Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

Computer-Aided Design (CAD). CAD is where the product is defined: sketches, parts, assemblies, drawings, BIM objects, PCB nets, plant tags, and the design intent behind them. It is the authoring surface for geometry and typed design objects — not a drawing vault and not a CAM seat.

In industry this is SolidWorks / NX / Creo / Revit / Altium-class design capability (capability equals, not products we ship). In N23D it is not a seat next to someone else’s stack. It is a peer module on one native Rust binary — N23D — 100% Rust we write.

Wide hangar floor with 777X fuselage sections — design identity manufacturing will cut

N23D CAD is the whole design product, not a mechanical modeler with extras bolted on. Mechanical, electrical, PCB, BIM, civil, plant, and drawings live as first-class domains. One geometry service. One product identity. The body you design is the body the machine, the sim, TIX assets, and the ledger already see. Save-to-PLM is check-in. CAM does not fork the body. There is no daily STEP round-trip.

What CAD actually does

A unified CAD package is not one model type with extra menus. Walls, PCB nets, GIS parcels, implicit lattices, and ASME Y14.5 drawings are different ontologies that happen to need curves, solids, and annotations. N23D shares a geometry service and a product identity service. It does not collapse the world into a single solid.

  • Multiple representations: B-rep, mesh, curves, points, and implicit fields, with typed conversions and a recorded conversion pedigree. A lattice, a survey, and a machined solid are not the same object pretending.
  • Robust booleans, fillets, offsets, shells, thicken, and draft on B-rep. NURBS curves and surfaces with G0 through G3 continuity evaluation. Geometry healing: sew, stitch, gap fill, tolerance normalize.
  • A 2D sketch solver with geometric and dimensional constraints and equations. Optional feature history per body: suppress, reorder, rollback. Direct edit that does not require history: push and pull faces, move faces.
  • Occurrence graph, mates and joints, configurations, and large-assembly representations (simplified, tessellated, bounding). In-context top-down and bottom-up. Interference, collision, exploded views, flexible subassemblies.
  • Degrees of freedom and joints: revolve, slider, cylindrical, ball, gear, cam. Envelope and clearance. Product manufacturing information at assembly level. Exploded views and 3D annotations for work instructions.
  • Coordinate Reference Systems as first-class objects: local Cartesian, mapped projected, geographic. Civil and GIS cannot be a big assembly. Units with explicit conversion, document-level and property-level units, dual unit display.
  • Associative drawing views from 3D: projected, section, detail, broken. ASME Y14.5 and ISO 1101 GD&T, dual dimensions, hole tables, balloons, BOM. Semantic PMI on the 3D model, not pretty notes.
  • Sheet formats, title blocks, revision tables, layers, paperspace and modelspace. First-class 2D drafting: object snaps, polar tracking, grips, layers, color, linetype, lineweight, plot styles, blocks and parametric 2D symbols, attributes, associative dimensions, leaders, tables, fields, xrefs, annotative scaling, hatch, wipeout, raster underlay, sheet set publish to PDF/DWF.
  • DWG and DXF as professional files, not a poor import. Discipline symbol libraries (architectural, mechanical, electrical IEC/NFPA, welding, P&ID ISA/ISO) and title-block templates. Drawings still ship the job. A 3D-only tool that can make a drawing is not a substitute for first-class 2D.
  • Standard solid features and multi-body parts. Configurations and family tables. Hole wizard and standard holes (ISO, ANSI, DIN). Patterns: linear, circular, sketch-driven, curve-driven. Rebuild a two-hundred-feature part after a sketch change and the drawing updates.
  • Class-A and freeform: degree and control-point editing, rebuild, match, blend, sweep, network, patch. Trims, splits, untrim, shrink. Join to solid or thicken. Continuity analysis: zebra, curvature, draft, environment map. Import and export IGES, STEP, 3DM.
  • Direct modeling on dumb solids: move, offset, replace, delete face. Recognize holes, fillets, chamfers, and patterns on imported solids. Combine with history models without destroying either. Defeaturing for CAE and CAM is a derived body, not an edit of the design part.
  • Stable UUID per object. Occurrence IDs distinct from master IDs. Revision, version, lifecycle state, effectivity. Structured BOM with instances, references, phantoms, bulk items. Check-in and check-out, where-used, change objects, and approval through PLM. Save-to-PLM is check-in, not copy to a folder.
  • Selectable standards as first-class content, not a modeling toy: ISO, ASME, ANSI, DIN, JIS, BSI, IEC, IEEE, IPC, ISA, buildingSMART, AISC, AWS, ASHRAE, SMACNA, ASTM.
BIM modeling — typed building objects, not a dumb solid assembly

