# Drawing2CAD: Sequence-to-Sequence Learning for CAD Generation from Vector Drawings

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18733 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.18733/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 51 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [PointNet++: Deep Hierarchical Feature Learning on Point Sets in a Metric Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02413/) (2017)
- [DeepCAD: A Deep Generative Network for Computer-Aided Design Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09492/) (2021)
- [DeepSVG: A Hierarchical Generative Network for Vector Graphics Animation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11301/) (2020)
- [SkexGen: Autoregressive Generation of CAD Construction Sequences with Disentangled Codebooks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.04632/) (2022)
- [Im2Vec: Synthesizing Vector Graphics without Vector Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02798/) (2021)
- [BRepNet: A topological message passing system for solid models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00706/) (2021)
- [CAD-SIGNet: CAD Language Inference from Point Clouds using Layer-wise Sketch Instance Guided Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17678/) (2024)
- [Reconstructing editable prismatic CAD from rounded voxel models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.01161/) (2022)
- [GenCAD: Image-Conditioned Computer-Aided Design Generation with Transformer-Based Contrastive Representation and Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16294/) (2024)
- [TransCAD: A Hierarchical Transformer for CAD Sequence Inference from Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12702/) (2024)
- [StrokeNUWA: Tokenizing Strokes for Vector Graphic Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17093/) (2024)
- [A Multi-Implicit Neural Representation for Fonts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06866/) (2021)
- [From 2D CAD Drawings to 3D Parametric Models: A Vision-Language Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11892/) (2024)
- [SPARE3D: A Dataset for SPAtial REasoning on Three-View Line Drawings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.14034/) (2020)
- [Text2CAD: Text to 3D CAD Generation via Technical Drawings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.06206/) (2024)
- [PlankAssembly: Robust 3D Reconstruction from Three Orthographic Views with Learnt Shape Programs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05744/) (2023)
- [Photo2CAD: Automated 3D solid reconstruction from 2D drawings using OpenCV](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.04248/) (2021)
- [Intelligent CAD 2.0](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.03759/) (2024)
- [PHT-CAD: Efficient CAD Parametric Primitive Analysis with Progressive Hierarchical Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18147/) (2025)
- [Image2CADSeq: Computer-Aided Design Sequence and Knowledge Inference from Product Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04928/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [MultiGO++: Monocular 3D Clothed Human Reconstruction via Geometry-Texture Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04993/) (2026)
- [Self-Improving CAD Generation Agents with Finite Element Analysis as Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.17448/) (2026)
- [PaperFit: Vision-in-the-Loop Typesetting Optimization for Scientific Documents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.10341/) (2026)
- [FllumaOne: A Code-Native Multimodal CAD Dataset with Executable Programs and Kernel-Validated Feature Histories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.17696/) (2026)
- [Pointer-CAD v2: Plan-Then-Construct CAD Generation with Dimension-Aware Parametric Precision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29301/) (2026)
- [Memory-Augmented Reinforcement Learning Agent for CAD Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.19748/) (2026)
- [Drawing-Recode: Annotation Grounding for Parametric CAD Code Generation from Raster 2D CAD Drawings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27558/) (2026)
- [HiFi-BRep: High-Fidelity Latent Representation for Robust B-Rep Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.16485/) (2026)
- [IterCAD: Iterative Program Repair for CAD Code Generation from Orthographic Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.24020/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) generative modeling is driving significant innovations across industrial applications. Recent works have shown remarkable progress in creating solid models from various inputs such as point clouds, meshes, and text descriptions. However, these methods fundamentally diverge from traditional industrial workflows that begin with 2D engineering drawings. The automatic generation of parametric CAD models from these 2D vector drawings remains underexplored despite being a critical step in engineering design. To address this gap, our key insight is to reframe CAD generation as a sequence-to-sequence learning problem where vector drawing primitives directly inform the generation of parametric CAD operations, preserving geometric precision and design intent throughout the transformation process. We propose Drawing2CAD, a framework with three key technical components: a network-friendly vector primitive representation that preserves precise geometric information, a dual-decoder transformer architecture that decouples command type and parameter generation while maintaining precise correspondence, and a soft target distribution loss function accommodating inherent flexibility in CAD parameters. To train and evaluate Drawing2CAD, we create CAD-VGDrawing, a dataset of paired engineering drawings and parametric CAD models, and conduct thorough experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. Code and dataset are available at https://github.com/lllssc/Drawing2CAD.