# Adam vs SimScale

> Adam scores 59.4 (C) to SimScale's 41 (E) for cad simulate. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-simscale
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-simscale.md (~4,650 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-03

Adam scores 59.4 (C) on agent readiness against SimScale's 41 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do cad simulate.

- Adam: grade C, 59.4/100, rank #630 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adam-cad.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adam-cad.json
- SimScale: grade E, 41/100, rank #1203 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/simscale.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/simscale.json
- Best CAD, simulation and fabrication APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/cad/index.md
- All 15 cad comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cad/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Adam (C)

Good for: An agent that drives mechanical CAD work in Onshape, Fusion or SOLIDWORKS through a hosted engineering agent, or needs STEP and 3MF exports of Adam-stored models.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 35 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 71
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 55
- Security & auth, 74 against 44
- Payments & pricing, 15 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 55 against 33
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 65

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The MCP server and REST API are labelled beta, with breaking changes allowed

### SimScale (E)

Good for: An enterprise engineering team that wants an agent to automate CFD, FEA or thermal studies on a platform it already licenses, with a sandbox for development.

Watch for: API keys come only with the Enterprise plan, priced on request, and the SDK asks would-be integrators to email api@simscale.com


## Why the edge

### Security & auth: Adam +30

- Adam (74): OAuth 2.1 authorisation code with PKCE S256, automatic client registration, RFC 8707 resource indicators, refresh tokens, a revocation endpoint and 11 scopes, or a personal key minted for one workspace with chosen scopes and shown once; bearer header only, no query-string option (30). Read and change approved separately per area, `tools:execute` kept apart and blockable by an admin under Allow full harness execution, deletes behind confirmation, and access revoked at once from Connected apps. `tools:execute` is broad, covering commands, connected accounts, paired devices, stored credentials and billable tools (18 of 20). Task messages return the agent's output and tool results, which can include web search and connected-account content, and no prompt-injection guidance was found; per-user sandboxes isolate execution but do not address it (4 of 15). Connected apps are listed with revocation, every error carries a requestId and the billing summary reports usage, but no audit log for the operator was found (6 of 15). SOC 2 Type I approved with Type II in progress, a bug bounty of $10 to $100 per finding with a 90-day window and safe harbour, patch SLAs by CVSS severity, 72-hour incident notification, and no security.txt (16 of 20). 30 + 18 + 4 + 6 + 16 = 74.
- SimScale (44): One API key per user in the X-API-KEY header, with no scopes, documented expiry, rotation or revocation; the SDK reads it from an environment variable (10 of 30). Project and space permission endpoints exist and the sandbox cannot change data, but no read-only key or confirmation step for deletes was found (8 of 20). The API returns the owner's own geometry and results and no third-party content, so there is little untrusted content to inject (10 of 15). No audit log or per-call visibility found on the pages read (0 of 15). SOC 2 Type II by Prescient Assurance, a public Intigriti bug bounty with the API in scope, security.txt and AES encryption (16 of 20). 10 + 8 + 10 + 0 + 16 = 44.

### Agent ergonomics: Adam +27

- Adam (82): The docs name 15 adam_ tools plus displayFile and loadSkill, so 11 to 30 (15), and task tools are discovered per task with adam_list_task_tools rather than listed up front, which earns 8 back (23 of 25). Cursor pagination with limit 1 to 50, status and project filters on tasks, and message parts that admins can trim, though results of tool calls may be truncated without a size control (18 of 20). One error envelope with type, message and requestId, 402 and 403 that name the plan or scope at fault, and a recovery table for each direct-tool failure (18 of 20). Idempotency-Key required on every write that starts work, a 24-hour replay, cancel documented as safe to repeat, and an unknown status that tells the agent to inspect before retrying; deletes need confirmation, but readOnlyHint and destructiveHint annotations were not confirmed since tools/list was not read (16 of 20). Few required parameters, but no official SDK in any language (7 of 15). 23 + 18 + 18 + 16 + 7 = 82.
- SimScale (55): List endpoints page with limit and page parameters and results are fetched per run and per export rather than whole (15 of 25). Pagination on lists and filters on some, such as valid geometries only (15 of 20). Typed error responses by status code; message shapes were not read in detail and the v1 error format page rendered empty (10 of 20). No idempotency keys; runs are asynchronous with event logs and cancel, so a retry can start a second run (5 of 20). Official Python and C# SDKs cover the surface, but a simulation setup needs a full Simulation Spec object with many required fields and a matching schema version (10 of 15). 15 + 15 + 10 + 5 + 10 = 55.

