CADABRA itself is not working

Four places this breaks: the add-in registration, the network, the account, and the run. Each has its own message, and the message tells you which one you are in.

The CADABRA icon is not in SOLIDWORKS

The add-in is installed but not loaded, or it was never registered.

  1. In SOLIDWORKS, open Tools, then Add-Ins.
  2. Scroll to Other Add-Ins. The left box loads CADABRA in this session, the Start Up box loads it in every session. Setup writes the Start Up flag itself, so both are normally already ticked.
  3. If CADABRA is not in the list at all, registration did not complete. Close SOLIDWORKS entirely and run Cadabra.Bundle.exe again. Setup cannot replace files or write the COM registration while SOLIDWORKS is open, and installing the version you already have is the supported repair.

Setup writes every step to %ProgramData%\CADABRA\install.log. That file is the only artifact when the panel never appears, so attach it if you contact us. The full check list is in install, and the uninstall and reinstall path is in uninstall, repair and reinstall.

If the icon is there but the pane shows a Windows error label instead of the chat interface, that is a WebView2 or payload failure rather than a registration one: see pane failures.

The panel opens but cannot reach CADABRA

The panel interface is served from disk, so the interface painting is not evidence of a working connection. Only the API calls cross the network, over HTTPS on port 443.

The hosts to allow

These carry everything the panel does after install.

  • api.cadabrai.com, for every prompt, and the update check.
  • accounts.cadabrai.com, for sign-in, your plan, and usage.
  • cadabrai.com, for the dashboard and billing links the panel opens.

The rest are not needed to run a prompt: builds.dotnet.microsoft.com for the .NET 9 Desktop Runtime, during setup only, and stcadabraprds3lz74yr.blob.core.windows.net for the installer download and in-app updates, and cadabra-installers.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com for the installer the update service advertises. The full table, with what breaks when each one is blocked, is hosts to allow.

A blocked host breaks the matching feature. Blocking api.cadabrai.com stops every prompt. Blocking accounts.cadabrai.com leaves you unable to sign in or read your usage. Blocking the update hosts leaves the panel working but unable to install an update.

Behind a proxy

The add-in carries no proxy settings of its own. It uses the Windows system proxy, a PAC script included, and it validates certificates against the Windows certificate store with no pinning. A proxy that inspects TLS therefore works once its root certificate is trusted on the machine, and breaks every call when it is not, without blocking a single host. That is the case to rule out when the hosts are open and nothing connects.

There is nowhere to enter proxy credentials, so a proxy that demands its own sign-in has to let these hosts through without one.

When there is no connectivity at all

The add-in still loads, but the saved session cannot be validated, so you land back on the sign-in screen rather than seeing an error. That is the symptom to expect on a machine that is offline or fully blocked.

Nothing about your network is measured from your side by the status page, so check these hosts before reporting an outage.

Sign-in is refused

The panel prints the message the service returned, word for word. Which message you get names the cause.

Another machine holds the account

One workstation is active at a time on Free, Student, Standard and Professional. Enterprise is not limited to one. Signing in on a second machine is refused and the refusal names the machine holding the account. Nothing is taken over automatically.

Release the first machine from the dashboard Account page, Device group, then sign in again on the new one. The full procedure is releasing a machine.

Too many machines in 30 days

Activation is also throttled by machine, separately from the one-at-a-time rule: three distinct devices in a rolling 30-day window. A fourth is refused, and the message says how many days remain before the oldest of the three ages out. An already-known device is never throttled, so moving between two laptops costs nothing. On a team, an admin can clear it with Release device on the member row: seats and members.

This machine was released

If someone released this machine from the dashboard while the panel was still open, the panel stops working and says so. Signing in again from here takes the account back, and blocks whichever machine was activated in the meantime.

The email is not confirmed

A new account is unverified until the code from the sign-up email is entered. Sign-in returns 403 with "Please confirm your email first." Finish verification on the website, then sign in in the panel. Changing your email address makes the account unverified again.