Every design domain

Mechanical solids are the commercial core. The rest of design is not a plugin afterthought. Each domain keeps its own objects, standards, and libraries. Cross-domain links are first-class, with ownership of which domain may edit which attribute, and a change journal.

  • Sheet metal: base flange, edge flange, hem, jog, lofted bend, forming tools. Bend table, K-factor, bend allowance, and bend deduction per material-thickness-tool pair (punch radius, V-die opening, air / bottom / coin). Flat pattern with bend notes, grain, punch, and bend-order hint. Reliefs and corner treatments. DXF export for laser, punch, and waterjet with layer conventions. Unfold that the brake CAM can consume without re-deriving K-factor. Weldment cut lists, gussets, end caps, trim. Flat pattern matches a known K-factor coupon for a named punch and V-die pair.
  • ECAD and PCB: multi-sheet hierarchical schematic, forward and back annotation, footprint editor aligned to IPC-7351, interactive routing, differential pairs, length matching, copper pours with islands and thermals, DRC and ERC, layer stackup (rigid, flex, rigid-flex). BOM with MPN, distributor, and lifecycle. Outputs: Gerber, drill, IPC-2581 and/or ODB++, pick-and-place, IPC-D-356, 3D STEP. Versioned library governance. Component records store lifecycle (preview, active, NRND, last-time-buy, obsolete), PCN links, and at least one live availability path. MCAD and ECAD incremental propose/accept/reject via IDX (outline, keepouts, component positions, stackup). PCB nets and industrial wire numbers share almost no code paths. They are not one module.
  • Electrical CAD for machines, panels, and plants: a database application that draws. Devices, wires, terminals, cables, and PLC I/O across hundreds of sheets. Multi-standard symbol sets (IEC 60617, NFPA 79 / JIC, GB, JIS). Automatic wire numbering and bidirectional cross-references. Terminal strip diagrams generated from the database. PLC I/O assignment import and export (Rockwell, Siemens TIA files as interchange, not as our runtime). Panel layout from the same device list, 2D and 3D cabinet. Reports: BOM, from-to wire list, cable schedule, device tag list. Macros and typical circuits reusable across projects.
  • 3D wire harness: import connectivity from electrical CAD or ECAD. Routes, bundles, clips, splices, backshells. Length with slack. Formboard and nailboard drawings. Cut-list and wire labels. Connector MPNs shared with mechanical. Lengths back-annotated to the schematic.
  • BIM: a wall is a typed object with layers, fire rating, cost, and relationships, not a solid extrusion. Hosted doors and windows. Levels, grids, phases (existing / new / demo). Rooms, spaces, and area schemes. Schedules driven from the model. Sheets with views, details, legends. Families and parametric components. Worksharing and links. Clash-ready geometry. IFC export with selectable MVD (Reference View, Design Transfer View). BCF issue read and write.
  • MEP: duct, pipe, cable tray, and conduit as connected systems with system types, connectors, and flow direction. Auto-routing with fittings from a catalog. Slopes, insulation, lining. First-order pressure and airflow calculations. Fabrication parts, hangers, spools. Coordination views and clash inputs.
Fuselage sections on rail — aircraft structure as product body
