Blog · Siemens NX · 29 October 2026

Cricket bats in four willow grades with A3 drawings in Siemens NX

Four English willow cricket bats built in Siemens NX from one chat, each with an A3 drawing, a PDF and a STEP file. Grade 4 measures 1.356 kg.

The video plays from YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player only after you click it.

Four English willow cricket bats were built in Siemens NX from one chat, and each got a dimensioned A3 drawing, a PDF and a STEP file. NX measured the heaviest, Grade 4, at 1.356 kg.

What was asked

Table of best dimensions per English willow grade: spine, edge, bow, toe, density and modulus — The analysis supplied to the chat: four grades, each with its own spine, edge, bow, toe and density.

The inputs come from a separate analysis of a men's short-handle bat: 851 mm overall, 559 mm blade, 108 mm width, middle 232 mm from the toe, handle diameter 34 mm and splice 165 mm. Spine, edge, bow, toe and density change per grade, from 66 / 40 / 7 / 18 and 380 kg/m3 for Grade 1 to 61 / 37 / 6 / 19 and 440 kg/m3 for Grade 4.

What the agent did

NX model of the Grade 1 cricket bat with a lofted willow blade and a cane handle — The Grade 1 bat in NX: lofted blade with a darker cane handle.

The values went into the SphereHarness chat in plain words, and the agent built the bat as a new NX part driven by named expressions. The video says the Grade 1 bat took about nine minutes: a willow blade lofted through nine cross-sections, plus a cane handle and its splice. Grades 2, 3 and 4 were rebuilt from the same model with their own dimensions and material.

What we measured

Table of measured volume, mass and size for the four bats read back from NX — NX read back 1.276 kg for Grade 1 and 1.356 kg for Grade 4.

NX read back volume, mass and size for each bat. Grade 1 is 3,153,998 mm3 and 1.276 kg; Grade 4 is 2,954,000 mm3 and 1.356 kg. The denser willow outweighs the thinner blade, so mass climbs from Grade 1 to Grade 4. The video notes that the cane handle used an assumed density of 600 kg/m3, because no cane value was given, and that the agent said so itself. Grade 1 volume is within 1 % of the analysis.

The drawing

SphereHarness chat showing the request for an A3 drawing of the Grade 1 bat — The drawing request, including the row-by-row check of every dimension.

The request starts: "Make an A3 drawing of the Grade 1 bat. Title block: title 'Cricket bat - English willow Grade 1 / Short Handle', company PLM CAD." It asks for the face, the back profile from the side, an end view at the sweet spot and a handle section, dimensioned fully, then "check every dimension on the sheet against the model, row by row".

The A3 sheet with four views and the PLM CAD title block.

What did not work as a dimension

Table checking every drawing dimension for four grades against the model — 851 / 559 / 292 mm overall, blade and handle on all four sheets; two items written as notes.

Every dimension on the four sheets matched its model. Spine depth and toe thickness sit on curves, so NX wrote them as notes instead of dimensions. Each grade also has a PDF and a STEP file saved with its drawing.

Try it yourself

The NX page is at /nx, and the first-run steps are in /help/getting-started.