English
An open, continuously updated map of AI agents, foundation models, papers, and open-source engineering tools for physical-product development. It follows AI adoption across four engineering tracks: optical design and simulation, electronics and PCB design, structural/CAD/CAE workflows, and FPGA design. Entries are organized around real tasks such as lens optimization, schematic and PCB review, routing, CAD generation, stress and topology analysis, drawing inspection, RTL generation, verification, synthesis, timing closure, and place-and-route. The collection emphasizes 2020+ research and usable open source components, including deterministic tools that agents can call for execution, simulation, verification, optimization, and artifact delivery.
中文
面向实体产品研发的 AI 智能体、基础模型、论文与开源工程工具持续更新清单, 重点跟踪四类工程岗位中的 AI 渗透:光学设计与仿真、电子与 PCB 设计、结构/CAD/CAE 工作流,以及 FPGA 设计。条目按照真实任务组织,覆盖镜头优化、原理图与 PCB 审查、 自动布线、CAD 生成、受力与拓扑分析、图纸检查、RTL 生成、验证、综合、时序收敛和 布局布线等。清单优先收录 2020 年以来的研究和可使用的开源组件,也收录能够被智能体 调用、用于执行、仿真、验证、优化和交付工程成果的确定性工具。
Foundation models have already made rapid progress in text generation, image and video creation, and software development. General-purpose coding agents and work assistants such as Codex, OpenHands, and WorkBuddy can now complete or substantially accelerate many workflows in these areas. Their impact is highly visible in software and digital-content jobs, but adoption is less uniform in engineering roles that depend on domain physics, specialized EDA/CAD tools, proprietary data, formal verification, manufacturing constraints, and responsibility for physical products.
This repository looks at that gap from the perspective of an intelligent hardware company. It focuses on four roles where foundation models and agents are still moving from research prototypes into practical workflows: optical engineering, electronics and hardware design, structural and CAD engineering, and FPGA engineering. The list covers work such as lens design, optical simulation, schematic generation, PCB placement and routing, drawing review, structural and stress analysis, topology and wall-thickness optimization, RTL generation, verification, HLS, synthesis, timing closure, and FPGA place-and-route.
Our goal is not only to collect resources, but also to track how AI penetrates these engineering positions over time: which tasks have reliable agents and open implementations, which remain research problems, and where human engineering judgment is still essential. The collection therefore prioritizes 2020+ papers and actively maintained open-source projects, organized by concrete engineering workflow rather than by model family.
Note
An open-source project must publish an explicit license. Paper code or datasets without a declared license are listed separately and are not called open source. Always check bundled models, datasets, and vendor EULAs.
Important
This is an engineering-agent stack, not an AI-model-only list. Deterministic CAD/EDA tools, optical simulators, solvers, linters, formal engines, synthesizers, and place-and-route systems are in scope whenever an agent can invoke them to create, analyze, simulate, verify, optimize, or deliver an engineering artifact. Native AI/agent projects and conventional toolchain components are listed separately so their roles remain clear.
Canonical upstream repositories are preferred over forks and mirrors. A fork is listed separately only when it contains material, maintained changes that are relevant to engineering agents.
- Optical Engineering
- Hardware and PCB Design
- Structural and CAD Engineering
- FPGA Engineering
- Contributing
- License
| Year | Paper | Workflow |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | OptiAgent: End-to-End Optimization Modeling via Multi-Agent Iterative Refinement | Multi-agent optimization modeling |
| 2026 | OPTIAGENT: A Physics-Driven Agentic Framework for Automated Optical Design | Physics-validated optical design agent |
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| DeepLens | Differentiable geometric optics and automatic lens design | Apache-2.0 |
| DeepTrack 2.0 | Microscopy, particle tracking, and optical characterization | MIT |
| diffractsim | Differentiable diffraction simulation | MPL-2.0 |
| Dolphindes | Bounds and optimization for photonic inverse design | MIT |
| MAPS | Multi-fidelity AI photonic simulation and inverse design | MIT |
| pinn-shaper | PINN-based flat-optics beam shaping | MPL-2.0 |
| TorchOptics | PyTorch Fourier-optics simulation and optimization | MIT |
| waveprop | Free-space propagation and holography models | MIT |
These libraries provide deterministic simulation, propagation, ray-tracing, and analysis capabilities that an optical agent can call and validate against.