### Maintenance & community: Adam +22

- Adam (55): Read for a closed service. The changelog's newest entry is 10 September 2026, 54 days before this check (20). Entries dated 7, 10, 11 and 25 August and 4 to 10 September 2026, more than three in 90 days (20). A public changelog, hello@adam.new, a Discord and the CADAM repository with 26 open issues, which were not read for replies (10 of 15). The manifest follows the registry schema but new.adam/adam is not in the official MCP registry, and there is no official SDK (0 of 15). CADAM was pushed on 15 October 2026 and the service itself has no package to judge (5 of 10). 20 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 5 = 55.
- SimScale (33): Read for a closed service with open SDK sources. The Python SDK's newest release is 19.1.0 of 3 March 2026, 245 days before the check, and the v1 document carries no date (5 of 30, for a change in the window being likely from the v1 beta but unproven). Ten SDK releases from February 2025 to March 2026 and none since (0 of 20). api@simscale.com, support@simscale.com and a community forum; response times were not tested and the SDK repository has no issue activity we could read (10 of 15). Official Python and C# SDKs, with v1 editions, generated from the document (15). The SDK repository has no CI workflow and pins the document version at 0.0.0 (3 of 10). 5 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 3 = 33.

### Reliability: Adam +20

- Adam (35): Read with the hosted lines. status.adam.new exists and is linked from the docs, but it loads its components and history by script and nothing readable was served, so the page counts for half (10 of 20) and the incident record is unread (5). Rate limits are documented as two refilling buckets reported in RateLimit, RateLimit-Policy and X-RateLimit headers, with no numeric quota published (5 of 15). 429 carries Retry-After, and Idempotency-Key is required on task creation, messages and tool calls and replayed for 24 hours (15). No SLA found (0). The MCP server and the REST API are labelled beta, with breaking changes allowed (0 of 10). 10 + 5 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 = 35.
- SimScale (15): Read with the hosted lines on api.simscale.com. No status page, since status.simscale.com has no DNS record and none is linked from the site, the docs hub or the API document (0). No readable incident history (5). No rate limit with a number; the terms reserve the right to impose rate or traffic limits and the v0 document mentions a 429 response once (0). No Retry-After, backoff guidance or idempotency keys; runs can be cancelled (0). No SLA, and the terms say SimScale cannot warrant uninterrupted availability with Free plans carrying no availability obligation (0). /v0 is the generally available version; /v1 is in beta (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 15.

### Schema & documentation: Adam +10

- Adam (81): Public OpenAPI 3.1 for the REST API (adam.new/openapi.json and api.adam.new/openapi.json), a site spec for OAuth and MCP endpoints, and an MCP manifest. MCP tool schemas were not read, since tools/list needs a sign-in, though adam_list_task_tools is documented to return input schemas (20 of 25). llms.txt, a docs index at docs.adam.new/llms.txt, Markdown for every page on request through the Accept header, and a starter SKILL.md (10). The direct-tools page gives each MCP tool a purpose and its scopes, and OpenAPI descriptions state conditional requirements such as cron or runAt, but no tool definition says when not to use it (12 of 20). Enums for task status, limit 1 to 50, required fields and multipart file fields are typed; the component schemas past the first 100,000 characters were not read (11 of 15). Every operation documents 400 to 500 responses with one error envelope, and the API introduction carries curl and JSON examples (13 of 15). Versioned /v1 paths, Deprecation and Sunset headers with 90 days' notice, and a dated changelog, though its newest entry is 10 September 2026 (15). 20 + 10 + 12 + 11 + 13 + 15 = 81.
- SimScale (71): Public OpenAPI 3.0.3 documents for /v0 (98 operations) and /v1 (163 operations), with the simulation and meshing schema versions selectable by query parameter (25). No llms.txt and no Markdown docs; the API docs are Swagger UI and script-rendered pages (0). The introduction explains the sandbox, versioning and Workbench compatibility, and operations carry one-line summaries, but 10 of the 98 v0 operations have no description and the guides for v1 rendered empty (12 of 20). 2,112 schemas with 355 enum lists, required fields and a typed security scheme (13 of 15). The sandbox answers every endpoint with example data, which stands in for examples, and responses are typed for 400, 403, 404, 409, 422 and 429 (11 of 15). Path versions v0 and v1 with a migration guide and changelog for v1, and dated SDK releases, though the changelog page itself rendered empty (10 of 15). 25 + 0 + 12 + 13 + 11 + 10 = 71.

