Your first part
This is the fastest possible tour of HelioCad. In five minutes you will go from a blank workspace to a real, editable parametric solid — no installs, no setup.
Before you start
- A HelioCad Pro account
- A modern browser
- 1
Open a new workspace
Sign in and create a new project. You land in the Model workspace with an empty viewport, the AI orb at the top right asking What shall we make?, the Features lane on the left and the dock of tools along the bottom.
- 2
Describe the part
Click the AI orb and type: a 60 mm cube. HelioCad writes the parametric model, runs it, and renders a solid cube in the viewport. That block is fully editable — not a static mesh.
Tip: Always include units. 60 mm is unambiguous; 60 is not.
- 3
Add a feature
Send a follow-up: add a 20 mm through-hole centered on the top face. The AI edits the model and the hole appears. Notice each change becomes a step in the Features lane, marked as an AI step.
- 4
Edit a dimension
In the Features lane, hover the first step and click ✎ to edit it by hand, then change the height from 60 mm to 40 mm. The solid updates instantly — this is what parametric means.
- 5
Let it autosave
There is no Save button. Your project is already persisted to the cloud; close the tab and it will be waiting when you return.
What you built
A parametric block with a through-hole that you can re-edit at any time — and a feel for how the orb, the Features lane, and the viewport work together.
Follow along in HelioCad
Open a workspace and build it as you read. It runs in your browser — no install required.
Get HelioCad Pro