| Project | Agent role | Interface | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| HCIPy | Optical propagation and high-contrast imaging simulation | Python | MIT |
| POPPY | Physical-optics propagation and point-spread-function analysis | Python | BSD-3-Clause |
| prysm | Physical optics, phase retrieval, aberration analysis, and ray tracing | Python | MIT |
| ray-optics | Scriptable geometric-optics scene construction and ray simulation | Web / JavaScript | Apache-2.0 |
This track covers IC/SoC physical design, analog layout, PCB schematic and routing, design-rule checking, thermal analysis, and drawing review. FPGA RTL generation and implementation are in FPGA Engineering.
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| ALIGN | Analog schematic-to-layout automation | BSD-3-Clause |
| CircuitLM | Multi-agent natural-language-to-schematic generation | MIT |
| DeepPCB KiCad plugin | AI-assisted PCB layout workflows in KiCad | Apache-2.0 |
| DREAMPlace | GPU-accelerated placement optimization | BSD-3-Clause |
| KiCad | Schematic capture, PCB layout, DRC, and 3D inspection foundation | GPL-3.0 |
| KiCad Copilot | LLM assistant for KiCad projects | MIT |
| KiCad MCP | Agent access to KiCad schematics, boards, footprints, and design checks | MIT |
| MAGICAL | Machine-learning-assisted analog layout | BSD-3-Clause |
| OpenLane | Automated RTL-to-GDS design flow | Apache-2.0 |
| OpenROAD | Placement, routing, timing, and physical-design automation | BSD-3-Clause |
| PCBFlow | Programmatic PCB generation and layout | MIT |
| SchGen | Semantic-grounded-code PCB schematic generation | MIT |
| Project | Agent role | Interface | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| eda-agent | Agent-controlled Altium, KiCad, and EasyEDA Pro schematic/PCB editing, review, audits, placement, and panelization | MCP / EDA APIs | Apache-2.0 |
| freerouting | PCB autorouting backend for DSN/SES-based board workflows | CLI / GUI | GPL-3.0 |
| KLayout | Scriptable GDS/OASIS layout viewing, editing, DRC, and extraction | Python / Ruby / GUI | GPL-3.0 |
| LibrePCB | Schematic capture, PCB layout, library management, and manufacturing export | GUI / CLI | GPL-3.0 |
| OpenSTA | Static timing analysis and timing-report feedback for chip-design agents | Tcl / CLI | GPL-3.0 |
| SKiDL | Programmatic circuit and netlist generation with electrical-rule checks | Python | MIT |
- CircuitNet — EDA datasets for congestion, timing, power, and IR-drop prediction. The repository does not currently expose a standard software license; verify terms before reuse.
- PCBSchemaGen — research code for the 2026 schematic-generation paper; no explicit repository license was found.
- Pro-CAD — official code for proactive requirements clarification and text-to-CAD generation; no explicit repository license was found.
These proprietary systems are tracked as evidence of industry adoption, not as open-source recommendations. Vendor claims should be validated independently.
| Product | Engineering workflow | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence AuraStack AI Super Agent | PCB and advanced-package planning, constraints, implementation, DFM, and multiphysics orchestration | Announced |
| Siemens Fuse EDA AI Agent | Semiconductor, 3D-IC, and PCB design, verification, and sign-off workflows | Production |
| Synopsys AgentEngineer | RTL, lint, testbench, and verification workflows | Production |
The structural track includes generative CAD, topology and thickness-aware design, load/stress prediction, finite-element surrogates, physics-informed simulation, and drawing/BIM review.
| Year | Benchmark | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Text2CAD-Bench: A Benchmark for LLM-based Text-to-Parametric CAD Generation | Text-to-CAD generation from simple parts to complex topology |
| 2026 | MUSE: Benchmarking Manufacturable, Functional, and Assemblable Text-to-CAD Generation | Manufacturability, functionality, and assemblability of generated B-Rep parts |
| 2026 | CADBench: A Multimodal Benchmark for AI-Assisted CAD Program Generation | CAD program generation across increasing geometric complexity |
| 2026 | BenchCAD: A Comprehensive, Industry-Standard Benchmark for Programmatic CAD | Executability and parametric structure of industrial-style CAD programs |
| 2026 | Text-to-CAD Evaluation with CADTests | Functional requirements tested directly on generated geometry |
Visual similarity is insufficient for engineering CAD. Evaluation should also cover execution success, editable feature history, constraints, assemblies, manufacturability, and behavior under downstream analysis.
