Tool Catalog — All 152 Tools

This reference documents all 152 MCP tools registered by the SolidWorks MCP server. Each section covers one functional category with parameter tables and copy-paste sample calls.

Quick Navigation

Category	Count	Description
Modeling Tools	30	Create and manipulate SolidWorks parts, assemblies, and drawings — sketches, extrusions, revolves, dimensions, feature renaming, chamfers/fillets, and the document unit system.
Sketching Tools	19	Build 2-D sketch geometry (lines, circles, arcs, splines, polygons) and apply geometric constraints and dimensions.
Drawing Tools	14	Create and edit 2-D technical drawings: add projected, section, and detail views, place annotations, and auto-dimension layouts.
Drawing Analysis Tools	8	Quality-gate your drawings by analyzing dimensions, annotations, view coverage, standards compliance, and completeness.
Drawing Automation Tools	5	Model dimensions laid out without overlaps, BOM tables, sheet scale and complete A3 drawings.
Engineering Data Tools	8	Read and edit the data drawings and BOMs are built from: model dimensions by name, measurements, materials, custom properties and sheet-metal flat patterns.
Analysis Tools	6	Check a finished part or assembly against expected values, and extract mass, volume, center of mass, inertia, interference and material metadata.
Export Tools	7	Convert SolidWorks models to industry-standard interchange and manufacturing formats such as STEP, IGES, STL, DWG, PDF, and images.
File Management Tools	19	Open, save, and manage SolidWorks documents; load parts and assemblies, switch the active document, enumerate what's open, inspect model metadata, classify model families, and read the live UI selection.
Automation Tools	8	Orchestrate multi-step workflows, run batch file processing, manage design tables, and tune performance settings.
VBA Generation Tools	10	Generate and execute VBA macro code for operations that exceed direct COM call complexity or require procedural automation.
Template Management Tools	6	Create, extract, apply, compare, and manage SolidWorks document templates in a reusable library workflow.
Macro Recording Tools	7	Record, replay, analyze, and optimize SolidWorks VBA macros, including macro libraries and batch execution workflows.
Docs Discovery Tools	5	Look up SolidWorks API interfaces and member signatures, read from the installed SolidWorks type library.

Standard Response Envelope

A successful call returns at least:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Human-readable description",
  "data": { ... },
  "execution_time": 0.123
}

Every tool runs inside one error boundary, so a failed call always has the same shape, whatever went wrong:

{
  "status": "error",
  "message": "What failed and why",
  "error_type": "no_active_document",
  "hint": "Open or create a document first (open_model / create_part), or activate one with activate_document, then retry.",
  "execution_time": 0.012
}

data appears on an error only when the adapter returned diagnostics worth keeping (for example rebuild_model lists the failing features). error_type says what kind of failure it was; hint is the next step to take:

error_type	Meaning
invalid_input	The arguments failed validation; nothing was sent to SolidWorks
not_supported	The active adapter cannot do this (e.g. the mock adapter, or a missing capability)
no_active_document	The tool needs an open document and there is none
no_active_sketch	The tool needs an open sketch and there is none
wrong_document_type	The active document is the wrong kind (e.g. a part where a drawing is needed)
not_found	A named feature, document, view, file, face or edge does not exist
solidworks_unavailable	SolidWorks was closed or crashed (RPC disconnect)
circuit_open	Calls are paused after repeated failures; retry after the breaker timeout
com_wrong_thread	A SolidWorks call ran off the thread that connected (a server bug; restart the server)
com_member_not_found	SolidWorks could not resolve an API member: usually a method the server forgot to flag (a server bug; report the tool), or a stale gen_py cache after a SolidWorks upgrade
com_type_mismatch	SolidWorks rejected an argument's COM type (a server bug; report it)
feature_not_built	SolidWorks accepted the call but the geometry gave it nothing to build (e.g. a cut whose profile misses the body in both directions); change the inputs, don't retry as is
operation_failed	SolidWorks refused or failed the operation; read message
internal	An unexpected server error (a bug; report the tool and arguments)

Request → Response Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant LLM
    participant MCP as MCP Server
    participant COM as SolidWorks COM
    participant SW as SolidWorks

    LLM->>MCP: tool call + JSON payload
    MCP->>MCP: Pydantic input validation
    MCP->>COM: COM API call (pywin32)
    COM->>SW: Windows COM dispatch
    SW-->>COM: return value / results
    COM-->>MCP: Python object
    MCP-->>LLM: success response payload

Calling Tools from an LLM

Pass parameters as a JSON object. Only required fields (marked ✅) must be included. All others default to sensible values.

Goal: calculate mass of the open model

Tool: calculate_mass_properties
Payload: {}

Goal: export active part to STEP

Tool: export_step
Payload:
{  "file_path": "C:\\Temp\\part.step" }