### Transparency & trust: Adam +7

- Adam (72): Closed service under terms of 5 June 2026 that name Adam AI Labs, Inc. but state no governing law, refund or notice terms beyond email; CADAM is GPL-3.0 (13 of 30). The privacy policy of 24 October 2026 keeps data as long as needed, while the compliance page of 7 October 2026 gives 30-day deletion after closure, 7-day backups, no training on model inputs under the providers' commercial terms, and a DPA on request; the two agree where they overlap (20 of 30). Removals announced at least 90 days ahead with Deprecation and Sunset headers and changelog notices, though no removal has been recorded yet (16 of 20). Every subprocessor named with purpose, data and region, and data residency by category (18 of 20). 13 + 20 + 16 + 18 = 67.
- SimScale (65): Closed service with clear terms (version July 2023) naming SimScale GmbH under German law (15). The data privacy statement (November 2025) gives retention periods for site data, names subprocessors with locations and the LLM providers used on platform content, and the terms give SimScale a licence over paid-plan content for improving the services; the statement's section 14 still says July 2023, and neither document says whether platform content trains models (20 of 30). v1 is announced as beta with a migration guide and v0 stays, but no deprecation policy or dated notices were found (8 of 20). Subprocessors and data locations are disclosed in detail, with production in AWS EU regions (18 of 20). 15 + 20 + 8 + 18 = 61.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adam | SimScale | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 15 | Adam +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 71 | Adam +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 55 | Adam +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 44 | Adam +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 10 | Adam +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 33 | Adam +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 65 | Adam +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.4 · C** | **41 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adam | SimScale |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adam AI Labs, Inc. | SimScale GmbH |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://adam.new/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under Adam's Terms of Service (Adam AI Labs, Inc., last updated 5 June 2026). The CADAM text-to-CAD web application is open source under GPL-3.0. | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-10 | 2026-03-03 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 5.4k stars | none |

## Verdicts

**Adam.** An agent reaches Adam's CAD tasks over OAuth 2.1 with per-area scopes, idempotency keys and a public OpenAPI spec, and can export STEP, STL, IGES and 3MF from Adam-stored models. The MCP server and API are beta, numeric rate limits and plan prices are not published, and native CAD edits need a connected desktop application.

**SimScale.** Public OpenAPI documents for v0 and the v1 beta, a keyless sandbox that answers every endpoint with example data, and official Python and C# SDKs let an agent plan a simulation before anyone signs a contract. Running one needs an Enterprise API key priced on request, with no status page, no published rate limits and SDK releases eight months old.

## Before you call either

### Adam

1. Call adam_get_context first and check the scopes; client-driven tool calls need `tasks:read`, `tasks:write` and `tools:execute`, which an admin may have blocked
2. Send a fresh UUID as Idempotency-Key on every task, message and tool call, reuse it on a retry, and on status unknown inspect the task before retrying with a new key
3. Poll adam_get_tool_call for queued or running calls; creating an external task starts no inference, but executing tools spends the workspace's usage
4. Treat 402 as a plan or usage limit for the person to resolve, and on 429 wait for Retry-After
5. Expect only Adam-stored models to export without a desktop; ask the person to connect Onshape, Fusion or SOLIDWORKS before native edits

### SimScale

1. Develop against https://api.simscale.com/v0/sandbox with X-API-KEY: sandbox-example-api-key, which returns example data and runs nothing; real keys need an Enterprise plan the owner must arrange
2. Follow the geometry import flow in order, requesting a storage location, uploading the file, creating the import, polling its event log, then listing the geometries valid for setup
3. Pin simulationSpecSchemaVersion and meshingSpecSchemaVersion when fetching the OpenAPI document, since spec schemas change more often than the API and a mismatch locks the Workbench
4. Treat v1 as beta and build on v0 unless the owner wants v1, and read the migration guide in a browser, since it rendered empty for our reader
5. No rate limit is published, so space out polling of run status and back off on 429; the terms allow SimScale to impose traffic limits without notice

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Adam or SimScale?

Adam scores 59.4 (C) on agent readiness against SimScale's 41 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Adam and SimScale need an API key?

Adam takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. SimScale needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Adam and SimScale without installing anything?

Adam has a hosted endpoint at https://adam.new/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for SimScale.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-simscale.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-simscale.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "adam-cad", "b": "simscale"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare adam-cad simscale`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adam-cad.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/simscale.json

## Other comparisons with Adam or SimScale

- [Adam vs Autodesk Platform Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-autodesk-platform-services.md)
- [Adam vs nTop](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-ntop.md)
- [Adam vs Onshape](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-onshape.md)
- [Adam vs Zoo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adam-cad-vs-zoo.md)
- [Autodesk Platform Services vs SimScale](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autodesk-platform-services-vs-simscale.md)
- [Onshape vs SimScale](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/onshape-vs-simscale.md)
- [SimScale vs Zoo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/simscale-vs-zoo.md)
- [nTop vs SimScale](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntop-vs-simscale.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp