SDK Version Hell: Why CAD Developers Rebuild Everything, Every Year

The Annual Ritual of Breaking Changes That Costs Millions in Developer Hours

Welcome to the special hell reserved for CAD📐CADSoftware for creating technical drawings and 3D models.View in glossary API🔌APIInterface for software components to communicate.View in glossary developers, where your perfectly working code from last year is guaranteed to break this year. Not because you did anything wrong, but because SDK🧰SDKLibrary for building applications on a platform.View in glossary versioning in the CAD world follows the “break everything annually” philosophy.

SOLIDWORKS: The Interop DLL Nightmare Champion

SOLIDWORKS takes the crown for version compatibility disasters. Here’s what developers face:

The Annual Breaking Change Ritual

• Every major version breaks interop DLLs
• Add-ins must be rebuilt for each release
• Running multiple SOLIDWORKS versions? Prepare for path management hell

Real Error Messages That Haunt Developers:

Error CS1705 Assembly 'AngelSix.SolidDna' uses 
'SolidWorks.Interop.swpublished, Version=26.0.1.1' 
which has a higher version than the referenced assembly

The VBA 7.1 Apocalypse SOLIDWORKS 2021 SP2 introduced VBA 7.1, instantly breaking every existing macro:

• Earlier Installation Managers don’t recognize VBA 7.1 components
• Macros written pre-2021 simply stop working
• No backward compatibility
• No migration tools

PTC Creo: Visual Studio Dependency Roulette

Creo Toolkit adds its own special flavor of version hell:

• Must recompile for each Creo version
• Toolkit libraries have Visual Studio version dependencies
• “Always forward compatible but never backward”
• The GCRI plugin for backward compatibility? Dropped at Creo 7

One developer’s summary: “If you’re on Creo 8, you can’t open Creo 9 files. Period.”

Siemens NX: The Six-Month Breaking Change Cycle

While others break annually, NX innovates with six-month functional releases:

• “NX Open functionality may change”
• “New prerequisites may be needed”
• Critical bugs require community-maintained patches
• GitHub repos exist specifically to fix Teamcenter 12.2 SOA crashes

The Hidden Costs

Developer Time Tax

• 2-3 weeks annually rebuilding for new versions
• Testing across multiple versions
• Maintaining separate codebases
• Documentation updates for version-specific quirks

Enterprise Deployment Nightmares

• Can’t upgrade until all add-ins are rebuilt
• Different departments on different versions
• Integration failures between version-mismatched systems
• Testing matrix grows exponentially

The IModelDoc2 Interface: 700+ Members of Confusion

SOLIDWORKS’s IModelDoc2 perfectly exemplifies the problem:

• Over 700 members split across extension objects
• “No real logic in the separation”
• Documentation doesn’t mention the split
• Version changes shuffle members randomly

Why This Validates RAPS’s Approach

RAPS🌼RAPSRust CLI for Autodesk Platform Services.View in glossary’s architecture anticipates version conflicts:

• Workspace crates allow version-specific implementations
• Plugin system enables version-specific handlers
• CLI💻CLIText-based interface for running commands.View in glossary abstraction shields users from API changes
• Single binary works across multiple APS☁️APSAutodesk Platform Services - cloud APIs for CAD/BIM automation.View in glossary versions

The Market Reality

The Billion-Dollar Opportunity

Consider the math:

• 100,000+ CAD API developers globally
• 2-3 weeks annually on version updates
• $150/hour average developer cost
• = $600M+ in annual version compatibility costs

A tool that abstracts version differences could capture significant value from this waste.

Competitive Intelligence

Worst Offenders:

1. SOLIDWORKS - Complete interop breaks annually
2. NX Open - Fastest breaking change cycle (6 months)
3. Creo - No backward compatibility by design

Best (Least Worst):

• Onshape - REST API🌐RESTWeb service architecture style using HTTP.View in glossary provides more stability
• Cloud platforms - Can version endpoints separately

📊 Cost Calculation Assumptions: 100,000+ CAD API developers globally × 2.5 weeks average annual update time × $150/hour average developer cost = $600M+ industry-wide annual version compatibility costs. Individual company costs vary based on add-in complexity and platform coverage.

The Path Forward

Version compatibility tools should:

1. Detect SDK/interop mismatches before runtime
2. Provide compatibility matrices
3. Suggest specific version combinations
4. Abstract API changes behind stable interfaces
5. Maintain backward compatibility layers

What’s Next?

Our next article dives into documentation disasters—where Windchill developers beg for “Hello World” examples, and NX documentation isn’t even installed by default.

Part of our “Cross-Platform Developer Pain Points” series. Because when everyone has the same problem, it’s not a bug—it’s a market opportunity.