness's comparison with the imported STEP solid.
Siemens NX: the same STEP file rebuilt as sketches, extrusions and unites.

Photo, sketch or model to part

From a photo, a sketch or a reference model to a parametric part

Give it a photograph, a sketch on the drawing board or a model to design around. SphereHarness works out the dimensions, builds a parametric part and exports it. The models below are the STL files the CADs wrote.

399,343 mm³
NX vase volume measured from its exported STL
66 × 39 mm
case base and lid sized from the reference board in the CAD
A case for a reference board, base and lid with ribs and vents, NX 2306. Exported STL, drag to orbit.

Macros

When there is no command for it, it writes a macro

SphereHarness writes a macro on the fly, runs it in the CAD session and saves it to your library, where it runs again on another part with no new code. It runs the macros you already have, too.

22
work features hidden on the bike by one macro, and the size table written to Excel (Inventor 2026)
0 lines
of new code to run it again on the Kids size from the library
24
macros in the Solid Edge library after the session, ready to run again
Inventor 2026: a macro written on the fly, then reused from the library.
The C# macro SphereHarness wrote against the Solid Edge API, shown in the chat
Solid Edge 2024: the C# macro, shown in the chat before it runs.

Journals

NX Open journals, written and run in the session

For Siemens NX, SphereHarness writes an NX Open journal, runs it in the live session and reads NX's own report back.

38
solid bodies placed in the MODEL reference set by one Python journal
all
datum systems, planes, axes and sketches blanked by the same journal
NX 2306
counts reported in NX's own information window
Siemens NX: the journal's counts in NX's information window.
The bicycle in NX after the journal: only the solid bodies are shown
The clean view the journal left behind.

Variations

One master, a whole size family, every value read back

A variation template keeps only the driving values. SphereHarness generates every size as its own file, reopens each one and reads its parameters back from the model.

4 sizes
Kids, Youth, Adult and XL, each saved as its own Inventor part
508 → 735 mm
wheel diameter, every driven value read back
22.6 → 55.5 kg
mass measured on each saved size
The Inventor master the sizes come from, 1,721 × 441 × 910 mm, drawn from the surface of its frame-analysis mesh. Drag to orbit.
Inventor drawings of the Kids and the XL bicycle side by side, with their dimensions
Kids and XL drawings, generated from one master in Inventor 2026.
Read-back table: wheel diameter, wheelbase, frame size, volume and mass for each of the four sizes
Read back from every saved file.

On our YouTube channel

Troubleshooting

Record what the CAD did, then find out why

When a job goes wrong, ask SphereHarness to record the screen, one CAD window or an area while you run it again: the video shows step by step what the CAD did. It reads its own logs and the Windows event log, collects them for support without keys or sign-ins, and raises the support request for you.

0 dropped
frames recording a 1920 × 1080 window at 30 fps for 30 s, 17 % of one CPU core
7.2 s
still playable from a recording whose process was killed at 7.5 s
0
add-ons to install: Windows' own capture and video encoders

  1. You typerecord the Solid Edge window while I run the flat export again

    It records that window to an MP4 in Videos\SphereHarness and names the file. The microphone and the camera join only if you ticked them in Settings.

  2. You typecheck recent errors

    It reads its own logs and the Windows event log entries that name SphereHarness. Read-only: it changes nothing.

  3. You typeraise a support request: the flat export fails on our 3 mm panels

    You get a reference number. The log zip never holds keys or sign-ins; the recording can go with it.

Downloading models

Fetch a maker's model and put it to work

SphereHarness has its own small browser. Ask for a part from a maker's website and it downloads the file to the folder you name, unpacks it, and opens it or places it in your assembly. It never types a password: when a site wants a sign-in, it stops and you sign in yourself.

SHA-256
every download reported with its full path, size and checksum
never run
downloaded files are treated as data, never executed
1 approval
the first time it opens each new website

  1. You typedownload a 6204 bearing STEP from the maker's site into C:\Projects\Pump

    It opens the site in its own browser, asks you once to approve the site, and saves the file there with its size and SHA-256.

  2. You typeinsert it into the open assembly

    It places the downloaded part as a component of the assembly open in your CAD system.

  3. You typethe site asks me to log in

    It stops and asks. You sign in yourself in the SphereHarness browser window, and the download carries on there.

Watch it run

See SphereHarness at work

Real sessions in real CAD systems, from the SphereHarness YouTube channel.

Videos play from YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player (youtube-nocookie.com) only after you choose one; the preview pictures come from YouTube’s image server. All videos on YouTube

Capabilities

Real operations in your CAD system

From plain English, with the results measured and read back.

See all features

Setup

Up and running in minutes

  1. Install the add-in

    Install the SphereHarness add-in for Inventor, NX, Solid Edge and AutoCAD. Every installer includes the desktop agent. Downloads

  2. Sign in and choose your AI

    Sign in to the desktop agent, then pick your own API key or a coding agent already on your PC, such as Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI.

  3. Start commanding

    Type or paste a description. Watch SphereHarness run the operations step by step.

In your CAD

Parts it built, and the chat beside your model

Inventor with an 80 x 50 x 20 mm block with a hole and rounded edges, and the SphereHarness chat beside it showing the finished request, its picture of the part and the CAD operations it ran
Inventor: the chat beside the model, with the operations it ran.
NX with a two-throw crankshaft, and the SphereHarness chat beside it showing its answer and a picture of the same part
NX: the chat beside the model, after building a crankshaft from a saved skill.

Per CAD system

What each CAD system gets

The same assistant, using each CAD system's own features.

CAD systemWhat it gets
Inventor

Parts, sheet metal, surfaces, assemblies and drawings; Inventor Nastran; Autodesk Vault; iLogic rules in the Automation Hub.

 Learn more: Inventor
NX

Parts, sheet metal, surfaces, assemblies and drafting with layers; Simcenter linear static and modal; Teamcenter managed mode and assembly clones; journals played in your open session.

 Learn more: NX
Solid Edge

Parts, sheet metal, surfaces, assemblies and drawings; Solid Edge Simulation; macros in the Automation Hub.

 Learn more: Solid Edge
AutoCAD

2D drafting: blocks, xrefs, layers, drafting symbols, layouts and plotting; .NET assemblies in the Automation Hub.

 Learn more: AutoCAD

Try it on your own parts

Start a trial with your own AI key or coding agent, or talk to us about seats for your team.

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