  • Civil and GIS: TIN and grid surfaces, alignments, profiles, assemblies to corridors, COGO points, parcels, gravity and pressure networks. CRS catalog (EPSG) and transformation. Linear referencing (station and offset). Surface from points, contours, LandXML, LiDAR. Alignment design, corridor modeling, section views. Pipe networks with rules. Plan, profile, and section sheet production. GIS import and export (SHP, FileGDB, GeoJSON). Survey figure and field-to-finish. An alignment and corridor in a real State Plane CRS, with LandXML round-trip.
  • Plant and process: intelligent P&ID plus spec-driven 3D equipment, pipe, steel, and supports. Piping class is size × rating × material × end prep, and that filter decides which components are allowed. Spec editor and catalog editor. Route pipe with automatic fittings, welds, and flanges from spec. Orthographics and isometrics generated from 3D (ISOGEN-class). MTO and BOM by spec. Clash against structure and equipment. Consistency check P&ID against 3D. Tag synchronization with one master (line list or 3D) enforced.
  • Design for additive: import B-rep and mesh, repair mesh. Bind a part to a machine-instance AM profile (kinematics class plus tooling stack). Orientation, support generation, slice preview. Authoritative slice and machine code belong to CAM. Lattice and TPMS on implicit or mesh. Export 3MF with materials, objects, and build-plate transform (preferred over STL). Overhang, wall-thickness, and min-feature checks against the bound nozzle, laser spot, or layer height. Filament, powder, and resin are material variants, not a color swatch: diameter, density via Materials, temperature windows, bed temp, enclosure, moisture class, abrasive flag. Carbon fiber on a brass nozzle is rejected by the bound stack, not by generic AM folklore.
  • Reverse engineering: import LAS, E57, PLY, PTS. Region segmentation, mesh wrap. Cross-section curves, surface fit, prismatic feature fit. Align scan to CAD. Deviation color maps.
  • Implicit and generative: primitives and Boolean field ops. Lattice and offset at high resolution. Export to mesh and, best-effort, B-rep. Keep-out and keep-in volumes from mechanical CAD.
  • Jigs and fixtures are CAD assemblies, not a vise checkbox in CAM. Generate workholding from existing CAD plus a nest or setup pose. Families: soft jaws and form jaws, vacuum and nest plate, egg-crate and skeleton, weld and inspect fixture, 3D-printed fixture, robot gripper fingers, brake support and follower, modular fixture (Lang, 5th Axis, Bluco class). Consume nest placements so one plate holds that nest. Respect machine access volumes (robot load path, spindle, torch, press-brake ram and side frames). Explicit datum scheme (3-2-1 or user faces); locators contact those faces only. Clamp force direction and keep-out solids exported for CAM collision and robot reach. Associative: part revision or nest change dirties the jig; rebuild preserves user edits on untouched features. Jig parts get drawings, a cut list, an AM recipe, or mill CAM of the jig itself. Etch the part number and revision on the jig.
  • Specialized verticals as content and constraint packs, not new kernels: marine and yacht, apparel and footwear, jewelry, landscape, mold and die, structural steel detailing, packaging.
Shipyard drydock campus — plant and marine design at industrial scale

