Agentic hardware-design landscape (verified 2026-10-24)

Refreshed 2026-10-31 (issue #96): agent toolkits since 10-24 (text-to-cad 0.8 break, OrcaSlicer 2.5's Design tab, build123d sheet metal, snap-fit skills), compliant mechanisms (snap fits, flexures, allowable strains, FDM anisotropy from datasheets) and FEA and process tools (large-deflection contact solvers, orientation optimisers, sheet metal, 37 candidate deterministic checks).

Scope: public tools that let frontier-model agents (Claude Code first; Codex, Cursor, Gemini) design 3D-printed, sheet-metal, laser-cut, CNC and molded parts, enclosures around real PCBs, and KiCad boards. Method: stars, SPDX licence and last push come from gh api repos/OWNER/REPO on this date; capabilities come from each repo's README, manifests or source as read. (u) = unverified (README claim or third-party page not checked in source). Machine-readable copy: landscape.json.

1. Capability matrix

Drawn from the matrix below by tools/research_figures.py. Stars measure attention, not fitness: the matrix decides.

Clients: CC = Claude Code plugin/skill, MCP = MCP server, Cx = Codex, Cu = Cursor, Ge = Gemini, App = standalone app.

Building blocks: gumyr/build123d (Apache-2.0, 3,519), CadQuery (Apache-2.0 in LICENSE file; GitHub shows NOASSERTION, 5,990), gumyr/bd_warehouse (Apache-2.0, ISO fasteners and threads), partcad/partcad (Apache-2.0, 509), sargo-devel/Cables (LGPL-3.0 FreeCAD cable-routing workbench), wireviz/WireViz (GPL-3.0, 2D harness documents). rjwalters/kicad-tools (MIT) keeps a long, licence-annotated survey of KiCad and agent tools in its README.

2. Deep dive: earthtojake/text-to-cad (v0.7.26, 2026-10-20)

What it is. A plugin monorepo. skills/ holds the product. packages/cadgen is the PyPI runtime, MIT, with build123d, OCP, a build daemon, STEP/GLB/3MF/DXF output, a viewer backend and an MCP server. apps/ holds the viewer, the MCP app, the docs site and api.texttocad.dev. It is mostly one maintainer: earthtojake has 1,136 commits, then bots and a few contributors.

Skills (each is MIT and carries its own LICENSE):

How upstream installs it: from the Claude Code plugin marketplace, tracking the repository's latest branch, which holds only the plugin (one commit per release) and moves with every release. We do not install it that way: cad-agent vendors a pinned, scanned commit in vendor/text-to-cad (vendor/manifest.json), and agents never install skills or plugins from registries.

Security review.

• .claude-plugin/plugin.json declares only skills and mcpServers. It has no hooks, commands or agents. .githooks/pre-commit is for development only.
• Claude Code starts the MCP server with uvx --no-config --managed-python --python 3.13 --from cadgen==0.7.26 cadgen mcp. The first start downloads a managed CPython and cadgen. cadgen is pinned exactly, but its dependencies are ranges with no hash lock: build123d <0.12, cadquery-ocp-novtk 7.9, ezdxf, matplotlib, pillow, shapely, playwright==1.64.0. The wheel bundles Node/browser JS and a native file tracer (filetrace.c). The first snapshot downloads a Playwright browser.
• Telemetry is on by default. It sends counts, a random install ID, the OS and agent app, and crash types to api.texttocad.dev, which stores them in PostHog; the server derives country from IP. The README says names, paths, contents and prompts are never sent; I did not audit the payload code line by line. Turn it off with uvx --from cadgen==0.7.26 cadgen telemetry off (the version the MCP server pins), DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or CADGEN_TELEMETRY=0.
• Daily update check to api.texttocad.dev/v1/versions. Turn it off with CADGEN_UPDATE_CHECK=0.
• The viewer binds 127.0.0.1 with no authentication (per its SECURITY.md). Any local process can read files under the opened folder and trigger builds.
• The dfam-check and dfm skills pip install unpinned requirements.txt files into the active project environment.
• Model scripts are arbitrary Python run by the daemon, which is normal for code-CAD.

Coverage of our J501 workflow:

Kernel note: text-to-cad uses build123d. Our J501 code is CadQuery. Both use OCP, so shapes interoperate through .wrapped.

What it does not compute (checked 2026-10-31 in the vendored copy, vendor/text-to-cad at v0.7.26: its packages/, skills/ and apps/ code). No stress, fatigue, FEA or safety-factor code: no file mentions von Mises, fatigue, stress or a safety factor. Bearings and bolts appear only as catalogue parts to download (step-parts), and gears only as kinematic couplings and URDF/SDF joints (cadgen.kinematics, sdf_validation), never sized. It is a modelling, export and print-handoff engine; cad-agent's checks, simulation and calculations sit around models like its output.

