Describe what you need in plain language. Claude Code or Codex writes the model into confBuild Sheets as parameter rows, so the first version is already editable and every variant is a changed value instead of a new drawing.
This public example project was built through the confBuild MCP server. It shows what a first prototype loop delivers and what remains for detailed engineering.
“Pick-and-place gantry on an aluminium table frame. Travel X 800 mm, Y 500 mm, Z stroke 150 mm. Parallel gripper or suction cup, energy chains on X and Y, an operator box with emergency stop.”
Before writing anything, the AI client plans the structure: table frame, X axes, Y bridge, Z axis, gripper and control cabinet each get their own Sheet.
Every part is a row with type, dimensions, position and material. The main values are inputs that the child Sheets reference:
Change one input and every row that references it follows.
The project script runs a pick-and-place cycle with a workpiece, an exploded view and a 13-step assembly guide with camera moves. After each revision the AI client inspects the model in four views – in context, isolated, as a section and as x-ray – and repairs what does not fit.
Reviewers open a link. Nobody needs a CAD licence.
Posts, rails, worktop, axis bodies and plates are individual manufactured parts. Guides, motors, grippers, chains and the cabinet are marked as purchased parts.
It remains a concept model: sizing of drives and guides, tolerances and the risk assessment are still engineering work.
Change travel, stroke, table height and gripper type, then start the pick-and-place cycle or the assembly guide.
Early concepts change every day: a travel gets longer, the motor moves to the other side, the customer wants a second station. If the first model is a quick sketch or a mesh from an image generator, each change means starting over. In confBuild the AI client does not produce opaque geometry. It writes rows into Sheets – with formulas, references and named parameters – that you can read and change yourself.
Run the whole loop from Claude Code or Codex, or switch to the browser editor at any step. Both work on the same project.
Main dimensions, required assemblies, the values you want to vary and what counts as done, for example “no floating parts, plausible scale”.
Through the confBuild MCP server the client plans the Sheet structure, writes the rows, validates them and saves a revision in your account.
Look at the model in the browser, change values in the Sheet or the control panel, or give the AI client the next instruction.
Save variants, send a review link and export STEP, 3MF or drawings once the concept is agreed.
No separate prototyping tool: these are the same functions you later use for configurators, drawings and quotes.
The hosted confBuild MCP server lets your AI client create, read and change projects. The AI reasoning runs in your client; the projects stay in your confBuild account.
Fasteners, bearings, linear guides, aluminium profiles, pneumatic components and drive elements are available as native rows with dimensions from the standard tables.
Project scripts move axes, doors and grippers, create exploded views and step-by-step assembly guides. Useful when a concept has to be explained, not just shown.
STEP with exact B-rep solids for your CAD system, 3MF and STL for printing, glTF for the web, plus drawings and bills of materials from the same model.
A concept model, not a released design – but one that later stages can build on instead of redrawing it.
Connect Claude Code or Codex to confBuild and describe the next fixture, frame or enclosure you need.