# Components and fasteners: what CADABRA uses from your seat

> Where a component comes from when CADABRA inserts one: a part you name, your local SOLIDWORKS Toolbox, or a parametric screw it generates. There is no PLM, PDM, or catalog connector.

URL: https://cadabrai.com/docs/standards/libraries-and-plm/
Updated: 2026-08-15

---

- [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/)

# Components and libraries

CADABRA uses what your workstation already has. It does not connect to a PLM, a PDM vault, or a supplier catalog.

## Where a fastener comes from

Ask for a fastener and CADABRA sizes one to the hole, then sources it in a fixed order and stops at the first that resolves.

1. **A company part you name.** Give it a path and that part is the one used.
2. **Your local SOLIDWORKS Toolbox**, so the fastener is the standard part your seat is already configured with.
3. **A parametric screw it generates**, when neither of the first two is available.

You can pin the source rather than letting it choose: company, toolbox, or parametric. If none of the three can supply a screw, it tells you rather than inserting a substitute.

## What happens after insertion

An inserted fastener is mated automatically: concentric between the shank and the bore, coincident between the head and the mouth of the hole.

Components you name directly are inserted the same way, and can be mirrored or patterned.

Requires

Toolbox sourcing needs Toolbox installed and configured on that workstation. If it is not, CADABRA falls through to a generated screw rather than failing.

## What is not connected

There is no PLM connector, no PDM connector, and no supplier catalog lookup. CADABRA cannot tell you whether an approved part already exists elsewhere in your organization, and it cannot resolve a McMaster-Carr or MISUMI ordering number.

Ask Mode can search the web for supplier and specification data and tell you what it found, but nothing places a catalog part into your assembly for you.

## How this sits with your vault

CADABRA edits the document SOLIDWORKS has open, so whatever your vault permits is what happens. It does not write revision state, it does not check files in or out, and it does not work around a checkout held by someone else.

On this page

- [Where a fastener comes from](#fastener-source)
- [What happens after insertion](#mating)
- [What is not connected](#no-connector)
- [How this sits with your vault](#pdm)