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Overview

Some tasks you do exactly the same way, over and over: the same drawing template applied to a new part, the same defeaturing rule on a new supplier file, the same review checklist before every release. Prompting Nexus from scratch each time works, but it’s wasted effort when the procedure never actually changes — only the file or a value or two does. Workflows let you do the task once, save it, and reuse it as a button. Build the procedure in chat, validate it on a real file, and it’s saved to your Workflows library. From then on, running it is: open it, confirm or swap the inputs, hit Run — no re-describing the steps.

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How it works

1

Build it

Open Workflows in the sidebar and select Create workflow. This starts a normal chat — describe the task like you always would. As you go, Nexus proposes a step-by-step plan alongside the conversation, with editable chips for the parts that should change on future runs: a file path, a dimension, a material, a template.
Click any chip or step to edit it directly, or just say what to change in chat — the plan updates either way.
2

Test run to validate

A workflow can’t be run until it’s proven to actually work. Click Test run to have Nexus execute the full plan end to end on a real file. If it succeeds, the workflow is marked Validated and saved to your library. If a step fails, fix it and test again.This single validated run is what “trains” the workflow — you don’t re-teach it after this.
3

Run it, anytime

From the Workflows library, click Run on a validated workflow. A dialog shows the parameters from your original run — swap in a new file or new values, add optional custom instructions for anything specific to this run, and confirm. Nexus executes the entire procedure without you re-typing a single instruction.Every run is logged under the workflow’s Runs tab, so you can check history or confirm what happened on a past run.
Only validated workflows can be run. If you edit a workflow’s steps significantly after validation, test it again before trusting the Run button on the new version.

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Where workflows are useful

  • Recurring drawing templates — the same view set, dimensioning scheme, and title block, applied to a new part every time. See Drawing Creation.
  • Standard review checklists — the same compliance or house-rules pass run before every release.
  • Repeated defeaturing or export rules — a simplification or format-conversion rule your team runs on every incoming supplier file.
  • Routine simulation setup — the same preprocessing or postprocessing steps rebuilt for every new geometry or load case.
  • Any multi-step task where only the inputs change — the procedure itself is stable; only a file, a value, or a target varies between runs.
If a task is genuinely one-off, just prompt Nexus directly — Workflows pay off once you’re repeating the same procedure.

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Workflows vs. skills

Both let you avoid re-explaining a task, but they’re triggered differently:
  • A skill is invoked by name in a prompt — you type something like “run apply-tolerances-mystandard on this part.”
  • A workflow is triggered from the UI — no prompt required. Open it in the library and click Run.
Under the hood, validating a workflow also saves a reusable skill — so a workflow is effectively a skill wrapped in a parameter form and a run history, with a button in place of a prompt. Use a skill when you want to reference a procedure by name mid-conversation; use a workflow when the task deserves its own place in your library with tracked runs and an explicit input form.

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Tips for building workflows

  • Validate on a real, representative file — the test run is what proves the workflow works. Don’t validate on a trivial or unusual case if most future runs won’t look like it.
  • Turn the varying parts into parameters, not hard-coded values — a file path, a dimension, a target — so future runs only need new inputs, not an edited plan.
  • Use custom instructions for one-off tweaks — if a single run needs a small deviation, add it in the run dialog rather than editing the saved workflow.
  • Check the Runs tab before re-running blind — confirm what actually happened on the last run, especially if the result looked unexpected.
  • Re-test after a meaningful edit — if you change the steps significantly after validation, run it again before relying on it.