CAD Automation Engineer

Hanomi

We automate 2D manufacturing drawing generation from 3D CAD models with full GD&T. We work with leading companies in shipbuilding, automotive, heavy machinery, and aerospace. Seed stage, 8 engineers, $3M raised. Our core pipeline runs CAD software programmatically, SolidWorks today, expanding to Creo and other platforms. We push these tools far beyond what their documentation supports. If you’ve ever tried to run SolidWorks asynchronously, multithreaded, or headless, you know why we need this role.

What you’ll do

• Own CAD process reliability: manage SolidWorks instances running as headless multi-process services. Debug RPC errors, COM failures, and process hangs. Build robust process pool management with health checks, kill-and-restart, and graceful degradation.
• CAD API development: extend our SolidWorks automation layer (step export, JSON export, drawing generation). Expand to Creo (C++ toolkit), and eventually other CAD platforms. Build a common abstraction layer across CAD engines.
• File format handling: debug and fix GLB/GLTF export issues, step file conversion across CAD versions (2017–2025), surface body detection, geometry validation. Handle edge cases from files exported by different CAD systems (CATIA, Creo, Fusion, NX).
• 3D viewer reliability: work on face selection accuracy, bounding box calculations, rendering performance for our web-based 3D viewer (Three.js). Fix zoom-dependent selection issues, normal direction bugs, and ray casting edge cases.
• Multi-CAD expansion: architect the integration layer for new CAD platforms. Creo requires C++ (no C# option). Design how C# and C++ layers interact, how common data models work across CAD engines.
• Version compatibility: ensure our pipeline works across SolidWorks versions (2017–2025), handle API differences, detect file versions correctly, and maintain backward compatibility.

Must have

• 3–8 years of CAD software customization or development. Not CAD usage, CAD API programming.
• C++ and C# in production. COM interop experience. Comfortable debugging at the process/memory level on Windows.
• SolidWorks API, Creo Toolkit, NX Open, CATIA CAA, or similar CAD APIs. At least one deeply, others as exposure.
• Understands why CAD apps crash when you try to multithread them, and has built workarounds.
• Step file format, B-Rep geometry, solid vs surface bodies, feature recognition basics.
• Comfortable with Windows development, process management, services, COM objects, RPC debugging.
• Uses AI tools daily (Cursor, Copilot, Claude) to navigate unfamiliar API docs, debug issues, and iterate fast. CAD APIs are poorly documented, you need to be resourceful.