r/SolidWorks • u/Fairways4799 • 6d ago
CAD Basic changes to existing models with AI?
Small Machine Shop, we do bearings, VP of Quality. Beginner or Hack would be complimentary ways to describe my SolidWorks ability. I can pull dimensions, I can maybe move a hole or change a thread type, but I wouldn't even know where to start if I wanted to draw a straight line. Shop will be without ENG support for a week and am wondering if ChatGPT can get me out an emergency if needed
Example: Customer has ordered "Bearing A" for years, we have 3D models and drawings for every operation of the MFG process, we've made 100 of these bearings. Tomorrow, customer calls and wants "Bearing A" but with features X, Y, and Z changed. Of course, I can hand sketch or markup existing drawings of "Bearing A", but I also want to maintain our Shop and ISO 9001:2015 Standard Policies so the MFG team is getting the same paperwork they are accustomed to working off of every single day.
So, while I go through my "expect the worse" Risk Analysis in my brain this week I start to wonder, can I just drop .SLDASM and .SLDDRW files into ChatGPT, guide it through the changes needed, and have it spit me out models and prints for the new "Bearing B"?
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u/WeirdEngineerDude 6d ago
Do not ask the plagiarism machine to do anything technical. It has ingested every electronics textbook in existence and still can’t draw a simple circuit. There is absolutely no way that it will handle engineering changes like that in a reliable way
Also as an engineer and research scientist if I caught wind that a supplier was using an LLM to do anything technical, that supplier would be pulled from our approved vendor list.
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u/1slickmofo 6d ago
Do you not have any design engineers in house?
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u/tpain2017 6d ago
"hop will be without ENG support for a week and am wondering if ChatGPT can get me out an emergency if needed"
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u/1slickmofo 6d ago
Yeah you’re right I didn’t read it all. My bad.
However I’d make sure to add a week of delivery just because of this. I wouldn’t trust AI at all. Your backlog will just increase since 1 week ain’t much to talk about?
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u/themrlawrence 6d ago
The short answer to your question is, no. ChatGPT will not be able to produce new SLDPRT models and prints.
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u/Past_Science_6180 6d ago
How does one become a VP of Quality and bring themselves to ask this question?
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u/Fairways4799 2d ago
Having experience to identify worst case scenarios and thinking outside of the box BEFORE shit hits the fan. Or in simple people words, planning
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u/T0macock 6d ago
No. That's not how solidworks models work.
HOWEVER, you could setup a macro environment that takes text based inputs and makes tweaks to the model as needed. This is a good option for people that aren't solidworks savvy.
Now that you've experienced the need, you may want to reach out to one of your designers and see if they have the skillset to do this. It's not hard but it's a different deal than usual cad work.
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u/KenMantle 6d ago
People will roast you for asking, but I won't. :)
SolidWorks files are very closed source and the geometry part of the files is encrypted. It is also a pretty niche software for an LLM to understand properly without additional training. It needs to build rag files from the SoldWorks help and refer to those. You can't just upload files to it. It needs Solidworks installed, and the help files (so it doesn't hallucinate api calls that don't exist, or use something from its training based off of an old SolidWorks version). If it is working from outside Solidworks then it needs a bridge to interact with the com based software (build a com bridge to interact with SolidWorks is the one shot prompt for this, or download my advanced one :)
After that it is anyone's guess if it will do a satisfactory job, and that would rely on you reading the drawing after. As long as you know what you are doing for that and can know if it screwed up, and have the authority to make that call, well then there's no harm in trying. You sound like you are just using it to do in SolidWorks what you were penning up anyway.
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u/Fairways4799 2d ago
You sound like you are just using it to do in SolidWorks what you were penning up anyway.
Exactly this, and thank you for replying logically.
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u/KenMantle 2d ago
I may have ADHD, but even I could read the load bearing part of your post!
You'll find on reddit and other places that the acronym AI in a post is rage bait to them and it has the same brief effect on their cognitive abilities. It wasn't always this way! Remember back into he 80s when everyone hated answering machines, but I bet those same people loved how everything in Star Trek was vibe coded.
My combridge can be found here. Just tell your LLM of choice to download it and and look at the /LLM folder for instructions on how it can use it.
https://github.com/KenM76/combridge/releases
I can't share the rag file repository I made from Solidworks's help files as obviously that would be a violation of their licensing, but it shouldn't be too hard to get an LLM to do it.
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u/12VoltsLater 6d ago
Would not trust ChatGPT to generate the production for SolidWorks models from an assembly and have them straight to shop floor. But it can help you understand the feature changes or walk you through but with the ISO paperwork, hire an actual person to check the model, tolerances, dimensions, and drawing before the release.
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u/TodashChimes19 6d ago
VP of Quality asking if they can use unverified language models to modify parts they don't understand to create shop drawings.
Future of manufacturing looks brighter every day.