Artificial intelligence is transforming how software is built, not just what it can do, but also how it is developed from the ground up. Across most industries, AI tools are being integrated at an incredible pace. In CAD and engineering software, however, adoption has been much slower. Tech Soft 3D wants to help change that.  

Recently, we were thrilled to release our first AI toolkit, HOOPS AI. As a result, now is the perfect time to discuss the value it provides, discuss our broader role in AI adoption, and provide a framework to discuss where Tech Soft 3D fits into this landscape. 

“Our role has always been to be an enabler. We give our partners the tools they need to accelerate their development and get to market faster. We’ve done it with HOOPS for years, and it is what we are now doing with HOOPS AI.” 

Gavin Bridgeman, CTO, Tech Soft 3D

AI is a New Software Development Challenge and Opportunity 

Both the core challenge and opportunity that developing new AI tools presents to developers stem from how fundamentally different the experience is. The process is all about gathering data, transforming it, and then experimenting dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. CAD data is uniquely challenging to integrate with machine learning models. 

This is where AI teams often fail, spending far too much time setting up infrastructure, managing data, and manually running experiments. 

The Factory of Experiments

This is where we believe toolkits and Tech Soft 3D are well-placed to help, providing the tools and framework to scale that crucial experimentation rapidly. Intelligent, automated experimentation systems can run hundreds or thousands of model variations, track results, and improve continuously.

In its first release, HOOPS AI focuses on these fundamentals, improving the speed at which teams collect and clean data, build and train models, and interpret results.

To put it simply, the value of HOOPS AI is providing a controlled, expandable environment to experiment, scale, and improve, transforming a bottleneck into a competitive advantage. While others are stuck with wrangling data, HOOPS AI offers the ability to shave months off your development times.

“You cannot build a great model without a great factory. We are here to help our partners build that factory so they can innovate faster and with far less risk.”

Gavin Bridgeman, CTO, Tech Soft 3D

What’s Next for HOOPS AI and Tech Soft 3D?

HOOPS AI was built to accelerate how engineering teams experiment with machine learning, but acceleration is only the beginning.

As the platform evolves, HOOPS AI will grow far beyond geometric analysis. Our goal is to connect shape understanding with business data, process knowledge, and manufacturing attributes to unlock insights that have traditionally lived in siloed systems or the heads of seasoned experts.

The next phase of HOOPS AI aims to deliver intelligence that can:

• Understand shape at a deeper, semantic level

• Recognize the design intent behind a model

• Infer manufacturing processes directly from geometry

• Relate design variations to cost, performance, or historical decisions

We envision systems that can look at a 3D shape and understand the likely manufacturing process behind it, not because it was programmed line by line, but because it learned from thousands of past examples and expert input.

This will be done not through hand-coded rules, but through models that learn from thousands of real examples combined with the hard-won expertise of engineering teams. Our long-term vision is a system that can look at a 3D model and interpret it like an experienced engineer, grounded in prior knowledge, enriched by context, and capable of making meaningful connections across domains.

The current version of HOOPS AI serves as an accelerator, designed to help innovative teams build learning models faster. As we continue to improve the product, we want to take this enabling role further.

Tech Soft 3D has led the way in CAD data access, simulation, and visualization for decades. With HOOPS AI, we’re extending that leadership into the next frontier, turning engineering data and experience into scalable intelligence.

We want to help you learn more about how HOOPS AI can work for you. The best next step is to get in touch and help us learn about your specific needs. You can also explore our HOOPS AI product page and watch the HOOPS AI webinar below.