Automating Mold Design in SolidWorks — What the API Can and Can't Do
Every few weeks a mold shop posts a job for a Python or C# developer who can automate their SolidWorks mold design pipeline. The scope is usually the same: take an incoming 3D model, run shrinkage, generate parting surfaces, split the core and cavity, and hand off tooling data. The assumption is that because SolidWorks has a documented API, every mold step is scriptable. It isn’t. Some steps map cleanly to IFeatureManager calls. Others still require a human to pick faces in the graphics area. Knowing which is which is the difference between a pipeline that ships and one that spends six months bouncing between the add-in and the user. ...