- What the Credential Actually Is
- How the Exam Is Built: 18 Tasks and 10 Questions
- The 15 Objectives, Grouped by Skill
- Fee, Software, Delivery and Retake Mechanics
- Who Should Pursue It (and Who Shouldn't)
- A VBA-First Path for CAD Users
- Exam Scope Versus Add-in and PDM Work
- Career Value: Demonstrated Automation, Not Salary Myths
- The Official Sample Is Smaller Than You Think
- Frequently Asked Questions
- CSWP-API is SOLIDWORKS' Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) automation credential, issued by SOLIDWORKS, Dassault Systemes.
- The exam has 28 questions: 18 hands-on automation tasks and 10 multiple-choice, scored out of 100 points.
- You need 70 points to pass within 120 minutes, and the exam cannot be paused.
- No prior certification is required, and issuer Q&A states certifications do not expire.
What the Credential Actually Is
The Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional API credential, abbreviated CSWP-API, is the SOLIDWORKS program's professional-level certification for automating the CAD application through its programming interface. The governing body is SOLIDWORKS, part of Dassault Systemes, and the exam focuses on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). It does not test whether you can model a bracket by hand. It tests whether you can write and debug macros that create, modify, annotate and save SOLIDWORKS documents without a person clicking through the interface.
That distinction matters because the acronym is shared with other, unrelated credentials in other industries. Everything on this page refers only to the SOLIDWORKS API Professional exam. If you want the short-form definitions, our explainers on what CSWP-API is and what CSWP-API stands for cover the naming, while this article goes deeper into what the exam demands.
The certificate is a practical one. Candidates work inside their own SOLIDWORKS installation, write real code, and either produce the correct result or they don't. There is no way to pass by recognizing vocabulary alone, which is why the credential tends to be respected by engineering managers who have watched macros fail in production.
How the Exam Is Built: 18 Tasks and 10 Questions
According to the issuer-linked SOLIDWORKS Certification Exam Guide & Practice Test, the CSWP-API exam contains 28 questions: 18 hands-on automation tasks and 10 multiple-choice questions. The total is 100 points, you need 70 to pass, and you have 120 minutes. The exam page confirms the two-hour duration and the 70% passing grade.
| Element | What the issuer states |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 28 |
| Hands-on automation tasks | 18 |
| Multiple-choice questions | 10 |
| Total points | 100 |
| Points to pass | 70 |
| Time limit | 120 minutes |
| Language focus | Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) |
What a hands-on task feels like
The automation tasks ask you to produce a concrete outcome in a SOLIDWORKS document using code: add a sketch entity, apply a dimension, create an extrude, hide a component, insert a drawing view, add a custom property. You are judged on the result, so a macro that runs without errors but leaves the wrong geometry earns nothing. Practicing with a result check, such as reading back a dimension value or counting features in the tree, is the single most useful habit you can build.
What the multiple-choice questions probe
The ten multiple-choice items lean toward object-model knowledge and troubleshooting: which interface exposes a given method, what a return value means, or why a snippet fails. These questions are a smaller share of the points, but they reward candidates who have actually read the API Help rather than relying on the macro recorder.
The 15 Objectives, Grouped by Skill
SOLIDWORKS publishes 15 exam objectives. They are listed without percentage weights, and the issuer describes the task list as non-exhaustive, so treat them as a floor for your preparation rather than a complete blueprint. Some drawing-related headings overlap, and they are retained here as published. For a deeper walk through each one, see our complete guide to all 15 CSWP-API content areas.
Foundations: Object Model and Troubleshooting
Domain 1 (Understanding the API Object Model) and Domain 2 (Troubleshooting) underpin everything else.
- Know how the application, model document and feature objects relate, and how to move between them.
- Be able to read an error, check return values and null objects, and find the offending line.
- Use API Help to confirm method signatures instead of guessing.
Part Design: Sketches, Features and Selection
Domain 3 (Part design automation), Domain 6 (Adding sketch entities and dimensions), Domain 7 (Feature creations such as extrudes and cuts) and Domain 8 (Selection and traversal techniques).
