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A List of CAD Software Programs, Both Paid and Free
Very strange that there is no mention of alias, on-shape, or fusion 360.
Fully agree, I have used a variety of packages over the past few years but Fusion 360 is shockingly good and gaining traction amongst small studios.
Even stranger is the mention to 3D Studio Max :D
No Alias, no Fusion... but PHOTOSHOP?? Seriously?
Fully agree.
CAD with Photoshop?! I must be from another planet. I think it is worth mentioning to aspiring industrial designers that you will need to change things all the freaking time. Tell them today that they need to master something like SolidWorks, so they can change things without having to rebuild it from scratch. I have never done a project that CAD files didn't have to be changed for at least 10 times before production. Teach something useful for god's sake!
No mention here that both Rhino and SolidWorks offer highly discounted student versions of their software
Where is Siemens NX ? the father of parasolid
It's so expensive newcomers can't even look at it without their eyes bleeding :D
You guys should do your research.
I'm surprised that there is no mention of Autodesk Alias, that would be the preferred Autodesk product for ID surfacing by far.
Solidworks (for Parametric mechanical design) and Rhino (for Surfacing) are pretty popular with smaller companies/firms.
Larger organizations typically use Catia or PTC Creo (formerly called Pro/Engineer) for mechanical design. These programs both also have excellent surfacing packages, but Alias is the more prevalent surfacing tool with most ID folks I work with.
The statement above that "Catia was created by the same company as Solidworks" is incorrect. Catia was developed by Dassault (a large French Aerospace company) for CADing up airplanes in the 1980s. Solidworks was created by some former PTC engineers completely independently many years later. Solidworks was later acquired by Dassault, who was interested in adding a lower cost & easier to use CAD package to their product offerings.
I highly recommend OnShape (onshape.com). It's cloud-based with free and paid options.
Indeed. I migrated from openscad to OnShape and LOVE it. Big Thanks to the team to have a free option for hobbyist! I can only thanks them by encouraging everybody to give a try to OnShape !
How does Autodesk's Fusion compare?
Shockingly good given how new and cheap it is.
I've been on Fusion for about 2 years now, and just love it.
It works great until it is lacking a feature you really need in a specific case. Then it flat out sucks because you just can't do what you want to do. Then you search on their forum for a solution and see a bunch of very defensive Autodesk employees saying things along the lines of "Why do you want to do that anyway?"
Thank you for the list. These apps are excellent. I also recommend creating tailor made application, software development company I work at, https://zaven.co/ is currently working on similar web app. You can check it out if you want!
Solidworks does have a student licence for 100 USD though. Not compatible with the commercial version. But fully functional and affordable!
No NX? Which is sort of taking over the lead for a lot of design driven companies. NX Mach 3 Industrial Design has the best surface tools in the industry right now.
Come on guys where's the love for Alias all versions?
Also missing – fusion 360...
No pros and cons agains each other. As in, some software is better suited and is preffered for some aplications, vs others. Also no fusion360? Fusion has the potential to bring the power of Solidworks, Rhino, varios simulation and Cam to one place.
Have been using both PTC Creo (ProE) and SolidWorks for industrial design CAD modeling. I must say if you want to have good quality parametric surfacing that you can adjust down the road, PTC Creo is the way to go. The Freeform modeling method combining with Freestyle are extremely versatile in achieving very high quality complex surfaces that is only second to Alias, but Alias lacks the parametric attribute and the solid modeling capability. SolidWorks simply lacks the intricate control when trying to achieve good quality surfacing works. Sadly, with aggressive pricing and marketing, SolidWroks is slowly taking over to become the most popular solid modeling CAD program within the ID community worldwide. PTC needs to do something to address this.
tip ; You can get Autodesk softwares free if you are a Student.
Early on in exploring which program to use, I studied the features of several programs. I have working knowledge of 3DSMax, Pro/E and Rhino.
Really? Rhino used mainly for mechanical design?
I'd say Rhino is lacking in the field of Mechanical Design, because you can't create assemblies as easily as for example in SW or Onshape...
A personal, more apropriate description would be: The suite is mostly used for freeform design and complex, data driven modeling. Together with its visual programming environment Grasshopper, it got popular amongst architects and timber construction firms, where large parametric models with hundreds of different yet similar parts have to be handled.