3. KiCad MCP servers: install and security, then a recommendation

Recommendation: use kicad-happy for review and kicad-mcp-pro for edits and exports. Both are MIT. kicad-mcp-pro targets KiCad 10 with no SWIG, is read-only by default, ships cited fab profiles, and is the most active. Pin its version (kicad-mcp-pro==4.4.0) and keep the default profile until edits are needed. Use mixelpixx only if KiCad 9 is required. Treat Seeed as all-rights-reserved until it commits a LICENSE file. obhox/kicad-mcp is AGPL: run it only as an external program.

(Updated 2026-10-31: Konnect was archived on 2026-10-26 and continues as a commercial, closed-source product, so it is no longer a candidate; KiCAD-MCP-Server is still maintained under MIT.)

4. Mechanical + PCB co-design (ECAD to MCAD)

• KiCad itself: kicad-cli pcb export step takes --board-only, --no-components, --component-filter and --no-dnp. There are also brep, glb, stl, xao, dxf (use Edge.Cuts for the outline) and ipc2581. KiCad 10's CLI has no IDF export. The KiCad 9/10 IPC API needs the GUI and cannot plot or export; KiCad 11 adds headless operation (KiCad dev docs, CLI docs). kicad-python on PyPI is MIT, version 0.8.0, KiCad 9+.
• text-to-cad: PR #518 (open) adds @pcb boards-as-code with DRC on every build. #616 (pcb-dfm skill) merged into a feature branch stacked on #518. PR #345 (closed, not merged) was a KiCad 10 fixture in which a USB-C connector is blocked by an enclosure wall and then fixed by a source-level cutout. That is exactly our pattern.
• punkfab/circuit-skills: a pcb-enclosure-fit skill co-registers the board STEP with a build123d shell and gates placement on connectors, cutouts and holes. It has no licence, so ideas only.
• Backplane: KiCad and FreeCAD viewers that show a case assembly beside the agent. MIT. Its installer is a script piped from the network straight into a shell, which runs whatever the server sends at that moment, unpinned and unchecked: a risk. Read the script first, or build from a pinned commit.
• Amagine3D: designs the enclosure around internal components from requirements. It does not read KiCad files.
• kicadStepUp (AGPL per its README): FreeCAD workbench that syncs board outlines and models both ways. External only.
• Gap: no project closes the loop from KiCad outline, connectors and holes, to enclosure, to clearance report, and back-annotation onto the board.

5. Knowledge sources

No open, cited cost model for FDM, sheet metal or CNC turned up in any agent tool (gap). MatWeb has no bulk export; MakeItFrom's terms are (u).

6. Benchmarks and evals

No benchmark covers enclosure fit around a real board, DFM correctness or fastener/cable checks. Our J501 session could seed one: the vendor STEP is fetched by URL and hash, never committed.

7. Recommendation

Adopt now

1. text-to-cad plugin pinned to a release, with CADGEN_TELEMETRY=0, DO_NOT_TRACK=1 and CADGEN_UPDATE_CHECK=0 in the environment. It provides the CAD runtime, drawings, DfAM, slicing, Bambu and SendCutSend.
2. kicad-happy (review) plus kicad-mcp-pro pinned (edits and exports), and kicad-cli pcb export step for the board model.
3. build123d-mcp or agentcad as an optional inspection loop; both are Apache-2.0 and have CADGenBench evidence.
4. CADGenBench as the regression eval for generic CAD skill.

Thin add-on repo (cad-agent, MIT)

• enclosure-around-board skill: board STEP/KiCad → keep-outs, connector windows, standoffs.
• Scalable vendor-assembly clearance report: bounding-box/BVH broad phase, then closest_points.
• Fastener stack length (bd_warehouse) and cable route with bend-radius check.
• Evidence site and PDF check sheet.
• knowledge/ with cited rules, materials and cost. Upstream does not cover any of these. Their contract favours caller-written checks, and their roadmap is PCB, FEA and CAM.

Contribute upstream to text-to-cad

• DfAM hole, min-feature and bridge measurement (documented as unmeasured).
• Help with sheet-metal unfold (#614).
• Large-PCB-STEP viewer memory fix (#626); our J501 carrier is a reproducer.
• A PCB-to-enclosure fit fixture and recipe once #518 lands (successor to #345).
• An inspection-and-validation.md recipe for many-body clearance with a broad phase.

Licence constraints

• Incorporate code only from MIT, BSD or Apache-2.0 projects, with attribution: text-to-cad, build123d, CadQuery, bd_warehouse, agentcad, build123d-mcp, MAC, kicad-mcp-pro, kicad-happy, KiStack, kicad-python, PCBWorld, CADGenBench.
• Never copy code from: flowful-ai/cad-skill (PolyForm Noncommercial), Svetlana cad-agent (custom licence), circuit-skills and Seeed (no LICENSE file), or Text2CAD and CAD-Recode data (NC).
• External programs only: CADAM (GPL-3.0); Konnect (archived) and obhox/kicad-mcp (AGPL-3.0); kicadStepUp, OrcaSlicer and pymupdf (AGPL); FreeCAD and Cables (LGPL); WireViz and freerouting (GPL); KiCad (GPL).
• Vendor data (SendCutSend JSON, fab capability pages) is fetched and cited at run time, not redistributed.