Save this plugin to Following and return to review observed changes. Follow up to 10 plugins free.
Description
From the marketplace listing
WebCAD is a CAD app that runs in the browser. With WebCAD connected, your assistant can design mechanical parts and simple mechanisms for you in WebCAD: it writes the model in ArchScript, WebCAD's text modelling language, builds it in WebCAD, shows you pictures of it, and gives you a STEP file that opens in other CAD tools or can go to a machine shop or a 3D-print service.
What you can ask for:
- Plates, brackets, enclosures, pulleys and other machined or printed parts, with holes, slots, pockets and rounded edges.
- Assemblies with joints that move, such as hinges, arms and linkages. WebCAD reports parts that collide or come apart as a joint moves through its range.
- Gear pairs and simple drivetrains.
- A first stress check of a part: a material, a fixed face and a load, with the peak stress and how far the part bends.
What you get:
- Every build reports PASS, or FAIL with the problems found, so the assistant can fix them before it calls a part done.
- Pictures of the model from the directions you ask for.
- A STEP file, made only when the build passes. Download links work for 24 hours.
- In assistants that show apps in the conversation, a 3D view of the part that you can turn and zoom, with a STEP button.
Limits:
- A PASS means the model builds in WebCAD. Whether a part is right for its purpose (fit, strength, safety, manufacturability) still needs a person's review.
- Stress results are a first check for a person to review, not an engineering sign-off.
- A build takes from about 15 seconds to a few minutes.
You need a WebCAD account (app.webcad.ca). WebCAD does not keep your scripts after a build; STEP files are deleted after 7 days, and the 3D view's part shapes after 24 hours.
Language: English · Automatically detected from descriptions.
From the developer’s listing and package; capabilities are not independently tested. Package observed Nov 3, 2026.
Declared capabilities
Design parts and assemblies in WebCAD
Check that a design builds
Render pictures of a design
Declared limitations
A general engineering question: there is no part to design, so WebCAD should not be used
A graphic design request: WebCAD makes 3D mechanical parts, not logos or images
A request for code that computes stress: the user wants a program, not a part
Review scenarios; not an exhaustive list.
Cost & access
WebCAD does not sell anything in ChatGPT or Codex. Looking things up, checking a script, building and pictures use no credits. A STEP file uses 1 WebCAD credit, and each stress or thermal study a build runs uses 2, from the signed-in person's WebCAD account: the same credits as in the WebCAD app. Each result says what it used and what is left. Credits are managed in the WebCAD app, outside ChatGPT.
Terms may have changed since this observation.
Starter prompt
Design a 100 x 60 x 6 mm mounting plate with four M5 holes 8 mm from the edges and give me a STEP file.
Exact text from the indicated source. A mention alone does not establish support for your task.
Publisher full description
WebCAD is a CAD app that runs in the browser. With WebCAD connected, your assistant can design mechanical parts and simple mechanisms for you in WebCAD: it writes the model in ArchScript, WebCAD's text modelling language, builds it in WebCAD, shows you pictures of it, and gives you a STEP file that opens in other CAD tools or can go to a machine shop or a 3D-print service.
What you can ask for:
- Plates, brackets, enclosures, pulleys and other machined or printed parts, with holes, slots, pockets and rounded edges.
- Assemblies with joints that move, such as hinges, arms and linkages. WebCAD reports parts that collide or come apart as a joint moves through its range.
- Gear pairs and simple drivetrains.
- A first stress check of a part: a material, a fixed face and a load, with the peak stress and how far the part bends.
What you get:
- Every build reports PASS, or FAIL with the problems found, so the assistant can fix them before it calls a part done.
- Pictures of the model from the directions you ask for.
- A STEP file, made only when the build passes. Download links work for 24 hours.
- In assistants that show apps in the conversation, a 3D view of the part that you can turn and zoom, with a STEP button.
Limits:
- A PASS means the model builds in WebCAD. Whether a part is right for its purpose (fit, strength, safety, manufacturability) still needs a person's review.
- Stress results are a first check for a person to review, not an engineering sign-off.
- A build takes from about 15 seconds to a few minutes.
You need a WebCAD account (app.webcad.ca). WebCAD does not keep your scripts after a build; STEP files are deleted after 7 days, and the 3D view's part shapes after 24 hours.
Plugin name
WebCAD
Package name
webcad
Publisher capabilities · listing
Design parts and assemblies in WebCAD
Check that a design builds
Render pictures of a design
Export STEP files
Publisher keywords · listing
cad
3d
mechanical
step
engineering
design
Publisher description
Design mechanical parts in WebCAD, check that they build, see them and get STEP files.
---
name: build-parts
description: Design mechanical parts and simple mechanisms in WebCAD and deliver STEP files. Use when the user asks to design, model or change a part, bracket, plate, enclosure, gear, hinge, arm or linkage, wants pictures of a design, a first stress check, or a STEP file for CAD, machining or 3D printing.
---
# Build parts with WebCAD
WebCAD builds models written in ArchScript, its text modelling language, and reports the result. Work in this loop:
1. **Look up.** Read `get_archscript_reference` once. For a feature you have not used, call `lookup_archscript_capabilities` with the topic. Start from the closest example (`list_archscript_examples`, then `get_archscript_example`).
2. **Write the whole script** and call `validate_archscript`. Fix every error and validate again. Validation is free and builds nothing.
3. **Build** with `execute_archscript`. It returns PASS, or FAIL with each problem to fix, such as a missing part, parts that collide, or a joint that cannot move through its range. Fix the script and build again. Never call a design done before a PASS.
4. **Show it** when the user wants to see it: `viewport_capture` with one to three named views.
5. **Deliver** with `export_step`, only after a PASS. Give the user the download link and say that it works for 24 hours.
Good practice:
- Ask for the dimensions that matter (overall size, hole sizes, material) when the user has not given them; otherwise choose sensible values and say which ones you chose.
- Build an assembly one moving group at a time, and build again after each step.
- Give every part a colour, keep at least 0.25 mm between parts that should not touch, and make each moving part a single body.
- Every tool is free (no WebCAD credits); builds are limited to one at a time and 100 a day. Validate before every build so that builds do not fail on syntax.
- A PASS means the model builds in WebCAD. Fit, strength, safety and manufacturability still need a person's review; say so with stress results.
- Thermal and CFD studies do not always run here. When a build result says it left a study out, tell the user in its words.
- If WebCAD turns a request down, for example a script over its size limit, tell the user and offer a simpler version. Do not present code in another CAD language as ArchScript.
Release notes
Exporting STEP files and running stress or thermal studies now use credits from the signed-in WebCAD account; each result says what it used. Looking things up, checking, building and pictures stay free.
Declared in the saved package. Remote tools may change independently.
Package details
Publisher declarations from the archived package. These are separate from our research and the live service's terms.