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Solidworks alternatives - suggestions please.

stroker

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jun 23, 2006
Location
Melbourne Australia
Hi
Can I get you opinions on what would be a good cost effective alternative to Solidworks. I use SW at work but I need to be able to model at home and I just can't afford/justify the licence fee Dessault are asking.
Thanks in anticipation,
Best Regards
Mike
p.s. If I was 50 years younger perhaps I could get a student version?????
p.p.s. Sorry I should've added that I don't need any machining (CAM) functionality.
 
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SW Student\Educational cannot be used for profit\commercial use, sorry. but you are never to old to take a course at the tech school and get a seat or have one of your grand kids get one for you to use:scratchchin:

You can rent AutoDesk for $315 a month\ $2500 per year, for the standard version of their product design suit, I believe is Inventor: Product Design Suite Standard

they also have Fusion 360 free for 90 days, it is cloud based: Easy 3D CAD Product Design & Models | Autodesk Fusion 360
 
You are allowed to have a second installation at home as long as no one is using your seat at work on another shift. We have 4 seats at work and most of us have our licensed copy on a computer at home too.

I copied this from the license agreement:

If the Software is permanently installed on the hard disk or other storage device of a computer (other than a network server) and one person uses that computer more than 80% of the time it is in use, then that person may also use the Software on a portable or home computer while the original copy is not in use.
 
You are allowed to have a second installation at home as long as no one is using your seat at work on another shift. We have 4 seats at work and most of us have our licensed copy on a computer at home too.

I copied this from the license agreement:

If the Software is permanently installed on the hard disk or other storage device of a computer (other than a network server) and one person uses that computer more than 80% of the time it is in use, then that person may also use the Software on a portable or home computer while the original copy is not in use.

Yeah, this. I made sure to ask and re-ask the fisher unitech guy a dozen times if I could work at home or in the office when we were looking to buy. Works like a champ!
 
I bought a license of Geomagic elements for at home. I like it. I paid about $1300 for the license and 1 yr support. You get to install the software on up to 2 computers which is kinda nice. I use it on my laptop and desk top both of which are more than a few years old, and never noticed any lagging. I use solidworks at work and wanted something similar but affordable. Geomagic can export into a good number of formats and I like how easy it is to make prints.
 
I'm currently using Geomagic Design (formerly Alibre Expert). Seen it referred to as a poor man's SolidWorks. Got an email recently with special pricing:
Special Pricing until 12/31/2013
Geomagic Design w/ First Year Maintenance: $1799
Geomagic Design Elements w/ First Year Maintenance: $1099
Geomagic Design Elements to Geomagic Design Upgrade: $829
Simulate™ for Geomagic Design Upgrade: $1499
request a quote
Or call 1.877.525.4273

And just paid $400 today for a second year's Subscription (training, updates, and maintenance...not required to run).

Ken
 
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Thanks for all your input guys! I'm still not sure which way to go because the installation will be for my home (not commercial) use only. And of course there is still the SWMBO hurdle to overcome!
Cheers
Mike
 
Thanks for all your input guys! I'm still not sure which way to go because the installation will be for my home (not commercial) use only. And of course there is still the SWMBO hurdle to overcome!
Cheers
Mike
'

You use it at work.. Just install it on a home computer.

If you are that worried about it install a student version
 

WOW, $4200 a year for what SW charges over $8k for SW premium not bad
 
Yeah, this. I made sure to ask and re-ask the fisher unitech guy a dozen times if I could work at home or in the office when we were looking to buy. Works like a champ!

Yep. Exactly what I do. Each seat comes with 2 licenses. We have 2 seats here and each of us has the other license on our home PC's.
 
Zombie thread...... But I have been using Geomagic for several years. and have been happy with it. It will read and write Solidworks files, and create any sort of output file you are likely to want. Has sheetmetal built-in.

Newer versions also come with the Keyshot rendering program, which gives excellent photorealistic renderings, which I find help a lot with getting others to buy-in on designs. A lot of people just cannot visualize things, and many of them also have trouble with the typical purple, yellow, green etc CAD rendering. Everyone can see the item in a "photo" though.
 
An oldie but goodie thread!

I've been playing around with OnShape. It works in your browser (Firefox, Chrome etc.) and is free up to a point. It's still in beta, but it looks like it has potential. Nothing to install either, it's cloud based.

Dan
 
I'll keep the zombie alive to add:

If you know SolidWorks from school/work, but want a cheaper option for home use, go for OnShape. Not only is OnShape run by the former SolidWorks founder (Jon Hirschtick), but I think he brought a lot of the deep SW team and modeling philosophy with them, with just the right amount of new blood. You'll find OnShape different, but very familiar.

For me, this especially counts in the sketcher - I have never been able to mind meld with Fusion 360 or NX's sketch environments because they handle things like arc -to- edge dimensions poorly, and don't do point-to-point relationships - so you wind up with a lot of messy crap. Both SW and OnShape frigging nail sketching.
 
A new company I started working for has Inventor but they said since they changed from auto cad design time has increaded cause of inventors complexity its just to slow for them
 
Hi
Can I get you opinions on what would be a good cost effective alternative to Solidworks. I use SW at work but I need to be able to model at home and I just can't afford/justify the licence fee Dessault are asking.
Thanks in anticipation,
Best Regards
Mike
p.s. If I was 50 years younger perhaps I could get a student version?????
p.p.s. Sorry I should've added that I don't need any machining (CAM) functionality.

You can try Onshape at Future of CAD | Onshape I am using it as a solid modeler and happy with what it can do. They have a free version also.
 








 
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