Materials, catalogs and interchange

  • CAD selects a VariantId from the shared Materials library. It does not own Young’s modulus, conductivity, or friction. Appearance (color, texture) is CAD-only and is not emissivity. Emissivity lives on the material surface state.
  • Mass and inertia call Materials evaluation at a reference temperature. Missing density means mass is unknown. CAD does not invent 0.0028 kg/cm³. There is no override box for constitutive values. A new coupon is a new library variant in Materials, then you select it.
  • Sheet-metal K-factor is a process number on the tool pair, not a material scalar. The variant still supplies E and yield for springback if we compute it.
  • One catalog service, many schemas. A bolt and a resistor share search and lifecycle fields, not the same payload. Every instantiated catalog item retains source, manufacturer, MPN/SKU, model revision, configuration parameters, license and attribution, retrieval date. Prefer manufacturer-certified models for production design. Community content is allowed and flagged.
  • Offline-capable core standards ship in the binary: ISO/ANSI fasteners, basic holes, IEC/NFPA symbols, IFC base types. Never require the cloud to open a file that already contains instantiated parts.
  • Mechanical and general 3D interchange: STEP AP203/214/242, IGES (legacy read), Parasolid XT, ACIS SAT, JT, STL, 3MF, glTF, OBJ, 3D PDF/PRC. Reading those files is interchange. None of those kernels is our runtime.
  • 2D: DWG, DXF, PDF, SVG. AEC: IFC2x3 / IFC4 / IFC4.3, BCF, COBie, gbXML. Civil: LandXML, Shapefile, GeoJSON, GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ. ECAD collab: IDX, IDF (legacy), STEP for 3D bodies. PCB fab: Gerber RS-274X, Excellon, ODB++, IPC-2581. Metrology: QIF. Scan: E57, PTS, PLY.
  • Persist native domain models. Exchange with STEP AP242, IFC, IDX, IPC-2581, LandXML, and a thin product-structure spine. Do not invent a private mega-format.
  • Item identity is PLM’s. CAD files vault under Item and Revision. CAD masters are group-global. Machines and lots belong to a legal entity.
Satellite final assembly cleanroom — cross-domain CAD for complex systems

How N23D puts this in one place

Most stacks fail the day after save, when the model, the ticket, or the invoice becomes someone else’s import. N23D removes that day. This module reads the same record as the others.

  • one native Rust binary: N23D. 100% Rust we write. No vendor kernel, ledger, PLC runtime, HRIS, or ITSM as the source of truth. File readers and protocol bridges are interchange.
  • One identity plane: Item, VariantId, Person, and AssetId are global. Invoice, work order, inventory, quote, pay result, and NCR sit on a LegalEntityId.
  • One digital thread: modules read the same record. There is no daily STEP shuffle as the workflow. Check-in is PLM save. CAM does not fork the body.
  • Command::Core is the identity and policy plane. CCB is the full-spectrum change spine (not a second vault). TIX holds operational life of assets; ERP sees only the financial view.
Architectural scale model — civil and building massing as design objects
  • Materials only from MAT. CAD selects VariantId. Missing density means mass is unknown — we do not invent a number so a BOM or plot closes.
  • ERP is one company’s books. BUS holds HR, org, legal entities, and group consolidation. HoldCo is not a plant. No fake Form 1120. No fake Lohnsteuer.
  • CAD selects VariantId from MAT. Appearance is CAD. Emissivity is a material surface state. Missing density → mass unknown.
  • Occurrence IDs, revisions, and effectivity live on the identity ERP will buy, MES will complete, and CCB may change.
  • Jigs and fixtures are CAD assemblies. Defeaturing for CAE/CAM is a derived body, not an edit of the design part.
Carrier under construction — large assembly structure authored once

What we will not fake

This is the product promise, not a claim that every solver and every pack already ships in the binary today. Industry-class names below are capability equals. They are not products we ship.

  • We do not ship SolidWorks, Revit, Altium, AutoCAD, Parasolid, or Open CASCADE as the runtime. File readers are interchange.
  • CAD does not author E, k, μ, or constitutive data. No override-E box. No silent default density.
  • CAD does not own CAM toolpaths, FEA decks, or authoritative AM slice/machine code.
  • BIM walls, PCB nets, GIS parcels, and Y14.5 drawings are not one dumb solid with extra menus.

If CAD still dumps STEP as the daily hand-off, or owns density, or forces CAM to fork the body, we failed.

Natively connected, not glued together

N23D runs one data model across design, make, operate, and the business. Nothing is exported as the daily path. Nothing is re-keyed. Nothing is lost in translation between vendors.

  • One data model. A part, an order, a nonconformance, a ticket, and a change point at the same objects. No mapping tables, no nightly sync, no drift.
  • No export/import loss. Geometry, tolerances, revisions, asset state, and history stay intact because they never leave the system as the daily path.
  • Auditability by default. Every change is versioned and attributable, so traceability is a query, not a project.
  • Speed. 100% Rust: native performance, small footprint, no runtime surprises.
  • Sovereignty. Your data, your infrastructure, your rules. No lock-in.