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 screw and CADABRA sizes one to the measured bore, then tries three sources in a fixed order and stops at the first that supplies one.

  1. A company part you name. Point it at a .sldprt, or at a folder of screws. From a folder it picks the closest metric size to the hole, read from the filename, so SHCS_M5x16.sldprt is understood as an M5.
  2. Your local SOLIDWORKS Toolbox. The Toolbox folder is resolved from your SOLIDWORKS settings, and up to 2,000 files in it are scanned for screw parts that fit the bore.
  3. A parametric screw it models. No Toolbox and no library file needed. It builds the screw from primitives into a new part saved beside the assembly.

You can pin the source instead of letting it choose: company, toolbox or parametric. If every source declines, the failure names why each one declined rather than inserting something that looks close.

What happens after insertion

The screw is dropped at the hole mouth and mated: concentric between the shank and the bore, coincident between the head and the mouth. Where a component has several bores, the exact face is used so the concentric mate is unambiguous. You can ask for rough placement with no mates instead.

Filling an assembly runs as a loop: find the holes, insert into each one that reads as unfilled, then check the holes again. Where the hole depth is unknown, the shank is sized at three times the diameter.

Components you name directly are inserted the same way, and can be replaced, mirrored, patterned, fixed, floated or mated afterwards like any other component.

What is not connected

No PLM or PDM connector today. There is no supplier catalog lookup either. 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 into a component.

Ask Mode can search the web for supplier and specification data and tell you what it found, including thread and tap-drill tables, material alternatives and standards references. Nothing places a catalog part into your assembly for you.

If a connector matters to your team, tell us which system on the contact page.

How this sits with your vault

CADABRA edits the document SOLIDWORKS already 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 someone else holds. A file you have not checked out is read-only to CADABRA for the same reason it is read-only to you.

Files CADABRA creates land on disk, not in the vault: a generated drawing saves as <ModelName>.SLDDRW beside its model, and a parametric screw saves beside its assembly. Adding them to the vault is your normal check-in.

Questions

Does CADABRA integrate with PLM or PDM?
No PLM or PDM connector today. CADABRA works on the files you have open and the drawing standards you upload, and your PDM rules around those files keep applying. If a connector matters to your team, tell us which system.
Can it find the right component instead of me modeling one?
For fasteners, yes. CADABRA sizes one to the measured bore and takes it from a company part you name, then your SOLIDWORKS Toolbox, then a parametric screw it models, stopping at the first source that supplies one. It can also insert and mirror components you point it at. For anything else, Ask Mode can search the web for supplier and specification data, but nothing places a catalog part into your assembly for you.