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| AgentSCAD | Generates and repairs OpenSCAD models with geometry and manufacturability validation | MIT |
| CADAM | Converts text or images into editable parametric OpenSCAD, STL, and DXF artifacts | GPL-3.0 |
| CAD Skills | Agent skills for generating, inspecting, modifying, and validating CAD/CAE/CAM artifacts | MIT |
| FreeCAD AI | Conversational FreeCAD workbench that generates native geometry through Python | LGPL-2.1 |
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| CAD-Coder | Vision-language model and training code for image-to-CAD code generation | Apache-2.0 |
| CADENA | Stepwise reverse engineering from meshes to parametric CAD programs | MIT |
| DeepCAD | CAD command-sequence generation baseline and dataset tooling | MIT |
| HierCAD | Hierarchical text-to-CAD generation with parameter grounding | MIT |
| SketchGraphs | Dataset of 15 million CAD sketches with geometric constraint graphs | MIT |
- CADFit publishes research code under CC BY-NC 4.0, which restricts commercial use and is not treated here as an open-source software license.
- FutureCAD, SOV-CAD, and Text-to-CadQuery provide research code but currently expose no explicit repository license.
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| DeepXDE | PINNs and operator learning for PDE and mechanics problems | LGPL-2.1 |
| DiffFE-Physics-Lab | Differentiable finite elements with ML integration | MIT |
| FEINN | Finite-element-informed neural networks for truss, beam, and plate response | Apache-2.0 |
| IF-TONIR | Implicit neural representations for iteration-free topology optimization | GPL-2.0 |
| NeuralOperator | Neural operators for fast field and response prediction | MIT |
| NVIDIA Warp | Differentiable GPU simulation and optimization for mechanics | Apache-2.0 |
| PhysicsNeMo | Physics-informed surrogate models for structural mechanics and CFD | Apache-2.0 |
| Text2BIM | Text-to-BIM generation and building-design prototyping | MIT |
| TopOpt.jl | Differentiable topology-optimization components | MIT |
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| DL4TO | Deep learning and differentiable physics for 3D topology optimization and linear elasticity | Apache-2.0 |
| NeuralSolver | Benchmark library for neural PDE solvers on regular and general geometries | MIT |
| PINNacle | Reproducible benchmark for physics-informed neural PDE solvers | MIT |
| The Well | Large-scale physics-simulation datasets for surrogate and foundation models | BSD-3-Clause |
| Year | Paper | Workflow |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Foam-Agent 2.0: An End-to-End Composable Multi-Agent Framework for Automating CFD Simulation in OpenFOAM | Composable OpenFOAM workflow automation |
| 2025 | CFDagent: A Language-Guided, Zero-Shot Multi-Agent System for Complex Flow Simulation | Autonomous CFD case generation and execution |
| 2025 | ChatCFD: An LLM-Driven Agent for End-to-End CFD Automation with Structured Knowledge and Reasoning | End-to-end CFD workflow |
| 2025 | OpenFOAMGPT: a RAG-Augmented LLM Agent for OpenFOAM-Based Computational Fluid Dynamics | OpenFOAM knowledge and case assistance |
| 2024 | MetaOpenFOAM: an LLM-based multi-agent framework for CFD | Multi-agent OpenFOAM workflow |
These papers document recent deterministic solver capabilities that can serve as execution and validation backends for structural-engineering agents.
| Year | Venue | Paper | Workflow |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | IJHPCA | High-Performance Finite Elements with MFEM | Scalable finite-element execution backend |
| 2023 | CMC | Fundamental Study on Fracture Analysis of Concrete Materials Using OpenRadioss | OpenRadioss concrete-fracture simulation |
| 2022 | IJHPCA | Matrix-Free Approaches for GPU Acceleration of a High-Order Finite Element Hydrodynamics Application Using MFEM, Umpire, and RAJA | GPU-accelerated simulation feedback |
| 2021 | CAMWA | MFEM: A Modular Finite Element Methods Library | Modular structural and multiphysics solving |
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| AutoCFD | Converts natural-language requirements into executable OpenFOAM cases with iterative correction | GPL-3.0 |
| MetaOpenFOAM | Multi-agent OpenFOAM planning, case generation, execution, and result analysis | GPL-3.0 |
These projects are not necessarily AI models themselves. They are included because their Python, CLI, or MCP interfaces make them practical solver, geometry, meshing, and post-processing backends for engineering agents.
