A Hecker Sketch drawing is plain text, a little language called Heck. That means any AI chat you already use can write one. Hand it the manual page, describe the thing, paste what comes back into the program, and see what it built. Nothing to install, nothing to connect, and the program never talks to the AI.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, a model running on your own machine, whichever you have. Nothing about it needs to be linked to Hecker Sketch. You are going to copy text from one window to the other, that is all.
Each one starts with the address of the manual page that describes Heck, so the AI can read the language
for itself: https://heckersketch.com/manual/writing-heck.html. Change the last paragraph to
whatever you want built, with sizes, the way you would tell a helper. Start small.
Read https://heckersketch.com/manual/writing-heck.html first. It describes Heck, the text form of a drawing in a program called Hecker Sketch. Then write a complete Heck file for the object below, following that page exactly. Use feet and inches, give every part a name and a comment, put each part in a group, use box and pull where they fit, and keep every corner on a real plane. Reply with only the Heck code in one block, no explanation. The object: a workbench 6 feet long, 2 feet deep and 36 inches tall, with a 1 1/2 inch thick top, four 4x4 legs, and a shelf 8 inches off the floor made of 3/4 inch plywood.Copy
Something from a job site:
Read https://heckersketch.com/manual/writing-heck.html first. It describes Heck, the text form of a drawing in Hecker Sketch. Write a complete Heck file for the object below, following the page exactly, in feet and inches, every part named and commented, each part in its own group, box and pull where they fit. Reply with only the Heck code in one block. The object: a pipe rack. Two upright posts of 3 inch square tube, 8 feet tall, 10 feet apart. Three cross arms of 2 inch square tube, 10 feet long, at 3, 5 and 7 feet off the floor, each sticking out 18 inches past both posts. A 12 by 12 inch base plate, 1/2 inch thick, under each post.Copy
Something round, which is the harder test:
Read https://heckersketch.com/manual/writing-heck.html first. It describes Heck, the text form of a drawing in Hecker Sketch. Write a complete Heck file for the object below, following the page exactly, in feet and inches, every part named and commented, each part in its own group. Round parts are a circle pulled along a step. Reply with only the Heck code in one block. The object: a set of four steps up to a porch. Total rise 28 inches, four equal risers, each tread 11 inches deep and 48 inches wide, 1 1/2 inch thick treads on two stringers. A round handrail post of 1 1/2 inch pipe at the bottom step on the right side, 36 inches tall.Copy
If your AI cannot open links, open the page yourself, select all, copy, and paste its text into the chat above the prompt. It is one page and it is the whole language. The Heck page beside it has more examples if the AI wants them.
The answer should be a block of lines like box Top = 0 east, 0 north, 34 1/2" up; 6' east, 2' north, 1 1/2" up.
Copy the whole block. If it wrapped it in explanation, take only the code.
Start a new drawing, type /source in the command bar at the bottom and press Enter. A window
opens beside the drawing holding the sheet as text. Select everything in it and paste the AI's code over it.
The drawing becomes what the text says. Orbit round it, type /fit to frame it, pull out the tape
measure and check a size. If a line is wrong the window marks it and says why. Copy that message back to the
AI and ask it to fix the file, then paste and Apply again. Two or three rounds is normal.
It will not be perfect the first time, and that is the fun. Most AI chats get the shape of the language right away and get a few sizes or corners wrong. A leg floating an inch off the floor, a shelf drawn as four lines instead of a box, a top that is two feet wide where you said deep. You will see exactly what it did, because the model is right there, and the text tells you why.
The rule that trips them most: faces come from closed lines, and a box is a box. If the AI
draws a solid as loose lines, ask it to use box and pull instead. If a part is in the
wrong place, say so in plain words, "the shelf should sit on the legs, not float", and let it try again. Every
round it gets closer, and you learn Heck without meaning to.
Because it is text, you can also just fix it yourself. Change 36" to 34", press Apply,
and the bench is shorter. That is what Heck is for.
A duct transition, a pipe rack, a stair stringer, a pole barn frame. Give it real sizes from a job and see whether it understands them.
Measure the table in front of you with a tape and describe it. Then compare the model to the table.
Once it has a bench, say "now make it 8 feet long and add a second shelf". Watch what it keeps and what it breaks.
Give the same prompt to two different chats and paste both. They will not agree, and the differences are interesting.
Draw something by hand, open /source, copy the text out and ask the AI what it is. See if it can read a drawing as well as write one.
The manual's Heck page shows jigs, little programs that print Heck. Ask the AI for a Python script that prints a staircase for any rise and run. Then it is a tool, not a one-off.
Hecker