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Houston Mechanical Engineer + Claude Code = Silicon Valley’s Nightmare
Posted on 3/18/26 at 11:38 pm
Posted on 3/18/26 at 11:38 pm
quote:Loading Twitter/X Embed...
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I know Silicon Valley startups don't want to hear this.....
But the combination of someone in the trades with deep domain expertise and Claude Code will run circles around your generic software.
I talked to Cory LaChance this morning, a mechanical engineer in industrial piping construction in Houston. He normally works with chemical plants and refineries, but now he also works with the terminal
He reached out in a DM a few days ago and I was so fired up by his story, I asked him if we could record the conversation and share it.
He built a full application that industrial contractors are using every day. It reads piping isometric drawings and automatically extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code.
Work that took 10 minutes per drawing now takes 60 seconds. It can do 100 drawings in five minutes, saving days of time.
His co-workers are all mind blown, and when he talks to them, it's like they are speaking different languages.
His fabrication shop uses it daily, and he built the entire thing in 8 weeks. During those 8 weeks he also had to learn everything about Claude Code, the terminal, VS Code, everything.
My favorite quote from him was when he said, "I literally did this with zero outside help other than the AI. My favorite tools are screenshots, step by step instructions and asking Claude to explain things like I'm five."
Every trades worker with deep expertise and a willingness to sit down with Claude Code for a few weekends is now a potential software founder.
I can't wait to meet more people like Cory.
9
Posted on 3/18/26 at 11:47 pm to rickgrimes
Mechanical engineering is not a “trade”
It is a profession
It is a profession
Posted on 3/19/26 at 12:05 am to rickgrimes
This article should have been run through some AI software.. poorly written.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 12:11 am to The Baker
quote:This.
Mechanical engineering is not a “trade”
Just because he works with tradesmen and they deal a lot with construction, piping, etc., doesn’t mean it is a “trade”.
Isn’t mechanical one of the hardest engineering degrees?
Posted on 3/19/26 at 12:21 am to Scruffy
Typical OT. Focusing on semantics regarding trades vs. engineering, while completely ignoring the cool story about a SE Houston baw who never learned a lick of code in his life, but somehow used Claude Code to build a brand new piece of software in 8 weeks (that actually solves an industry pain point) that he’s now planning to sell.
This post was edited on 3/19/26 at 1:14 am
Posted on 3/19/26 at 12:47 am to Street Hawk
(no message)
This post was edited on 3/19/26 at 12:49 am
Posted on 3/19/26 at 5:08 am to Street Hawk
If you’ve never messed with this stuff the capability is astounding. A few years ago I drew out the architecture of something that could be done much simpler and better than its current incarnation.
In about 4 hours time, I had it largely built out. It’s about 6k lines of code, several databases, user profile types, a website and mobile application.
It even built out the testing program and ran it for me. It’s amazing. And yes, it’s simple enough anyone can use it. It just removes the hurdle for entry. Anyone with a good idea and a little skill can build out something amazing.
In about 4 hours time, I had it largely built out. It’s about 6k lines of code, several databases, user profile types, a website and mobile application.
It even built out the testing program and ran it for me. It’s amazing. And yes, it’s simple enough anyone can use it. It just removes the hurdle for entry. Anyone with a good idea and a little skill can build out something amazing.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 5:33 am to rickgrimes
quote:
Work that took 10 minutes per drawing now takes 60 seconds. It can do 100 drawings in five minutes, saving days of time.
Someone explained this math to me. The first sentence says that it takes 1 minute per drawing. However it can do 100 drawings in 5 minutes?
Posted on 3/19/26 at 5:51 am to rickgrimes
That’s more about a real engineer vs a software “engineer”.
Ones smart, ones a hoody wearing goofball that used to have a corner on a market and then programmed the very thing that’s making them obsolete.
Imagine being dumb enough to go “hey! If we do this we will all be out of a job” and doing it anyway.
Ones smart, ones a hoody wearing goofball that used to have a corner on a market and then programmed the very thing that’s making them obsolete.
Imagine being dumb enough to go “hey! If we do this we will all be out of a job” and doing it anyway.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 6:00 am to rickgrimes
quote:
It reads piping isometric drawings and automatically extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code.
What does it do with this info? Does it go into a spreadsheet. We have someone that manually has to put this into our database.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 6:06 am to CootKilla
You can pretty reliably get any off the shelf AI to do stuff like this easily and reliably. Premium paid versions that dont have anemic file count limits can chew through tons of drawings or specifications or invoices instantly.
