SolidWorks MCP

Control SolidWorks with the AI assistant you already use.

Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Codex to SolidWorks and automate supported modeling, inspection, and engineering tasks using natural language. The server runs on the same Windows PC as SolidWorks. The installed write policy runs a change without a dialog. Settings shows how to require a Yes/No dialog before a write.

Install SolidWorks MCP · Product page, free trial and pricing · See Daksh CWM

SolidWorks MCP is a local MCP server. Your assistant starts one process, named solidworks, and talks to the open session in plain language. Companion skills tell that assistant which supported call to make.

This repository publishes the installer, release notes, and companion skills. The server source stays with Cad Workflow Manager. See LICENSE.

What you can ask it to do

Ask in the units you already use. The companion skill converts lengths and angles for the tools that need meters and radians.

Model. Create and edit the open part: sketches, extrudes, holes, patterns, shells, dimensions, relations, fillets, and sheet metal. Rebuild and save when the step is done.

Inspect. Read the model before you trust it: mass properties, feature errors, What’s Wrong, interference, section views, a captured view, assembly structure, and the BOM.

Finish the engineering step. Export a drawing to PDF or DXF, write STEP from a save, and set units and custom properties. Look up a SolidWorks API member and its signature before the assistant calls it.

The solidworks-bridge-tool-selection skill records which calls work through this server. A call that needs a macro waits until you agree. Sample prompts are in EXAMPLES.md.

How a request runs

1. You ask Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code in ordinary language.
2. The assistant calls the local server. One process keeps one session.
3. With the installed write policy (trusted), a write runs without a dialog. Set WritePolicy to approve in Settings when you want a Yes/No dialog titled SolidWorks MCP. No leaves the model unchanged.
4. The assistant reads that result, then continues. After a major feature it can capture the view and quote the feature names and mass from the tool result.

Reads such as API lookup can run with SolidWorks closed. Modeling and inspection use the SolidWorks session on that PC.

Clients

ChatGPT Work calls remote MCP. Use Codex on the PC where SolidWorks is open. Client questions are in FAQ.md.

Install

Download CWMSolidWorksMCPSetup.exe from the Releases page for this repository, and compare the published SHA-256 before you run it.

The setup installs for the current user, under %USERPROFILE%\CWM\SolidWorksMcp. By default it registers Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Codex, and copies the companion skills into skill folders that already exist.

The free trial starts the first time the host runs, with no card required. Pricing and plans are on the SolidWorks MCP product page.

Full steps, quiet-install switches, and how to remove the registration are in INSTALLATION.md.

Settings

The setup writes one configuration file beside the host:

%USERPROFILE%\CWM\SolidWorksMcp\appsettings.json

That folder is also C:\Users\<your Windows user name>\CWM\SolidWorksMcp, next to CWM.SolidWorks.Mcp.Host.exe.

Find it. Open File Explorer and paste %USERPROFILE%\CWM\SolidWorksMcp into the address bar. The file in that folder is appsettings.json.

Change it. Right-click appsettings.json, choose Open with, and pick Notepad (or another text editor). Change only the values in the tables below. Keep the braces, the quotes, and the commas. Save the file.

The host reads the file when its process starts. After you save, reload MCP servers in Cursor, or restart Cursor. Restart Claude Desktop. Start a new Codex session so it launches the host again.

The installed file is:

{
  "SessionCad": {
    "AttachToRunningSolidWorks": true
  },
  "SolidWorksMcp": {
    "WritePolicy": "trusted",
    "ToolProfile": "full",
    "MaxToolCalls": 0
  }
}

The copy on disk may include a // comment after MaxToolCalls. The host accepts that comment. You can delete it.

A missing key uses the fallback in its table. A value the host does not recognize uses that same fallback.

Attach to SolidWorks

SessionCad → AttachToRunningSolidWorks

If the key is missing, the host uses false.

Write policy

SolidWorksMcp → WritePolicy

If the value is empty or unrecognized, the host uses approve.

Tool list

SolidWorksMcp → ToolProfile

If the value is empty or unrecognized, the host uses full. Cursor sends every enabled tool on each turn, so modeling is the switch that shrinks that list. A part-modeling prompt is in EXAMPLES.md.

Tool-call limit

SolidWorksMcp → MaxToolCalls

A negative number is treated as 0. A refused call does not count: a tool hidden by the profile, a read-only refusal, or No on the confirmation dialog.

Try a prompt

The server name in the client is solidworks.

Extrude the selected sketch 12 mm and tell me the mass.

What is wrong with the open part?

Walk this assembly, extract the BOM, and check for interference.

Export the active drawing to PDF.

Look up the SolidWorks API member for this call and show the signature first.

The installed write policy is trusted, so the extrude, the save, and the export run without a dialog. approve waits for your Yes. read-only refuses writes. Change those values in Settings. A part-modeling-only tool list is described in EXAMPLES.md.

Companion skills

Skills live in skills/. They teach the assistant how to drive the open model, look up the API, size a part, build an assembly, and turn a finished conversation into a procedure. The server itself ships in the installer.

The installer copies every published skill into Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, and an existing Claude Desktop Cowork space. Edit skills in the SolidWorks MCP product. The product copies them into this repository.

Your files stay on this PC

The host runs on your PC. Startup asks https://www.cloudcadai.com/wp-json/cwm-mcp/v1 whether this install may run, and sends usage totals there. Tool traffic stays between the assistant and the local process. Configuration is the appsettings.json beside the installed exe. How to find and edit it is in Settings. What leaves the PC is in PRIVACY.md.

When the job has to run the same way every time

SolidWorks MCP is the conversation with the model that is open.

Daksh CWM is the workflow product from the same team, for the release work a team repeats: PDF, DXF, and STEP exports, file names, folders, and approvals, on the SolidWorks files you already have. Engineers lay out those steps in a visual builder and run them with a desktop agent.

Use SolidWorks MCP for the model that is open. Use Daksh CWM when those release steps need to run the same way for the whole team.

See Daksh CWM · Workflow features · Plans · [email protected]

In this repository

• INSTALLATION.md — setup, registration, requirements
• EXAMPLES.md — prompts, units, write policy, tool profile
• FAQ.md — source, clients, privacy, versions
• skills/ — companion skills
• PRIVACY.md — what stays on the PC
• CHANGELOG.md — what each public release contains
• SECURITY.md — how to report a vulnerability

GitHub’s MCP Registry is a discovery page. The registry package is an .mcpb file on a GitHub Release. server.example.json shows the shape of that metadata. Publish it only after the real .mcpb asset and its SHA-256 exist.