| Project | Engineering use | Interface | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| build123d | Scriptable parametric solid modeling for agent-generated CAD | Python | Apache-2.0 |
| CadQuery | Parametric CAD generation and STEP/STL export | Python | Apache-2.0 |
| DOLFINx | Parallel finite-element analysis and PDE solving | Python / C++ | LGPL-3.0 |
| freecad-mcp | Agent-controlled FreeCAD modeling, inspection, Python, and FEM workflows | MCP / Python | MIT |
| Netgen | Automatic tetrahedral meshing from STEP, IGES, STL, and CSG | Python / CLI | LGPL-2.1 |
| ParaView-MCP | Agent-controlled simulation visualization and post-processing | MCP / Python | BSD-3-Clause |
| SfePy | Scriptable structural, thermal, and multiphysics FEM | Python | BSD-3-Clause |
| sim-cli | Replayable agent runtime for COMSOL, Abaqus, and Ansys simulation workflows | CLI / plugins | Apache-2.0 |
| viznoir | Headless MCP visualization for VTK, CGNS, and OpenFOAM results | MCP / Python | MIT |
| Project | Agent role | Interface | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| CalculiX | Linear/nonlinear structural, thermal, and dynamic finite-element analysis | CLI / files | GPL-2.0 |
| FreeCAD | Parametric solid modeling, drawing, assembly, and FEM automation | Python / GUI | LGPL-2.1 |
| MFEM | Scalable finite-element backend for structural and multiphysics workflows | C++ / Python | BSD-3-Clause |
| meshio | Conversion between common finite-element and mesh formats | Python / CLI | MIT |
| OpenFOAM | CFD and multiphysics case generation, execution, and result production | CLI / files | GPL-3.0 |
| OpenRadioss | Explicit finite-element solver for impact, crash, drop, and dynamic-event analysis | CLI / files | AGPL-3.0 |
| PyVista | Mesh analysis, field inspection, and 3D simulation-result validation | Python | MIT |
| trimesh | Mesh loading, repair, measurements, collision, and geometric validation | Python | MIT |
The agent-callability perspective and several infrastructure candidates in this section were cross-checked against awesome-ai-cae, which maintains a broader ranked collection of open CAE, CAD, meshing, and visualization tools.
The AI-versus-foundation distinction, maturity-oriented curation, and several CAD-agent, simulation-agent, benchmark, and industry-signal candidates were also cross-checked against Awesome-Physical-Engineering-AI.
The parametric-CAD generation, reconstruction, dataset, and evaluation entries were additionally cross-checked against the bilingual Awesome AI4CAD Hub, whose broader automated index is useful for discovery. Entries here were verified against their original papers and repositories because the hub also contains duplicates, pre-2020 work, and incomplete metadata.
These products are proprietary and are listed only to track adoption in tasks for which reproducible open implementations remain scarce.
| Product | Engineering workflow | Status |
|---|---|---|
| bananaz | CAD, drawing, BOM, change, standards, and DFX review | Production |
| CoLab AutoReview | Automated dimensions, tolerances, standards, BOM, and DFM review | Production |
| DraftAid | Generation of fabrication drawings from 3D CAD | Production |
| Leo AI | Retrieval and reasoning over PLM, PDM, CAD, and technical data | Production |
Wall-thickness checks, load-path validation, tolerance review, and drawing approval are emerging industrial workflows. Contributions with a reproducible paper, dataset, plugin, or benchmark are especially useful here.
RTL generation, simulation, assertion checking, HLS, quantization, synthesis, place-and-route, timing prediction, and bitstream-oriented agent workflows.
