SOLIDWORKS

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

Installation

Run the SOLIDWORKS CAD Co-Pilot MSI installer (the per-CAD installer for SOLIDWORKS). Close SOLIDWORKS before installing. When the installer finishes, restart SOLIDWORKS and the AI Co-Pilot task-pane tab appears.

If the tab does not appear, open Tools → Add-Ins, tick CAD Co-Pilot and click OK. Ticking the start-up column loads it automatically each time SOLIDWORKS opens.

Where to find CoPilot

CoPilot lives in the task pane on the right edge of the SOLIDWORKS window. Click the AI Co-Pilot tab — the chat-bubble icon — in the vertical task-pane rail. The chat panel opens docked in the task pane, where it stays available while you work.

The CAD Co-Pilot controls in SOLIDWORKS — CAD Co-Pilot in SOLIDWORKS.

Your first prompts

Type a request and press Enter. Dimension values are millimetres by default.

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.

One SOLIDWORKS-specific habit

SOLIDWORKS is Y-up. Words like “top”, “front” and “right” therefore mean different axes here than in NX or Inventor. When a direction matters, name the axis (+Z, -X) or get the face from a query and use its normal — do not rely on direction words. This costs nothing and removes an entire class of “it built the right shape in the wrong orientation” problems.

List the faces with their normals, then cut 10 mm into the one whose normal is +Z

What CoPilot can do in SOLIDWORKS

Modelling — sketches, extrude, revolve, sweep, loft, fillet, chamfer, hole, thread, shell, draft, boolean, split, patterns, mirrors, reference geometry. See Part Modeling.
Surfaces — offset, extend, trim, thicken, planar surface.
Sheet metal — base flange, edge and contour flanges, bends, hems, jogs, corner breaks, flat pattern and DXF export.
Assemblies — insert, mate, replace, ground, suppress, exploded views, BOM export and import, interference checks, Pack-and-Go cloning. See Assemblies.
Drawings — sheets, views, dimensions with automatic value checking, notes, balloons, BOM tables, centre marks, GD&T, weld and surface-finish symbols. See Drawings.
Configurations and display states — list, create, activate, delete; point a component or a drawing view at a specific configuration.
Equations and global variables — list, read, create, change, import and export.
Simulation — SOLIDWORKS Simulation Standard and Premium. See Simulation & FEA.
Mould tooling — draft analysis, parting lines and surfaces, shutoff surfaces, core/cavity split, mould base, runners and cooling channels, using the native Mold Tools.
SOLIDWORKS PDM — see SOLIDWORKS PDM.

Configurations

SOLIDWORKS configurations and display states are handled natively. Ask what exists before you name one:

List the configurations and display states of this document

Create a configuration called "Short" from the default, and set the length to 80 mm in it

Activate the "Short" configuration

Custom properties can be scoped per configuration, which is how a BOM picks up the right description for each variant.

Macros

CoPilot works with SOLIDWORKS VBA macros (.swp, .swb) — the same macros you would write in the SOLIDWORKS macro editor. It can start and stop SOLIDWORKS' own macro recorder, run an existing macro, and store macros in the Automation Hub with named parameters so colleagues can run them without editing code.

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

Run C:\macros\export_step.swp on the active part

CoPilot can also record and replay its own operations as a .cadmacro script, which is a different thing — see Macros.

Application preferences

SOLIDWORKS preferences can be read and set at two scopes: Application and Document.

Show me the document preferences whose names contain "dimension"

Set the application preference for the default template folder

Data management

If your organization uses SOLIDWORKS PDM, CoPilot uses the vault SOLIDWORKS is already connected to — check in and out, search, read and write data-card properties, drive lifecycle transitions and export BOMs. See SOLIDWORKS PDM.

Things that are not available on SOLIDWORKS

Layer commands (moving objects between layers, setting layer visibility from chat) are NX-only. Use the SOLIDWORKS layer tools directly.
Importing external Nastran results into a SOLIDWORKS Simulation study is not supported — SOLIDWORKS Simulation solves its own studies.
Projecting a curve onto a surface and CAM setup / toolpath generation are not available in any CAD system yet.