From now on, you will be able to complete complex designs easily by chatting with SolidWorks' AI assistant as if you were talking with ChatGPT.
Manish Kumar, SolidWorks chief executive officer (CEO), said this at a press conference for "3DEXPERIENCE World 2026" held on the 2nd (local time) at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. He said, "About 30 years ago, we launched SolidWorks with the goal of putting CAD (computer-aided design) software on every engineer's desk," adding, "Recently, we integrated generative artificial intelligence (AI) into SolidWorks, dramatically lowering the barrier to entry for design."
SolidWorks is the flagship 3D CAD (computer-aided design) software from France's Dassault Systèmes and is one of the most widely used product development platforms worldwide in mechanical and product design. In fact, Dassault Systèmes' global CAD market share reaches 44%. In recent years, Dassault Systèmes has focused on applying AI to SolidWorks to improve efficiency across the entire engineering process, including product design, drawing creation, simulation, and 3D modeling.
Kumar said, "Until now, CAD was the domain of experts, but with the advent of AI, even nonexperts can design." On this day, Dassault Systèmes unveiled SolidWorks-only AI assistants "AURA," "LEO," and "MARIE." When a user types a request into the chat window as if speaking with an AI chatbot, this trio of "virtual companions" helps generate new designs based on various data such as the user's existing designs and documents.
Kumar explained, "Even people who aren't Photoshop experts can ask ChatGPT or Gemini these days for a specific image and have the AI chatbot create it on the spot, which makes everyone an image-generation expert," adding, "We developed AURA, LEO, and MARIE to achieve a similar level of accessibility in the design field."
AURA is an AI assistant that coordinates knowledge and context across a project. Kumar said, "AURA plays a role similar to popular chatbots on the market based on large language models (LLMs), agreeing with user opinions and supporting tasks," noting it is "for exploring ideas."
LEO handles more specific engineering and reasoning. When a user presents a design idea, LEO checks whether it can actually be built. MARIE serves as the scientist of the trio, offering scientific advice based on materials, chemistry, and microbiology.
For example, if you enter the question, "What material should be used for the wings of this electric hydrofoil?", AURA explores various possibilities and makes recommendations, MARIE presents scientific grounds for which material would be most efficient, and LEO indicates whether a particular material is feasible in the real world.
Kumar said that by using the three AI assistants together, a user can complete designs easily with requests such as "Create a shape 100 cm wide and 20 cm long," "Select the vertical edges and apply fillet treatment," and "Drill two holes on the top face." He said, "The biggest advantage is being able to converse with SolidWorks and work easily when tackling complex design tasks." The company said this can shorten work time and reduce costs.
However, addressing concerns that advances in AI-based design solutions could cost engineers their jobs, he said, "AI is just an engine; the driver who decides where to go is the engineer." He added, "AI is suitable for tasks such as automating repetitive work, but it does not understand the physical world," emphasizing, "The ability to understand and implement the physical world remains uniquely human."