Agent Mode

The mode that changes geometry. Every operation lands in the feature tree as an ordinary SOLIDWORKS feature.

How the change is made

CADABRA calls the SOLIDWORKS API directly for native operations. An extrude it creates is the same extrude you would have created: a normal feature, editable, suppressible, deletable, with normal parents and children.

It works in rounds. Independent calls go out together, and it waits only when the next call needs a result from the previous one. A failed operation skips the rest of that round rather than building on a broken state.

The native operations

Sketching needs a part. Components and mates need an assembly.
Group	Operations
Sketching	2D sketch on a plane or a face, 3D sketch, set and add dimensions, sketch fillet and chamfer, offset entities, convert entities, mirror entities, trim in any Trim mode, trim to corner, extend, split, move, copy, rotate, scale, stretch, add a relation, fully define. 20 operations.
Features	Boss extrude, cut extrude, revolve boss, revolve cut, sweep, swept cut, loft, lofted cut, rib, shell, draft, helix, fillet, chamfer, edit fillet, edit fillet in batch, edit chamfer, edit extrude, set a feature dimension, combine bodies, scale part, edit sheet metal bends.
Holes and fasteners	Hole Wizard, edit a Hole Wizard hole, set a hole diameter, edit holes in batch, bolt circle, insert a fastener.
Patterns and mirrors	Linear pattern, circular pattern, mirror a feature, suppress a pattern instance.
Feature tree	Rename, rename in batch, suppress, unsuppress, delete, reorder, revert the last step, revert the build.
Reference geometry	Reference plane, reference axis.
Assemblies	Insert a component, replace a component, add a mate, edit a mate, delete a mate, suppress, unsuppress, fix, float, move or rotate, delete and mirror components.
Properties and configurations	Set material, set appearance, set a custom property, set an equation, manage configurations, configure variants.
Output	Save or export, save bodies to parts.

When it falls back to VBA

Only when no native operation matches the request. The native tool is always preferred, and generating a macro to do something a native operation already does is treated as a defect.

The VBA tool is handed to Agent Mode and Drawings Mode alone. No read-only mode ever receives it, which is why Ask, Plan, Debug and Imagine cannot change a document even by writing code.

A VBA step that completes without adding a feature, an in-place edit for example, is recorded as not undoable by revert. See below.

The approval step

The control is Approval preference, in the task pane Settings. It is stored per machine, not on your account, so a second workstation starts at the default again.

Always ask. "Approve every change to your SolidWorks model before it runs."
Ask for large tasks, the default. "Review the plan once before the agent changes your SolidWorks model. Small reads run freely."
Never ask. "Let the agent change your SolidWorks model without asking."

On either of the first two, an Agent turn runs a read-only planning pass first and then stops with the steps and an Approve or Deny prompt. Nothing in your document has been touched at that point. Only Approve continues the turn. In Agent Mode the two asking tiers behave the same way; the difference between them shows up in Drawings Mode, which Always ask blocks outright.

A turn that arrives already approved skips the prompt: an approved plan from Plan Mode, and a concept you picked in Imagine Mode.

The dashboard carries a separate preference, "Apply Agent changes without review". The panel setting on the machine you are working at is what gates the turn. See preferences.

What revert actually undoes

CADABRA does not group a run into one SOLIDWORKS undo record. Revert is a feature-tree diff.

Revert is an Agent Mode request, not a button. There is no revert control in the panel. In Agent Mode, send revert the last step for one step, or undo everything you just built for the whole build.

One step back deletes the feature the last step added.
Reverting the build deletes every feature the run created, in reverse creation order so dependents go before their parents, absorbed sketches included, then rebuilds. The reply reads "The model is back to its state at the start of this run." The record is dropped when the next prompt starts, so revert reaches this run and no further.
The result names three lists: what was reverted, what could not be deleted, and what was not undoable.
In-place edits are in that last list and stay applied: a changed dimension, a changed material, an edited fillet radius. So are deletes, which revert cannot bring back.
A feature it could not delete, usually because a PropertyManager page is open or an external reference holds it, is named so you can delete it yourself.

Ordinary SOLIDWORKS undo still exists and is not what CADABRA uses. After a run it is unreliable anyway, because of the rebuilds and selection changes in between.

There is no file checkpoint and no save-and-reopen safety net. Save before a large run.

Export is an Agent Mode request

There is no export button. You ask for it, in Agent Mode, and only when you ask: nothing is exported as a side effect of a build or a drawing.

Give an absolute path. The extension picks the format.

PDF, STEP, IGES, Parasolid, STL and 3MF.
Native saves to .sldprt and .sldasm, and saving bodies out as separate parts.
DXF and DWG from a sheet metal flat pattern only, never from an assembly.

Overwriting a file that already exists needs an explicit instruction.

A drawing on screen never reaches the export tool. With a drawing active every prompt routes into Drawings Mode, which carries no export tool, so there is no chat route to a drawing PDF.

To get a PDF of the sheet, open the generated .SLDDRW and use SOLIDWORKS File, then Save As, and choose PDF. Exporting the part or the assembly instead gives you a view of the model, not the dimensioned sheet.

Exporting, said the way the tool reads it.

export this as a PDF to C:\Projects\Bracket\bracket.pdf
save a STEP of this assembly to C:\Projects\Gearbox\gearbox.step
flatten the sheet metal part and save the DXF to C:\Projects\Panel\panel.dxf

Worked examples

Change every fillet under 3 mm on this part to 2 mm.: Edits the matching fillets in one batched operation rather than one at a time, and reports which features it touched.
Add four M8 clearance holes on a 90 mm bolt circle centered on the top face.: Sketches on the named face, places the bolt circle at the measured center, and runs Hole Wizard at the M8 clearance size.
Insert the bearing from this folder at both ends of the shaft and mate them concentric and coincident.: Inserts each instance, then adds the real joints as mates. It asks rather than guessing if the reference face is ambiguous.
Break every external edge at 0.5 mm.: Sweeps the whole family in one call using an edge selector, so edges created by later features in the same run are included rather than left sharp.

How it decides to build

It builds assemblies as assemblies. Anything that is not one machined, molded or fabricated piece is treated as several parts: anything with a fastener, a bearing, a moving joint, a seal, or two different materials. It builds each part in its own document and mates them. A build that ends as one part carrying several bodies has not delivered a multi-part design, and it says so plainly rather than calling it done.

It builds to the numbers you gave. When your own dimensions cannot all hold, it builds exactly what you specified, measures the result, and reports the conflict with the measured value. It does not quietly add geometry to make a contradictory spec pass.

What it does not do

Surfacing, weldments, simulation, CAM and rendering.
Produce an opposite-hand part. Mirroring a component mirrors where it sits, not which way round it is, so it is a true mirror only for a part already symmetric about that plane.
Export an open drawing sheet. See above.

If the reference is ambiguous, a dimension is missing, or two constraints conflict, it says so and asks rather than picking for you.