Prompt to steel. Sketch to NC1.
Indolent CAD turns a text prompt, a sketch, a DXF, a PDF, or a 3D model into the same complete fab package: exact solid, shop drawing, NC1/DSTV, DXF, cut list. Detailing software that runs offline and keeps your work in your shop.
Drag to orbit — real engine output. This frame exported one STEP and one NC1 per member.
— The loop
Five ways in. One package out.
However the work arrives — an email, a napkin, a customer's old files — it leaves as the same thing: a part your machines and your crew can run.
Prompt
Type it the way you would say it. "PL 1/2 × 24 × 20, two Ø13/16 holes" becomes an exact solid with the holes where you said.
Sketch
Draw the profile in the full-screen sketcher — typed dimensions, osnap, fractions. A closed loop becomes a real plate part.
DXF
Drop in the customer’s DXF. Geometry comes through exact — and exports round-trip back out as DXF.
Import a vector PDF, calibrate with two picks and one true distance, and trace over real geometry. Deterministic — no AI guessing at your dimensions.
3D model
Open a STEP, or build parametric from scratch in the MODEL workspace — sketches, constraints, features, rolled members.
The package
STEP · shop drawing (PDF) · NC1 / DSTV · DXF · cut list
Every intake path lands here. No re-drawing, no re-typing, no second tool.
— The MODEL workspace
Parametric 3D that speaks steel.
A full history-tree modeler: constrained sketches, extrude, revolve, fillet, chamfer, mirror, patterns — plus a feature no general CAD has: rolled steel members as first-class geometry, placed on work lines by AISC designation.
Members by designation
A portal frame placed on sketched work lines by AISC designation. One batch, one undo step.
Constrained sketching
Dimensions drive geometry, and the status bar tells you exactly how many degrees of freedom remain.
Drawings from the model
Third-angle views with hidden lines and exact overall dimensions. Mass computed from true volume — 260.0 lb, not a guess.
Holes you cut in the model land in the DSTV.
This W-shape carries two web holes cut in the 3D workspace. Export it and the NC1 file carries both — as proper BO rows at exact positions, written by the same verified writer that handles every part in the system.
Members export one NC1 each: profile matches the designation, length matches the work line to 0.01 mm. Families that can't be represented honestly in DSTV are skipped with a stated reason — never silently mangled.
W · M · S · HP · C · MC · L · WT · MT · ST · HSS · PIPE
Drag to orbit — the beam, exactly as exported.
— The 2D sketcher
Draw a closed profile. Get a real part.
The full-screen SketchPad works the way your hands already know: window and crossing selection, osnap with per-kind toggles, typed dimensions while you draw, right-click to finish a run. Fractions are first-class input — 13/16 means Ø13/16″.
- Closed profile becomes an exact plate solid + shop drawing + NC1 + DXF
- Circles inside the profile are bolt holes — no separate hole-tool ceremony
- Trim, extend, fillet, mirror, offset — with typed distances
- DXF import and export that round-trips, proven by test
- Vector PDF import with two-pick calibration
— Built for fabricators
Why it holds up on the floor.
AISC shapes built in
The AISC v15 section database ships inside the app. Type a designation, get the real profile — k-fillets and all, volumes checked against published section areas.
DSTV round-trip verified
The test suite re-imports and re-measures every NC1 it writes. Profile matches designation, length to 0.01 mm, holes at exact positions.
Runs offline
The geometry kernel runs on your machine. No internet on the shop computer? Modeling, drawings, and exports still work.
Your data stays in your shop
Parts, drawings, and your growing library live on your disk. Nothing about your jobs is uploaded to model anything.
Exact math, detailer units
Millimeter-exact kernel inside, fractions at your fingertips outside — 1/16″ snap, feet-and-inches readouts, ± tolerances on the sheet.
Tested like it matters
Over 2,200 engine tests pin geometry to closed-form volumes and real file round-trips. A failing feature refuses honestly — it never ships a wrong part quietly.
Book a demo. Bring your worst drawing.
Twenty minutes, your parts, your machines' formats. Indolent CAD shares one job spine with Forge Nesting — modeling, detailing, and nesting on the same job number and piece marks. Early access is opening; tell us what you fabricate.