By jakedahn
Turns Claude into a senior mechanical-engineering design mentor for learners working in Onshape (and SolidWorks/Fusion 360). Paste a CAD screenshot, get a desk-side design review.
A Claude Code skill that turns Claude into a senior mechanical-engineering design mentor. Keep Claude open in a sidebar while you model in Onshape (or SolidWorks / Fusion 360), paste a screenshot when you get stuck, and Claude reviews it over your shoulder — diagnosing the issue, teaching the why, and handing you one concrete next step.
It is built for learning to think like a mechanical engineer, not for generating model files. Ask things like:
The skill runs a tight mentoring loop on every question:
READ the screenshot → DIAGNOSE the upstream-most cause → TEACH the one principle that matters → give ONE next action → (optionally) a Socratic question that makes you reason.
It deliberately doesn't redesign your part for you. The goal is to build your judgment so the next hundred parts come out better.
This repo is a Claude Code plugin marketplace. From inside Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add jakedahn/mechanical-design-mentor
/plugin install mechanical-design-mentor@jakedahn
Then start a fresh session. The skill auto-triggers on CAD/engineering questions, or run it explicitly with /mechanical-design-mentor.
Prefer not to use the plugin system? Drop the skill straight into your skills folder instead:
cp -r plugins/mechanical-design-mentor/skills/mechanical-design-mentor ~/.claude/skills/
Once installed, the skill activates in two ways inside Claude Code:
/mechanical-design-mentor to invoke it directly.The sidebar-plus-screenshot workflow is the intended way to use it: model in your browser, screenshot, ask, learn.
The skill uses progressive disclosure — SKILL.md is always loaded and routes to a deep reference only when a question needs it.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
SKILL.md | The mentor persona, the mentoring loop, the universal screenshot/DOF literacy, and a router to the references |
references/parametric-modeling.md | Sketching, constraints, degrees of freedom, the feature tree, design intent, variables |
references/feature-modeling.md | Extrude/revolve/sweep/loft, booleans, patterns, fillet-vs-chamfer order, shell/rib/draft, the hole tool |
references/assemblies-and-motion.md | Assemblies, mates/joints, grounding, in-context design, and mechanisms & kinematics |
references/tolerances-fits-and-gdt.md | Limits & fits (ISO 286), IT grades, tolerance stack-ups, and GD&T |
references/engineering-drawings.md | Views, projection angle, dimensioning, surface finish, title block / BOM, weld symbols |
references/materials.md | Material families, properties, the Ashby selection method, fatigue/creep, cost |
references/manufacturing-and-dfm.md | Manufacturing process survey and DFM/DFA design rules |
references/fastening-and-joining.md | Threaded fasteners plus welds, adhesives, press fits, and snap fits |
references/machine-elements.md | Gears, bearings, shafts, couplings, belts/chains, springs |
references/mechanics-and-strength.md | Stress, factor of safety, beam bending, stress concentration, buckling, fatigue, FEA sanity |
references/onshape-and-tools.md | Onshape platform deep-dive and cross-CAD translation (SolidWorks/Fusion) |
references/mentoring-and-screenshot-reading.md | Deep screenshot diagnosis, level calibration, a Socratic question bank, practice exercises |
.claude-plugin/marketplace.json # marketplace definition
plugins/mechanical-design-mentor/
.claude-plugin/plugin.json # plugin manifest
skills/mechanical-design-mentor/
SKILL.md # the skill entry point
references/*.md # the 12 reference docs
This skill teaches mechanical-engineering and CAD thinking and helps you work in real tools and reason about drawings, tolerances, materials, and manufacturing. It does not generate model files, geometry, or CAD scripts — if you want to generate geometry, that's a job for a different tool. Here, you keep the pen.
Licensed under the MIT License.
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