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To start a SolidWorks engagement
Scoping through first sprint
100%
Senior engineers, US-based
No offshore handoff mid-project
Every sprint
Working automation you can test
Not a status deck between milestones
100%
Code and add-ins you own
From the first commit
What we build
What we actually build around SolidWorks
None of the following is CAD design work. It's the software layer that makes SolidWorks talk to the rest of your systems and turns a repetitive manual task into an automated one.
Custom add-ins and macros
Automating a repeated modeling, drawing, or export task through SolidWorks' own API — the kind of work a designer currently does by hand, over and over, that's a genuinely mechanical process once it's scripted correctly.
PDM integration and automation
Connecting SolidWorks PDM's vault to other systems, automating check-in/check-out workflows, and building the metadata and state-transition rules a design-review process actually needs rather than relying on default behavior.
ERP, MES, and PLM integration
Keeping part numbers, revisions, and bills of materials synchronized between SolidWorks and the ERP or PLM system that manufacturing, purchasing, and planning actually run on, so a change in one place doesn't quietly drift out of sync with the other.
Drawing and BOM automation
Bulk-generating drawings, exporting BOMs in the format a downstream system expects, and applying consistent title-block and revision data automatically instead of by hand on every part.
Data migration between CAD systems
Moving an existing design library from another CAD platform into SolidWorks, or consolidating multiple CAD sources into one PDM vault, with the file-format and metadata mapping that migration actually requires.
Design automation and configurators
Rules-driven generation of a model and its drawings from a set of input parameters — a common part family or a build-to-order product line where the same design logic gets applied over and over with different dimensions.
What's involved
SolidWorks engagement types
What moves the scope here isn't part count — it's how many outside systems a workflow has to stay synchronized with, and how much of the current process is still manual, one part at a time.
| Engagement | Commitment | Timeline | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| SolidWorks workflow audit | Fixed scope | 1 – 3 weeks | A review of your current CAD, PDM, and data workflow, and a prioritized list of what's worth automating versus what's already fine as-is. |
| Custom add-in or macro build | Fixed scope | 3 – 8 weeks | A SolidWorks API add-in or macro that automates a specific modeling, drawing, or export task, tested against your own part library. |
| PDM integration | Fixed scope | 4 – 10 weeks | Connecting SolidWorks PDM to another system, or building custom workflow and metadata automation inside the vault itself. |
| ERP/PLM/MES integration | Fixed scope | 6 – 14 weeks | Synchronizing part numbers, revisions, and BOM data between SolidWorks and the ERP, PLM, or MES system the rest of the business runs on. |
| Ongoing support and maintenance | Ongoing retainer | Ongoing | Standing ownership of custom add-ins and integrations through SolidWorks version upgrades and process changes. |
Ranges assume US-based senior engineers and include testing against your own part library rather than a generic sample set. The audit exists as a first step because the honest scope of a SolidWorks automation project depends entirely on how the current manual process actually works, which usually isn't fully documented anywhere.
The API
The SolidWorks API, and what it's actually good for
SolidWorks exposes a COM-based API that a surprising number of design teams never touch, either because nobody on staff has the .NET background or because the tasks worth automating aren't obvious until someone's spent real time in the workflow.
COM-based, and typically built in C# or VB.NET
SolidWorks' API is a COM interface, which in practice means add-ins and macros are almost always written in C# or VB.NET rather than a language a typical web or backend team already knows — one reason this work tends to sit outside a general software team's usual scope.
Macros vs. full add-ins
A macro is a quick, recordable-and-editable script for a single repeated task; a full add-in is a compiled, installed extension that integrates into SolidWorks' own UI and can run persistently across a whole design team. Which one is worth building depends entirely on how often the task runs and how many people need it.
What can and can't be automated
Feature-tree manipulation, drawing generation, BOM export, and property-manager-driven configuration are all genuinely automatable through the API. Freeform geometric design decisions that require real engineering judgment are not, and treating automation as a replacement for that judgment rather than a tool for the repetitive parts around it is the most common way these projects go wrong.
Version compatibility across SolidWorks releases
SolidWorks ships a new version yearly, and an add-in built against one version's API can need real rework to keep working cleanly against the next — a maintenance cost worth budgeting for rather than discovering the first time an upgrade breaks a critical macro.
Automated processes still need real licenses
An add-in or a batch process that opens and manipulates SolidWorks files still runs through a licensed SolidWorks session, which is a planning question for any automation that needs to run unattended or in parallel across multiple machines, not a detail to discover after the build is done.
PDM
PDM and the data problem underneath every CAD workflow
Most of the pain in a growing SolidWorks environment isn't the modeling — it's finding the right version of the right file, and knowing whether it's safe to reuse.