This isnt article worthy. Every engineer I know under 50 years old is doing this kind of stuff. This is where AI really shines. Its exceptionally powerful for stuff like this.
You can make it puke out whatever form you want. I use copilot (its what im given) daily for stuff like this. Copilot sucks, and can easily handle this kind of work.
This isnt article worthy. Every engineer I know under 50 years old is doing this kind of stuff. This is where AI really shines. Its exceptionally powerful for stuff like this.
You can make it puke out whatever form you want. I use copilot (its what im given) daily for stuff like this. Copilot sucks, and can easily handle this kind of work.
This post was edited on 3/19/26 at 6:08 am
Posted on 3/19/26 at 6:50 am to DownshiftAndFloorIt
quote:
You can make it puke out whatever form you want. I use copilot (its what im given) daily for stuff like this. Copilot sucks, and can easily handle this kind of work.
Agreed - monotonous, repeatable, pre-defined grunt work are where the technology does shine.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 7:52 am to jdd48
quote:
DownshiftAndFloorIt
You are correct, I run a product development group for downhole oil and gas and in about 4 hours worth of time in the evening have built an engineering admin system that does all the 3D bill of materials and sends out for quotation to machine shops then analyzes the best options for time/cost, also built a full scale Field Ops AI Service Manual for our field operations that techs can look at to determine repairs or SOP's. It is moving very fast with multiple AI platforms now offering full agentic AI. I use Claude and Manus the most.
Next up is I am working on it to generate manufacturing CAD models with GDT from 3D models/assemblies, the process normally take 2-3 weeks for drafter to generate a full set of 50-75 drawings and think this can take about a day of run time to convert then will still need to be checked by final manager
Posted on 3/19/26 at 7:55 am to Street Hawk
quote:
that he’s now planning to sell.
How much will he make if others can do the same thing that he has done? Wouldn’t his product face the same pressures from AI that software companies are currently facing?
Posted on 3/19/26 at 7:57 am to Mo Jeaux
The article itself is AI slop that doesn’t make sense.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 7:59 am to Rouge
quote:
Someone explained this math to me. The first sentence says that it takes 1 minute per drawing. However it can do 100 drawings in 5 minutes?
A drawing that took 10 minutes now takes one minute.
It also has the capability of doing less complicated drawings at a rate of 20 drawings per minute.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 8:16 am to rickgrimes
quote:
It reads piping isometric drawings and automatically extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code.
As more and more of this happens across all industries, I will make sure to be purchasing warranties on everything I buy.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 8:17 am to Mo Jeaux
quote:
How much will he make if others can do the same thing that he has done? Wouldn’t his product face the same pressures from AI that software companies are currently facing?
That’s the part I’m not sold on. Everything on X right now is “AI is the new gold rush, build and sell your product”, but what is stopping these other engineers from building the same thing he did instead of paying for his? I guess the “want to” or know how.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 8:55 am to CootKilla
quote:
What does it do with this info? Does it go into a spreadsheet. We have someone that manually has to put this into our database.
Watch the video. It is totally worth the 13 mins of time you are in that industry. It exactly does that. He feeds the isometric drawings into the tool and it gives an Excel file as an output with all the details that you need regarding types of welds, carbon steel vs stainless steel etc. You can spot check things before it exports to Excel. And using the tool you can do batch processing and load 100s of drawings at a time and it processes them in parallel.
Posted on 3/19/26 at 9:07 am to rickgrimes
quote:
extracts every weld count, every material spec, every commodity code.
So does it basically perform an MTO? Does it measure quantities? Because those 3 steps don't feel like 10 minutes per drawing. I think it may do more than stated based on the timelines provided. Unless its counting shop welds which I'm not sure an app would be able to do from an iso. Normally you would only have 1-3 welds per drawing and they are pretty obviously called out. It would take a human about 30 seconds to perform a field weld count on an iso. The commodity codes and specs are on the BOM so they are basically already in list form on the drawing itself or at least they should be on a decent iso.
Lot of questions. This sounds cool but would like a better understanding of what exactly the app does.
ETA: Watched the video. The app actually does a detailed MTO and it looks like they are calling out shop welds on the iso which Im not accustomed to. In my day those were only on cut sheets. Very impressive piece of work by this guy. Wish I would have had this back in my field project controls days.
This post was edited on 3/19/26 at 9:21 am
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