- Create sketch geometry and dimensions programmatically, then build features from them.
- Master selection: many failed macros come from features that never selected the right sketch or face.
- Practice traversing the feature tree and body collections to find what you need by name or type.
Assembly Automation
Domain 5 (Assembly automation) and Domain 9 (Hide/Suppress/Resolve components).
- Open and traverse assembly components, and understand the difference between visibility, suppression and resolved state.
- Expect tasks that change a component's state and confirm the change took effect.
Drawing Automation
Domain 4 (Drawing Automation), Domain 10 (Creation of drawings), Domain 11 (Insert drawing views), Domain 12 (Insert a BOM) and Domain 13 (Save drawings in different file formats).
- Create a drawing from a template, place views of a model, and insert a bill of materials.
- Export drawings to other formats; know which save method and options apply.
- Because several headings overlap, prepare the full drawing workflow end to end rather than as isolated pieces.
Properties and Document Handling
Domain 14 (Add custom properties) and Domain 15 (Save and close documents).
- Write and read custom properties at the file and configuration level.
- Save and close cleanly, so a macro does not leave documents open or unsaved.
Notice how much of the list is "do something to a document, then save it." That shape is deliberate: the exam mirrors the real lifecycle of an automation job. If you want to know how demanding that is overall, our difficulty guide breaks down where candidates tend to lose points.
Fee, Software, Delivery and Retake Mechanics
The practical details are straightforward but easy to overlook until exam day.
- Fee: US$49 for one North American attempt. This excludes software and any training you choose to buy.
- Software: SOLIDWORKS 2017 or later is the minimum. That is a software requirement, not an exam-version label.
- Testing platform: The exam is delivered through Tangix/VirtualTester. Follow the current VirtualTester Web Client instructions, which take precedence over the legacy TesterPRO installation and crash-recovery language in the older guide.
- Delivery: The guide describes a non-proctored online exam using your own working commercial or student SOLIDWORKS software and your own Internet connection.
- No pausing: The clock keeps running once you start.
- Retakes: A retake requires a new CSWP-API credit and a wait of at least 14 days.
Because you supply the machine, test your environment before you begin: confirm SOLIDWORKS launches, the VBA editor opens, and your connection is stable. A broken setup in the middle of an unpausable two-hour exam is an avoidable way to burn an attempt. Our cost breakdown and scheduling guide cover the money and timing questions in more detail.
Who Should Pursue It (and Who Shouldn't)
There is no prior certification required, and training courses are recommended rather than mandatory. SOLIDWORKS suggests Design Essentials and API Fundamentals as preparation, but those are not admission requirements. The three-day length of the API Fundamentals course is separate from the two-hour exam and is not a required number of training hours. Details are in our requirements guide.
Good candidates include:
- Design engineers who repeat the same modeling or drawing steps and want to script them.
- CAD administrators who maintain templates, properties and standards across a team.
- Application engineers and resellers who need credible proof of API skills.
- Developers moving into CAD-adjacent work who already code but want SOLIDWORKS-specific validation.
It is a weaker fit if your goal is building commercial add-ins in C# or working with a vault system. The exam is about VBA macros against the SOLIDWORKS object model, and that is the skill it certifies.
A VBA-First Path for CAD Users
Many strong SOLIDWORKS users have never written a line of code, and that is not disqualifying. The sensible route is to learn the minimum VBA you need and then immediately apply it to CAD, rather than studying programming in the abstract. A tighter walkthrough lives in our CSWP-API study guide; the sequence below ties preparation to the exam objectives.
VBA basics and the object model
- Learn variables, loops, conditionals and subroutines in the VBA editor.
- Explore the object model in API Help: application, model document, feature manager.
- Work through Domain 1 and begin Domain 2 by deliberately breaking and fixing small macros.
Parts: sketches, dimensions, features, selection
- Script sketch entities and dimensions, then extrudes and cuts (Domains 6 and 7).
- Drill selection and feature-tree traversal (Domain 8), the most common source of silent failures.
- Read back values after each step to verify the result.
Assemblies and drawings
- Automate component hide, suppress and resolve (Domains 5 and 9).