Central vault architecture
SolidWorks PDM stores every file, revision, and its metadata in one central repository rather than scattered across individual machines and shared drives — the foundational fix for the "which folder has the real version" problem that plagues file-based CAD environments.
Version control for CAD files
Check-out and check-in locking prevents two engineers from silently overwriting each other's work on the same file, with full revision history available to roll back to any prior state — version control for CAD assemblies, which behave very differently from source code under a diff.
Metadata and workflow automation
Custom properties, approval workflows, and state transitions (in design, in review, released) can be automated so a part can't reach manufacturing without going through the review your process actually requires — configured to match your real approval chain, not PDM's defaults.
Migrating from local files to PDM
Moving an existing library of loose files into a PDM vault means resolving broken references, duplicate parts, and inconsistent naming that accumulated over years of file-based work — usually the least glamorous and most valuable part of a PDM rollout.
Search and reuse of existing designs
A properly tagged PDM vault turns "has anyone built something like this before" from a hallway question into an actual search, which is one of the more concrete ways good data organization pays for itself in reduced duplicate design work.
Multi-CAD environments
Shops running SolidWorks alongside another CAD platform — common after an acquisition or a legacy product line — need a PDM strategy that handles both without forcing every file into a format it wasn't authored in.
Where it pays off
Where custom SolidWorks software work actually pays off
Not every repetitive task justifies a custom build. Here's the honest read on where the investment tends to make sense and where an existing tool already covers it.
Design automation and configurators
A build-to-order product line where the same part family gets redrawn with new dimensions over and over is a strong candidate for a rules-driven configurator. For simpler cases, SolidWorks' own configuration and DriveWorksXpress tools may already cover it without a custom build.
Bulk drawing and BOM export automation
Generating dozens or hundreds of drawings and BOM exports in a consistent format is exactly the kind of mechanical, error-prone-by-hand task that pays back a custom macro quickly, particularly when it runs on a recurring schedule rather than once.
ERP-to-CAD synchronization
Keeping part numbers and revision states aligned between SolidWorks and an ERP system prevents the specific, expensive failure mode where manufacturing builds to a revision that's already been superseded in engineering.
Legacy data migration
Consolidating a multi-CAD design history into one SolidWorks PDM vault is a real project with real edge cases — broken references, unit mismatches, naming collisions — worth scoping honestly rather than treated as a weekend script.
Quality and inspection data tied back to models
Linking inspection results or as-built measurements back to the originating model and revision closes a traceability loop that a lot of manufacturing quality processes need and don't have, particularly in regulated industries.
Related
Related services
What SolidWorks integration projects usually connect to.
Questions
Common questions about SolidWorks development
What teams ask before a first call.
What drives the cost is how many outside systems a workflow has to stay synchronized with — a PDM vault, an ERP system, a PLM platform — and how much of the current process is still manual. A single macro automating one task is a much smaller scope than a full ERP-to-PDM synchronization.
An audit of your current workflow is the fastest way to a real figure, since a quote based on a generic description tends to miss whatever manual process is actually consuming the most time.
Builds custom add-ins and macros against SolidWorks' own API, configures and integrates SolidWorks PDM, and connects SolidWorks data to ERP, PLM, or MES systems — the software layer around the CAD platform, not the mechanical part design itself.
Most of this work is written in C# or VB.NET, since that's what SolidWorks' COM-based API expects, which is part of why it sits outside a typical software team's usual scope.
Software integration and automation, not mechanical part design. We build the add-ins, PDM workflows, and system integrations that make SolidWorks work better with the rest of your business — the design work itself stays with your engineers, who know the product.
Yes. Whether a macro or a full compiled add-in is the right call depends on how often the task runs and how many people on your team need it — a macro suits an occasional, single-user task, while an add-in makes more sense for something a whole design team relies on regularly. We'll scope which one actually fits during the audit.
Yes — this is one of the most common engagements we run. The work is keeping part numbers, revisions, and BOM data synchronized between systems so a change made in one place doesn't silently drift out of sync with the other, which is the failure mode that causes manufacturing to build against an outdated revision.
Yes. Migrating an existing design library into SolidWorks, or consolidating a multi-CAD design history into one PDM vault, is real project work — resolving broken references, unit mismatches, and naming inconsistencies that accumulate over years — and we scope it as such rather than as a quick script.
Yes. Source code for any add-in, macro, or integration is yours, in your own repository, from the first commit. That's the only arrangement that lets you hand maintenance to another developer or team later without a handoff negotiation over who owns what.
It depends on the task. Simple configuration needs are sometimes already covered by SolidWorks' own configurator tools or by DriveWorksXpress, and a custom build isn't worth it there. A custom add-in earns its cost when the task is specific enough to your process that no off-the-shelf tool quite fits, or when it needs to talk to another system those tools don't integrate with.
We'll give you a candid read on which situation you're in during the audit, rather than defaulting to a custom build because that's what we sell.