Solid Edge

CAD Co-Pilot is an AI chat assistant built into Solid Edge as an add-in. Describe what you want in plain language and CoPilot carries out the work in your open document — sketches, features, drafts, assemblies, sheet metal and simulation — reporting each step as it goes.

Installation

Run the Solid Edge CAD Co-Pilot MSI installer (the per-CAD installer for Solid Edge). Close Solid Edge before installing. After the installer finishes, restart Solid Edge; the AI Co-Pilot ribbon tab appears once Solid Edge has restarted.

If the ribbon tab does not appear, close and reopen Solid Edge again so it can register the add-in.

Where to find CoPilot

CoPilot appears as an AI Co-Pilot ribbon tab with two buttons: Open CoPilot and Help. Click Open CoPilot to start the chat, which opens as a floating window you can re-open at any time.

The AI Co-Pilot ribbon tab in Solid Edge — The AI Co-Pilot tab in Solid Edge.

Solid Edge with the CAD Co-Pilot window open beside the model — The CoPilot window in Solid Edge, reporting a completed round with the measured volume after the change.

Your first prompts

Create a new part

Create a 50 mm cube

Take a screenshot of the current model

Then move on to the worked examples in Part Modeling.

Three Solid Edge-specific habits

Create a sheet metal part as a sheet metal part. Solid Edge needs the document to be of the sheet metal type before tabs and flanges will work. Say “create a new sheet metal part” rather than creating an ordinary part first.

Use a tapped hole for an internal thread. That is the native route in Solid Edge and it is more reliable than adding a separate thread feature to a plain hole.

Measure an assembly by bounding box and component count, not by volume. Solid Edge's assembly-level volume query is not a dependable number; the bounding box is.

What CoPilot can do in Solid Edge

Modelling — sketches, extrude (protrusion and cut), revolve, sweep, loft, round, chamfer, hole, thread, thin-wall, draft, boolean, split, patterns, mirrors, reference planes and axes. See Part Modeling.
Surfaces — offset, extend, trim, thicken.
Sheet metal — base tab, edge and contour flanges, bends, hems, jogs, corner breaks, flat pattern and DXF export.
Assemblies — insert, relate, replace, suppress, BOM export and import, interference checks, cloning through Revision Manager. See Assemblies.
Draft (drawings) — sheets, views, dimensions with automatic value checking, notes, balloons, parts lists, centre marks, GD&T, weld and surface-finish symbols. See Drawings.
Family members — family of parts, family of assemblies, and assembly design configurations.
Variables — Solid Edge variables and formulas: list, read, create, change, import and export.
Simulation — Solid Edge Simulation. See below and Simulation & FEA.
Nesting — the built-in Nest utility when a Premium licence is present, otherwise CoPilot's own nesting engine.
Teamcenter — through the Tc4SE add-in, when Solid Edge is running in managed mode.

Family members

List the variants of this document

Create a family member called "Long" with the length variable set to 250 mm

Activate the "Long" family member

A Solid Edge family member is a separate file on disk, not an in-document state as in SOLIDWORKS or Inventor. That is why creating one takes longer and why the member has its own file path. Variable overrides are keyed by variable name, so keep variable names stable.

Variables and formulas

Solid Edge variables carry units, and a formula string is written in display units. Ask CoPilot to report the unit alongside the value whenever a number looks a thousand times too large or small.

List the variables in this part with their values, units and formulas

Set the "Thickness" variable to 20 mm and rebuild, then confirm the resulting overall height

Macros

Solid Edge macro recording (.bas) is supported: CoPilot can start and stop the recorder, run an existing macro, and store macros in the Automation Hub with named parameters.

Start recording a macro, and save it to C:\macros\properties.bas when I say stop

Run my saved Solid Edge macro that inserts our standard file properties

CoPilot's own recorded macros work here too — see Macros.

Simulation in Solid Edge

Solid Edge Simulation is available and covers the four study types most people need:

Linear static
Frequency (modal)
Thermal
Buckling

Nonlinear, dynamic, drop test, fatigue and topology studies are not exposed through Solid Edge Simulation. For those, use SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium or Inventor Nastran. Optimisation in Solid Edge is single-variable goal seek only, not multi-variable design study — and a running solve cannot be cancelled from chat.

Data management

Solid Edge connects to Teamcenter through the Tc4SE add-in, and CoPilot uses that connection — check in and out, search, read and write properties, drive lifecycle transitions and export BOMs.

Am I connected to Teamcenter?

Solid Edge must be running in managed mode with Tc4SE. Standalone Teamcenter connectivity, without Solid Edge managed mode, is not available in this build.

Things that are not available on Solid Edge

Exploded views from chat.
2D spline creation, datum point creation, sketch offset and trim, and planar surfaces from boundary curves.
Face divide, face delete, face replace and curve projection.
Coaxial and insert assembly constraints as separate operations, and grounding a component from chat — use a concentric relation, which works well.
Deleting a feature by name. A cut can be undone; a protrusion generally has to be repaired geometrically — add the missing material or cut the extra. Take a checkpoint before a risky sequence.
Auto-numbering when cloning an assembly; prefix, suffix, regular-expression and per-component renaming all work.
Mould parting surfaces, shutoff surfaces, mould bases, runners and cooling channels return written guidance rather than geometry — Solid Edge has no API for them. Draft analysis, parting lines and core/cavity split do work.
Weld, surface-finish and GD&T symbols are supported but with a narrower set of types than the other CAD systems. If a specific symbol type is refused, that is why.
CAM setup and toolpath generation are not available in any CAD system yet.