The vocabulary, defined.
- Text to CAD
- Turning a written description into CAD geometry. The output is either a frozen mesh or native, editable features in a CAD file. See text to CAD.
- CAD to drawing
- Producing a 2D engineering drawing from a 3D model: view layout, sections, dimensions, callouts, and title block. See CAD to drawing.
- Drawing to CAD
- The reverse conversion: reading an existing 2D drawing and rebuilding the part it describes as a 3D model. See drawing to CAD.
- AI CAD copilot
- An assistant inside a CAD program that performs real modelling operations from natural-language instructions, rather than only answering questions about the model.
- Agent Mode
- CADABRA’s mode for changing a model. It resolves an instruction into SOLIDWORKS feature operations and performs them on the open document.
- Ask Mode
- CADABRA’s read-only mode. It answers questions about the open model and searches the web for material, cost, and process data without modifying anything.
- Drawings Mode
- CADABRA’s documentation mode: views, dimensions, callouts, BOM, balloons, and title block applied to your standard, in batch across an assembly.
- Feature tree
- The ordered history of operations that builds a parametric part. Output that lands in the feature tree can be edited and rolled back; imported geometry cannot.
- Parametric model
- A model defined by dimensions and relations rather than fixed geometry, so changing a dimension updates the shape and everything that depends on it.
- Bill of materials (BOM)
- The structured list of every component in an assembly with quantities and identifiers. Generated from assembly structure rather than retyped. See BOM generation.
- Request for quote (RFQ)
- The package sent to a supplier to price a job: drawings, BOM, materials, finishes, and quantities. CADABRA produces the drawings and the BOM; assembling the package is still yours.
- Design for manufacturability (DFM)
- Evaluating a design against how it will actually be made, to catch features that add cost or cannot be produced. Not something CADABRA does today.
- GD&T
- Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. A symbolic language, standardised in ASME Y14.5 and ISO 1101, for specifying permissible variation in form, orientation, and location.
- Title block
- The bordered block on a drawing carrying part number, revision, material, finish, scale, and approvals. Company-specific, so generated drawings use yours.
- PDM
- Product data management. The system that versions and controls CAD files: checkout, revision, and release state. CADABRA has no PDM connector; it edits the document you have open and leaves vault state alone.
- PLM
- Product lifecycle management. The broader system holding parts, BOMs, change orders, and approvals across a product’s life.
- SOLIDWORKS add-in
- Software that registers with SOLIDWORKS and runs inside it, with access to the model through the SOLIDWORKS API. CADABRA ships as one.
- Generative design
- Algorithmic geometry generation from loads and constraints, usually producing organic, topology-optimised shapes.
- Rebuild error
- A failure that occurs when a feature can no longer be built, usually because a reference it depended on moved, changed, or was deleted.
- Mate
- A constraint between components in an assembly that removes degrees of freedom. Over-constrained or conflicting mates are a common source of assembly failures.
- Configuration
- A variant of a part or assembly stored in the same file, used for sizes, options, and states. Family-wide edits have to respect every configuration.
- Detailing
- The manual work of turning a drawing sheet into a releasable document: placing views, dimensioning, adding callouts and tolerances.
- Section view
- A drawing view produced by cutting the model on a plane, used to describe internal geometry the outside views cannot show.
- Tolerance stack-up
- The accumulated effect of individual part tolerances across an assembly, determining whether it will fit and function at the extremes.
- Private indexing
- Building a search index over a customer’s own CAD data, filtered so that only the account that wrote an entry can retrieve it. See security.
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)
- Structuring a site so AI assistants can find, extract, and cite it accurately: clear answers, real structured data, and machine-readable summaries such as llms.txt.
- llms.txt
- A plain-text file at the site root that summarises a site for large language models and points them at its canonical pages. CADABRA publishes one at /llms.txt.
- SOC 2
- An audit framework covering security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy controls. A SOC 2 report is issued by an independent auditor and comes as Type I or Type II.
Related questions.
What is text to CAD?
Text to CAD is turning a written description into real CAD geometry. A generic text-to-CAD tool produces a standalone mesh or a one-off solid. CADABRA does text to CAD inside SOLIDWORKS: the prompt resolves to native feature operations on the feature tree, so the result is a parametric, editable SOLIDWORKS body.
What is an AI CAD copilot?
An AI CAD copilot is an assistant that lives inside a CAD program and performs real CAD operations from natural-language prompts. Instead of clicking through menus, an engineer types what they want, for example “fillet all sharp edges 2 mm” or “generate a drawing with our title block”, and the copilot executes the feature operations, updates the model, and produces the deliverables.
Can CADABRA convert a 2D drawing into a 3D model?
For DXF and DWG, yes, with you leading it. CADABRA imports the file as a sketch in a new part, and you then rebuild the solid from it by instruction using native feature operations. There is no PDF or scan reader, and it does not infer a solid from projected views on its own.
Does CADABRA give manufacturing feedback?
Not yet. Design recommendations, analysis and cost estimation are on the roadmap and are not in the product today. Ask Mode can look up material properties and process information on the web, and it can tell you what a feature is, but it does not score a part for manufacturability or estimate what it will cost.