How Neurocad works

Every Neurocad workflow follows the same loop

  1. Bring in a file — a PDF datasheet, engineering drawing, image, schematic, or similar static asset.
  2. Build a recipe — a visual workflow that tells Neurocad what to extract, how to interpret it, and what format to output.
  3. Run and review — Neurocad synthesizes the data and surfaces the result as a digital artifact you can inspect before sending anywhere.
  4. Send to your EDA and CAD applications — Push the output directly into Altium, Cadence, KiCad. (SolidWorks, Fusion, Inventor coming soon)

Recipes are reusable. Once you've built one for a footprint extraction or a CAD part from a drawing, you can run it again on new files or automate it for batch processing.

Key concepts

  • Recipe — A visual workflow built in the Recipe editor. It defines the inputs (your files), the logic (your prompts and processing nodes), and the outputs (the digital assets going into your EDA and CAD applications). Recipes are the primary unit of work in Neurocad.
  • Recipe editor — The visual workspace where you build and edit recipes. Nodes are connected left to right — data flows from your input file through processing steps to the output.
  • Node — A single step in a recipe workflow. Each node has a specific function: adding a file, extracting geometry, processing library data, sending to a connected tool, and so on. Nodes are selected from the Node palette and connected in the Recipe editor.
  • Preset recipe — A pre-built recipe scaffold for common workflow operations. Presets give you a working node structure to start from so you're not building from scratch. You can customize any preset inside the Recipe editor.
  • Artifact — The output of a recipe run: a footprint, symbol, CAD part, schematic, or other digital asset. Artifacts are reviewable before you send them to any connected tool.
  • Neurocad Link The desktop companion app that connects Neurocad to your installed tools. Link must be running for any recipe to push output to Altium, SolidWorks, Fusion, etc.
  • Neurocad passport — Your personal authentication token that links your account to your recipes and desktop environment. Required before any recipe node can execute.

Last updated May 13, 2026