How it was designed
Designed with buildcad's AI agent, checked by the buildcad team. This is the request it started from and an edited account of what it did (more on how text to CAD works).
The request
A Gridfinity bin with a pocket for each of my tools so they always go back in the same place: one screwdriver (handle 30 mm diameter and 95 mm long, shaft 6 mm diameter and 75 mm long) and my set of 7 metric L-shaped hex keys, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mm (long arms from about 45 to 90 mm, short arms from 14 to 32 mm). Each tool lies flat in its own cutout with a finger slot to lift it out, and another bin should still stack on top.
- 1
The sizes from the request
The agent took the screwdriver's sizes as given. The request gave only a range for the hex key arms, so it spread them evenly from 45 to 90 mm (long arms) and 14 to 32 mm (short arms) and put both ends on sliders, then built on a solid Gridfinity bin from buildcad's Gridfinity helper so another bin still stacks on top.
- 2
Outlines from the description
Each tool became an outline seen from above: the screwdriver as a 95 x 30 mm handle and a 75 x 6 mm shaft, each key as an L of two rectangles. The key pockets are as wide as the key across its corners (6.93 mm for the 6 mm key) plus 0.5 mm each side, in a diagonal staircase so the short arms nest between the rows with 4 mm of plastic between pockets.
- 3
Depths and finger slots
The handle sinks to 60% of its diameter (18 mm) with the shaft pocket stepped to 6 mm so both lie level; each key sinks its full size plus 1 mm. A 22 mm finger slot crosses the front of the handle pocket, and the keys' finger slots alternate between the end of the long arm and the tip of the short arm so neighbours do not merge.
- 4
The first build was a cell too deep
The first build came out 5 x 4 cells (209.5 x 167.5 mm), and the overhang check failed at 5.8% of the surface. The layout was 117.7 mm deep and the agent found that 115 mm still fits 3 cells, so it trimmed the finger room under the handle from 10 to 8 mm. The insert became 5 x 3 cells (209.5 x 125.5 mm) and the check passed at 4.4%.
- 5
Measured with rays
Rays down into the pockets measured 18.0 mm at the handle, 6.0 mm at the shaft, 7.0 mm at the 6 mm key and 2.5 mm at the 1.5 mm key, with the flat top at 33.8 mm. Its slider sweep ran out of time; our own sweep built every slider at its minimum and maximum as one valid body.
- 6
What it left to the maker
Its reply asks the maker to measure their own keys and set the four arm sliders, since a key longer than its pocket will not fit, and notes that the insert grows by whole cells when the tools get bigger.
One run of the agent: 3 min 56 s, about $0.56 of model time at list price (claude-sonnet-5-5). The model code behind this page is the code it wrote, unchanged.
