You wouldn't download a waterfall. So I coded one with Claude.

Tyler Warburton — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:17:42 +0000

I use Claude for everything. So when people kept saying you could do CAD with it, the logic was simple. It writes code. CAD is just code. Why not.

My snake needed running water. Nothing I could buy felt right. Good excuse to test the theory.

So I described the part to Claude and had it generate the model as code. No CAD software. No clicking around. Just intent.

Then the loop: Claude writes the geometry, I drop the files into Blender to see the shape, I tell it what is off, it adjusts. I ran that 10 to 20 times until the model matched what was in my head.

Two things made it work. I know 3D printing and materials cold. And the waterfall is a standalone piece, so it didn't have to mate with anything. Loose tolerances meant I could chase the look instead of fighting fractions of a millimeter.

Once it looked right, I printed it, cleaned up the parts, assembled it, and filled it with water.

It worked. First try.

There is some splashing. v2 will channel the water better and clean it up. But it does the job, and the snake loves it.

The real takeaway: I never opened CAD software. I described a physical object, judged it on screen, and refined it by talking. Claude handled the geometry as code. The gap between "I want this" and "I built this" is getting really small.

Build video:

https://dub.sh/61XHzX3

DEV Community: Tyler Warburton

You wouldn't download a waterfall. So I coded one with Claude.