These system and workflow papers cover the parsers, simulators, architecture models, and place-and-route engines that provide executable feedback to FPGA agents.
| Year | Venue | Paper | Workflow |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | TRETS | VTR 9: Open-Source CAD for Fabric and Beyond FPGA Architecture Exploration | FPGA architecture exploration and routing |
| 2025 | FPL | Cocotb-Pynq: Co-Simulating Python+RTL Applications Targeting Pynq Platforms with Cocotb | Python/RTL co-simulation |
| 2024 | ISEDA | OpenPARF 3.0: Robust Multi-Electrostatics Based FPGA Macro Placement Considering Cascaded Macros Groups and Fence Regions | Constraint-aware FPGA macro placement |
| 2024 | EIECT | Cocotb-Based Verification of Multi-Protocol Interconnection Network | Cocotb-driven functional verification |
| 2023 | ASICON | OpenPARF: An Open-Source Placement and Routing Framework for Large-Scale Heterogeneous FPGAs with Deep Learning Toolkit | ML-ready FPGA placement and routing |
| 2022 | SBCCI | Integrating Machine-Learning Probes into the VTR FPGA Design Flow | ML instrumentation in VTR |
| 2020 | WOSET | Universal Hardware Data Model | Surelog/UHDM interoperability for open EDA tools |
| Project | Engineering use | License |
|---|---|---|
| Brevitas | Quantization-aware training for FPGA deployment | BSD-3-Clause |
| CIRCT | MLIR-based RTL and hardware compilation infrastructure | Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM exception |
| FINN | Dataflow compilation for quantized neural networks | BSD-3-Clause |
| F4PGA | Open FPGA synthesis and place-and-route flows | Apache-2.0 |
| FPGA-Agent-skills | Guided HLS, simulation, synthesis, timing, and debug skills | GPL-2.0 |
| hls4ml | Converts trained models to HLS implementations | Apache-2.0 |
| nextpnr | FPGA place-and-route backend used by open flows | ISC |
| SiliconCompiler | Portable synthesis, simulation, and FPGA APR orchestration | Apache-2.0 |
| TAPA | Task-parallel HLS to RTL and software/RTL co-simulation | MIT |
| Verilator | Fast SystemVerilog simulation and linting for generated RTL | LGPL-3.0 |
| VerilogEval | Reproducible LLM-to-Verilog evaluation harness | MIT |
| Vitis AI | Quantization, compilation, runtime, and deployment on AMD devices | Apache-2.0 |
| Yosys | RTL synthesis and formal tooling for open FPGA flows | ISC |
These tools can form the executable feedback loop for an FPGA agent, from RTL parsing and lint through simulation, formal verification, synthesis, timing, and architecture-aware placement and routing.
| Project | Agent role | Interface | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| cocotb | Python testbench generation, simulation control, and regression checking | Python / VPI | BSD-3-Clause |
| GHDL | VHDL analysis, elaboration, simulation, and synthesis integration | CLI | GPL-2.0 |
| Icarus Verilog | Verilog/SystemVerilog compilation and simulation | CLI | GPL-2.0 |
| OpenPARF | Large-scale heterogeneous FPGA placement and routing with a deep-learning toolkit | Python / C++ | BSD-3-Clause |
| Surelog | SystemVerilog preprocessing, parsing, elaboration, UHDM, and AST access | CLI / C++ / Python | Apache-2.0 |
| SymbiYosys | Orchestration of Yosys-based bounded, unbounded, and cover formal checks | CLI | ISC |
| Verible | SystemVerilog parsing, linting, formatting, and language-server checks | CLI / LSP | Apache-2.0 |
| VTR | FPGA architecture exploration and Verilog-to-routing flow with VPR | CLI | Mixed, primarily MIT |
- RTLCoder — official code and datasets for the RTLCoder/OpenLLM-RTL papers; no repository license is currently declared.
Read CONTRIBUTING.md (简体中文) before opening a pull request.
- Add only 2020+ papers, or projects with meaningful 2020+ maintenance.
- Put each item in one primary role and one concrete workflow subsection.
- Prefer official proceedings, DOI, arXiv, and canonical repositories.
- List a project in the open-source table only when its repository exposes an explicit license; otherwise use the research-code note.
- Keep papers newest first and projects alphabetically sorted within each table.
- Include the engineering artifact being generated, analyzed, checked, or optimized (for example RTL, PCB routing, stress field, or lens parameters).
This list is released under the MIT License. Linked papers, code, datasets, models, and vendor tools remain under their own licenses.