- Build a drawing from a template, insert views and a BOM, and export formats (Domains 10 to 13).
Properties, saving and timed practice
- Add custom properties, then save and close cleanly (Domains 14 and 15).
- Run full-length timed sessions of 18 tasks plus 10 questions to practice pacing.
Why the macro recorder is not enough
The macro recorder is a fine way to discover which calls exist, but it records literal selections and often hard-codes values. Recorded code frequently breaks when run against a different model. The exam rewards candidates who can take recorded output, understand it, and rewrite it with proper selection logic and error checks. Use the recorder to learn, not to answer.
Exam Scope Versus Add-in and PDM Work
It helps to be precise about what CSWP-API does and does not cover. The exam targets VBA macros. Professional add-in development usually uses C# and a different project structure, and vault or data-management automation uses a separate API altogether. The three share concepts, but they are not interchangeable.
| Area | Typical language | Relationship to this exam |
|---|---|---|
| VBA macros | Visual Basic for Applications | The tested scope |
| Add-in development | Commonly C# | Not tested; builds on the same object model |
| PDM / vault API work | Varies | Not tested; separate API |
Think of CSWP-API as proof you can drive the SOLIDWORKS object model competently. It is a sound foundation for add-in work later, but passing it does not by itself make you an add-in developer.
Career Value: Demonstrated Automation, Not Salary Myths
It is tempting to ask what the certificate is worth in dollars. Published salary uplift attributable to this specific credential is not something we can responsibly quote, and we won't invent a figure. A more honest way to evaluate it is through the automation value you can demonstrate: hours saved by a drawing macro, error rates reduced by automated custom properties, or a standards-enforcement script your team now relies on.
Employers who hire for this skill, such as manufacturers with large product families, resellers and engineering service firms, tend to care less about the badge itself and more about whether you can show working automation. The certificate gets you into the conversation; a portfolio of macros wins it. For a structured look at the economics, read our ROI analysis, the salary guide and the overview of CSWP-API jobs.
Key Takeaway
Treat the exam as a forcing function. Build three small macros that solve real problems at work while you prepare, and you will have both the certification and evidence of business value.
One more practical point: SOLIDWORKS' issuer Q&A from 2020 states that customer and student certifications do not expire, so the credential is a one-time investment rather than a recurring renewal cost. Always check the current issuer pages for any change.
The Official Sample Is Smaller Than You Think
Candidates often assume the official practice material is a full mock exam. It is not. The sample in the issuer's guide contains only four multiple-choice questions, nowhere near the 28-question, 18-task structure of the real exam. It is useful for seeing the style of the multiple-choice items, but it gives you nothing to practice the hands-on tasks, which carry most of the points.
That gap means you should build your own practice environment: a small set of model files, a handful of macros that perform each objective, and result checks that confirm the outcome. Writing your own fixtures is also better learning than memorizing someone's answers. For a rapid reference to keep beside you, see our one-page cheat sheet, and when you want realistic timed practice, our CSWP-API practice test site is built around exactly this structure.
Be cautious, too, about the published numbers you read online. Population pass rates for this exam were not verified, and the 70% passing grade is a score threshold, not a pass rate. Our pass rate article and passing score guide explain the difference.
Frequently Asked Questions
It certifies your ability to automate SOLIDWORKS using the API with Visual Basic for Applications. The exam combines 18 hands-on automation tasks with 10 multiple-choice questions across 15 published objectives.
The exam is worth 100 points and you need 70 to pass. You have 120 minutes, and the exam cannot be paused once started.
No prior certification is required. SOLIDWORKS recommends Design Essentials and API Fundamentals as preparation, but training courses are not admission requirements.
One North American attempt is US$49, excluding software and training. A retake requires a new CSWP-API credit and at least a 14-day wait.
According to SOLIDWORKS' 2020 Certification Program Q&A, customer and student certifications do not expire. Check the current issuer pages for any updates before you rely on this.
If you want a broader overview before committing, our pages on what CSWP-API certification involves and the training options are good next stops, and you can test your readiness any time on the main practice test site.