Sohrab Haghighat

Sohrab "Rob" Haghighat is the CEO and co-founder of Hestus, an AI layer on top of existing CAD software that autocompletes the next design step for hardware engineers. He is an aerospace engineer by training and previously ran a rocket launch company. The pain of bringing hardware to life is what led him and his co-founder Kevin to start Hestus. He joined us in Episode 53 (October 2, 2026) and demoed it.

What Hestus does

Hestus calls its product Autocomplete for CAD. It does not ask engineers to switch tools. Sohrab said organizations have a huge corpus of designs in the CAD they already use, so the right move is to bring intelligence to that software, meeting engineers where they are (04:13).

Today Hestus runs on Autodesk Fusion. At recording, a SolidWorks release was one or two weeks out, with Onshape, NX and CATIA planned later (07:09). He said it is free to download from the website, and there is a bug icon in the software for reporting bad or missing recommendations.

The demo

From 02:57, Sohrab showed short side-by-side clips: Hestus on one side, the same steps done by hand on the other.

• Center lines on a rectangle (02:57). The moment a new rectangle appears, Hestus guesses you want reference center lines and shows them as a red overlay. One click accepts; otherwise you keep working.
• A pattern of mounting circles (04:38). On a backplate, he added a circle. The first suggestion, a center line, was wrong, so he cycled to the next one: a replicated pattern with symmetry requirements and constraints applied.
• Fewer clicks (05:03). Doing the same by hand took far more manual clicks.
• Learning within a session (06:16). Sam asked whether it learns. Hestus reorders its recommendations based on what you accept or skip during that design session, but does not carry that into the next one. Over time, those choices feed into model training for everyone.

Ultimately, every click that we save for a user is an opportunity of mistakes that we are eliminating from the design, and we get them to finish the design faster.

— Sohrab Haghighat, Episode 53

Key ideas from the conversation

• Bottom up, like an engineering degree (08:48). Every design starts from a 2D sketch, so Hestus started there. The plan is sketch, then 3D, then 3D assemblies, then manufacturing, glued together by one AI.
• Users are broad (09:02). The target is anyone designing hardware: mechanical, aerospace and robotics engineers. Users have designed industrial valves, drones, diesel engines and dining chairs. Some even use it for apartment and house layouts, though architecture is not the focus.
• The designer stays in control (10:02). Sohrab said it's your design and your engineering; Hestus helps you finish faster.
• The long-term goal (10:30). He wants Hestus to be for hardware what Claude and OpenAI Codex are for software: something you brainstorm and plan with, from concept to a part that is ready to manufacture.

There's a significant gap between here's a flashy three d model versus a three d model that is ready for manufacturing, and that is what I call it.

— Sohrab Haghighat, Episode 53

In the news segment (15:20), we talked about a week of new models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Grok, and intelligence getting cheaper. Sohrab uses Anthropic models for his own programming. But he said LLM gains don't flow straight into Hestus, because physical design needs a custom model built from the ground up.

So there's not a direct translation of LLM improves. That means that Hestus is going to improve.

— Sohrab Haghighat, Episode 53

For more on AI in physical product design, see our AI in manufacturing and hardware page.

FAQ

Who is Sohrab Haghighat?

Sohrab Haghighat, who goes by Rob, is CEO and co-founder of Hestus. He is an aerospace engineer by training who previously ran a rocket launch company, and he co-founded Hestus with Kevin after years of frustration bringing hardware to life.

What is Hestus?

Hestus is an AI layer on top of existing CAD software that autocompletes the next design step. It shows a suggestion, like center lines on a new rectangle or a symmetric hole pattern, as a red overlay you accept with one click or cycle past.

Which CAD software does Hestus work with?

At the time of the episode, Hestus ran on Autodesk Fusion. Sohrab said a SolidWorks release was planned within one or two weeks, with Onshape, NX and CATIA to follow over time.

Is Hestus free?

Sohrab said you can download Hestus from the company website for free.

Do better LLMs make Hestus better?

Not directly. Sohrab said physical design needs a custom model built from the ground up, so LLM gains mainly help his team code faster.