The password is wrong, or there is no password

Forgot password? at the bottom of the sign-in form opens /dashboard/forgot in your browser. Reset there, then come back to the panel. An account created through Microsoft or through your company identity provider has no CADABRA password to reset, and the refusal says so.

Single sign-on

Continue with single sign-on opens your browser, runs the flow at your provider, and hands the session back to the panel. Use it for any account on company SSO. If your provider needs a step the panel cannot show, sign-in stops with "Additional sign-in step required. Please sign in on the CADABRA website." Two-step verification is handled in the panel: it asks for the 6-digit code from your authenticator app, and enrols you if your organization requires it and you have not set it up. Setup, domain verification and the provider-side errors are in SSO.

The refusals, as the panel prints them. The name in quotes is the machine already holding the account.

CADABRA is already active on "<name>". Release it from your account settings to use this one.

You have activated CADABRA on 3 devices recently. You can activate another in <n> days, or ask an admin to reset it.

This device was released. Sign in again to activate CADABRA on it.

Please confirm your email first.

Incorrect email or password. If you signed up with Microsoft, use the Microsoft button instead.

Your password is managed by your single sign-on provider, so it cannot be changed here.

Sign-in timed out. Please check your connection and try again.

Requests are being declined

Three different limits refuse a run, and they are not the same thing.

  • The mode is not on your plan. The turn never reaches the service. The transcript answers that the mode is unavailable and shows an Upgrade button. See what unlocks each mode.
  • The credit allowance is exhausted. The service answers 429 and the turn does not run. The message names your plan and the date the allowance returns. The quota is checked before the turn and again before each model call, so a long Agent run can stop part-way with the same message.
  • The rate limit. 120 requests a minute per account, which is not the credit allowance. It clears on its own within a minute, and changing level does not help.

The dashboard Overview page is the meter: Used, Requests and Resets in. Extra usage for the current period is bought from Billing on Student, Professional and Enterprise; from Free the only path is a plan change. See plans, credits and limits and extra usage.

The exact wording of each refusal, and how the credit message differs per plan, is on error messages.

It did nothing

The turn answered and the model is untouched. Check three things, in this order.

  1. The mode pill. Only Agent and Drawings change the model, so a request to build or edit sent in Ask, Plan, Debug or Imagine is refused before anything is touched, and the answer reads “That would change your model. Switch to Agent mode to build or edit it.” Switch the pill to Agent and send it again, or take the Run in Agent handoff under the answer.
  2. The line under the answer. Couldn’t confirm this change. Check your model. means the operation reported success and the check after it could not prove the change landed. The feature tree settles it.
  3. The instruction. A reference that resolves to nothing, and a missing number, both produce an answer rather than an edit. Writing prompts covers the grammar that removes both.

On an active drawing every prompt routes through Drawings Mode whatever the pill says, and a read-only mode there reviews without editing: Drawings refusals.

It did something I did not expect

CADABRA does not group a run into a single SOLIDWORKS undo record. Revert is a feature-tree diff, in two scopes: reverting the last step deletes the most recently created feature, and reverting the build deletes every feature the run added, by feature id. An in-place change that added no feature, such as a dimension value, a material or a custom property, is reported as not undone, and a feature the run deleted is not brought back. Ordinary SOLIDWORKS undo still exists, but the rebuilds and selection changes during a run make it unreliable afterwards, and there is no file checkpoint. Read what revert really does before you rely on it.

Read the feature tree first. It shows exactly what was added, renamed or suppressed. Then revert, or repair the specific feature.

Then look at the instruction. An unexpected result is almost always an ambiguous reference or a missing number, and writing prompts covers the grammar that removes both. If the instruction was unambiguous and the result was still wrong, thumbs down under the answer opens a two-field form, What did you expect? and Why did this response miss the mark?, which sends what you typed with the request id and your version. It sends no logs and no chat, and it is not a support ticket: for that, contact us with the prompt and your version number.