# How CADABRA works

> CADABRA reads the open SOLIDWORKS document, makes the change as a native feature, rebuilds, and tells you what changed.

URL: https://cadabrai.com/docs/getting-started/how-it-works/
Updated: 2026-08-15

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- [Getting started](https://cadabrai.com/docs/getting-started/) [Install](https://cadabrai.com/docs/getting-started/install/)
- [Your First Prompt](https://cadabrai.com/docs/getting-started/first-prompt/)
- [How It Works](https://cadabrai.com/docs/getting-started/how-it-works/)

- [All Five Modes](https://cadabrai.com/docs/modes/all-modes/)
- [Agent Mode](https://cadabrai.com/docs/modes/agent-mode/)
- [Ask Mode](https://cadabrai.com/docs/modes/ask-mode/)
- [Drawings Mode](https://cadabrai.com/docs/modes/drawings-mode/)

- [Writing Prompts](https://cadabrai.com/docs/prompts/writing-prompts/)
- [Prompt Library](https://cadabrai.com/docs/prompts/prompt-library/)

- [Drawing Standards](https://cadabrai.com/docs/standards/drawing-standards/)
- [Components and Fasteners](https://cadabrai.com/docs/standards/libraries-and-plm/)

- [Plans and Limits](https://cadabrai.com/docs/account/plans-and-limits/)
- [Preferences](https://cadabrai.com/docs/account/preferences/)
- [Billing](https://cadabrai.com/docs/account/billing/)

- [Data Handling](https://cadabrai.com/docs/security/data-handling/)

- [CADABRA Issues](https://cadabrai.com/docs/troubleshooting/cadabra-issues/)
- [SOLIDWORKS Errors](https://cadabrai.com/docs/troubleshooting/solidworks-errors/)

# How CADABRA works

What CADABRA does to your model when you send an instruction, and what it checks afterwards.

## What happens when you send an instruction

CADABRA reads your open document, works out which faces, features or components you meant, makes the change, rebuilds, and checks the result before it reports back.

- It resolves references against your actual file, so "this face" or "the boss I just made" points at real geometry.
- A number that cannot work is refused before your model is touched, rather than producing a broken feature you find later.
- Errors that already existed in your file are not blamed on your edit, and errors your edit did cause are reported as such.

## Output is native SOLIDWORKS features

There is no import step and no foreign body. An extrude CADABRA creates is the same extrude you would have created, in the same tree, with its sketch and dimensions intact.

Undo, rollback, reordering and suppression all behave normally, PDM revisioning is unaffected, and a colleague without CADABRA installed can open the file and edit it.

## When something fails partway

A multi-step change that fails halfway is undone rather than left in place, and you are told what was rolled back and what could not be.

Two things it cannot take back. A feature it deleted is gone, and a changed value such as a dimension or a material is not restored by the automatic revert. Both are recoverable with normal SOLIDWORKS undo if you catch them in the session.

## What the checks do not cover

CADABRA can tell that an edit did nothing when it claimed to do something. It cannot tell you that the geometry it produced is the geometry you wanted, and it does not check size or position against your intent.

Review the result.

## Limitations

It is not a CAD system, so it cannot run without SOLIDWORKS. It is not offline, because the reasoning happens in CADABRA’s cloud environment. And it is not a replacement for engineering judgment.

On this page

- [What happens when you send an instruction](#pipeline)
- [Output is native SOLIDWORKS features](#native)
- [When something fails partway](#boundaries)
- [What the checks do not cover](#verification-limits)
- [Limitations](#limits)