Channels & Messaging
Drive your CAD workstation from Telegram, WhatsApp or Microsoft Teams — from the shop floor, a customer meeting, or the train home.
This page explains how channels work and who has to do what. Each channel then has its own complete, illustrated setup guide:
- Telegram — the fastest to set up; a bot token from @BotFather and you are live.
- WhatsApp — through a Twilio account and a WhatsApp-enabled number.
- Microsoft Teams — an Entra ID app plus an Azure Bot resource; needs your IT admin.
What it looks like in use
Anything you can type in the CAD chat panel, you can send from a channel. The message runs on your workstation, in your CAD session, and the answer comes back in the same conversation.
If your CAD application is not running, CADCoPilot starts it for you before executing the request.
How a message reaches your CAD
Every channel follows the same six stages. Only the first two differ per channel — everything from the CADCoPilot server onward is shared.
Who does what
Three different people are usually involved. The channel guides mark every step with the role that owns it.
- IT admin Creates the account at the provider — the Telegram bot, the Twilio number, or the Entra ID app plus Azure Bot — and points its webhook at CADCoPilot. Once per company, per channel.
- Org admin Pastes the resulting credentials into Org portal → Messaging Channels (sign in) and decides whether users may connect themselves. Once per company, per channel.
- End user Connects their own Telegram or WhatsApp account, keeps the tray Agent running, and sends a first test message. Once per person.
Choosing a channel
| Telegram | Microsoft Teams | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Provider account | None — a free bot from @BotFather | Twilio (paid, per message) | Microsoft Entra ID + Azure subscription |
| Setup effort | Minutes | An hour, plus business verification for a production number | IT admin job; app registration and bot resource |
| How CADCoPilot receives | Our server polls Telegram (nothing to open inbound) | Twilio posts to our webhook | Azure Bot Service posts to our webhook |
| How a user links | One click — a deep link opens the bot and links automatically | Send the one-time code to the company number | Automatic when the account carries the same Microsoft identity; otherwise send the code to the bot |
| Screenshots in replies | Yes, sent as photos | No — text only | No — text only |
| Reply length per part | 4000 characters | 1500 characters | Single message |
Most companies start with Telegram to prove the flow end to end, then add Teams for everyday internal use and WhatsApp for people who live in it already. There is no need to pick just one — all three can run at the same time, and a person can link more than one.
Before you start
- All three channels are enabled by default for every organization. A channel stays inert until its credentials are saved, so “enabled” on its own changes nothing.
- Your plan must include messaging channels. Trial, Pro, Team and Organization plans all include them. If it has been switched off for your organization, the bot replies “Messaging channels aren't enabled for your plan.”
- Each user must have signed in to CADCoPilot from the CAD add-in at least once on the PC they want to drive — the tray Agent reuses that sign-in to hold its connection to the server.
The tray Agent
The tray Agent is the piece on your workstation that keeps the connection to CADCoPilot open and hands messages to the CAD add-in. If it is not running, channel messages cannot reach your CAD — you will get “No active CADCoPilot agent found on your PC.” instead.
Leave it running (it is happy to start with Windows). The status window also carries the Connect buttons for Telegram and WhatsApp, so you never have to go to the portal to link yourself.
Connecting yourself
You can link from either place — they do exactly the same thing:
- CAD add-in → Settings → Messaging Channels, or
- the tray Agent status window.
Pressing Connect asks the server for a one-time code that is valid for 30 minutes and can be used once. What you do with the code depends on the channel — see the channel guide. If the Connect buttons are greyed out, your org admin has turned off User self-connect.
If something does not work
Each channel guide has its own troubleshooting table. These apply to all three:
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “This account isn't linked to CADCoPilot.” | The sender identity has no link to a CADCoPilot user in your organization. | Press Connect in the add-in Settings or tray Agent and follow the channel's linking step. |
| “No active CADCoPilot agent found on your PC.” | The tray Agent is not running, or lost its connection to the server. | Open the tray Agent, press Start, and check it reports connected. Sign in from the CAD add-in if it complains about the session. |
| “Messaging channels aren't enabled for your plan.” | The messaging-channels entitlement is off for your organization. | Contact your reseller or CADCoPilot support to have it enabled on the subscription. |
| Message accepted, then silence — no reply at all. | The request took longer than 10 minutes; the server no longer has anywhere to send the answer. | Break the task into smaller steps. Long operations are better started from the CAD chat panel, where nothing times out. |
| The reply went to the wrong person's CAD. | That phone or account was linked with someone else's one-time code. | Have the correct person press Connect and send the new code from that same phone or account. The link is repointed to them. |
| Two PCs are signed in — the wrong one answers. | When several of your workstations have the Agent running, the most recently connected one wins. | Stop the Agent on the machine you do not want to drive, or restart the Agent on the one you do. |
| Everything stopped working after a server restart. | The list of connected workstations lives in memory and is emptied on restart. Agents normally reconnect and re-register on their own, but an agent whose retries all failed stays disconnected. | Open the tray Agent and press Stop then Start. Your channel links are stored in the database and are not lost. |
Security
- Credentials stay on the server. The bot token, Twilio auth token and Teams client secret are encrypted at rest with a per-organization key. They are used only inside the server when it talks to the provider.
- They are never shown again. After saving, the portal shows only (stored) and a masked placeholder. Leaving a secret field blank on a re-save keeps the stored value — see each channel guide for how to rotate one.
- Nothing reaches a workstation except message text. The tray Agent receives the message and returns the answer; it never receives channel credentials.
- Inbound messages are verified. WhatsApp requests must carry a valid Twilio signature and Teams activities a valid Bot Framework token, so a forged sender cannot impersonate a linked user.
- Linking is deliberate and short-lived. Codes are single-use and expire after 30 minutes. An org admin can switch off User self-connect at any time to stop new links being created.
Next
- Set up Telegram
- Set up WhatsApp
- Set up Microsoft Teams
- Organization Admin Guide — seats, users and the rest of the portal