This is the English reading version of the Dutch news item VibeCadden in Solidworks.
Today I spent some time connecting an MCP server to SolidWorks, and with it I made a licence plate, using DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. After a rough start it went quite well in the end.
A rough start, then it went fast
The first attempts were not promising. The model could not get the border to follow the rounded corner, turned the whole plate black while colouring, and a recess cut the letters loose from the plate. Every time it was my eye that saw what went wrong and my instruction that fixed it.
After that it went very well. Once the bot had worked out how the program fits together, the changes came quickly. Sometimes it got stuck and needed a nudge. But once it had the basics it went fine. On top of that, everything it learns you have it save in a skill, so the next time I need a licence plate the bot builds it in a few seconds.
Like a new colleague
It felt like training a new colleague. You explain what you want, look at what comes out and say what has to change, just like with someone who has just left school. The difference is that this colleague never leaves or gets tired. It only gets better, and if you set it up well it does not only get more expensive either.
No upgrade needed
I ran the test in SolidWorks 2025, a version from before MCP servers were a thing, so you do not need to run the newest version.
You do not always need the most expensive model either. Something as simple as a licence plate or a small bracket works in a smaller model too, like the one I used here, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
My verdict: it does not replace an engineer yet, but in my design time I have spent days on end drawing small brackets, and if AI can do that I can get on with more interesting designs. And because the knowledge is stored locally, you are less dependent on the CAD package. I can now have my bot make a licence plate in SolidCraft as well.