Baidu's ERNIE 5.5 Flash writes its own code to build editable CAD skyscraper model
heyshrutimishra · x · 2026-11-12
Baidu's ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview generated an editable CAD model of the Baidu International Building's twin towers by writing Python scripts in FreeCAD, using architectural references and a visual-understanding MCP tool. The output isn't just a render — it includes interior layouts, furniture, and full mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.
Key specs and facts:
- 280B parameters, 14B active per token, 1M-token context window
- Scored 1,668 in CodeArena: WebDev, ranking #2 among open models and #4 among Chinese models, behind Kimi K3.1 Pro and Qwen3.8-Max
- API live on Baidu's Qianfan platform; weights to be open-sourced before November 25
The approach could help construction teams coordinate BIM models and catch clashes (like a duct hitting a beam) before they become on-site problems. The author notes rebuilding an existing building from references still differs from designing one from scratch.
More from coding & agent
- AI-Generated PRs Are Drowning Open Source: Merging Now Requires Knowing a Maintainer — dbreunig · 2026-11-12
- 133 GPT-6 agents spend 6 days tuning Stockfish NNUE weights, gaining +17.66 Elo in 256-game match — imjustnewatai · 2026-11-12
- sokrypton: AI models are still terrible at coding — terminals made them usable, wet labs could do the same for biology — yuvalpi · 2026-11-12
- sokrypton: AI got usable at coding via terminal iteration — wet labs could do the same for biology — sokrypton · 2026-11-12
- Building a mangrove forest simulator with a swarm of Carbon agents citing 45 papers — AI_Andrew · 2026-11-12
- Fumadocs 16.19 adds runtime variables and branching without leaking hidden branches — bclavie · 2026-11-12