Wh should i get SolidWorks instead of using Freecad ?

wh should i get SolidWorks instead of using Freecad ?

Doesn't Blender have a CAR plugin?

*CAD
Fucking normalfag-tier autocorrect

anything but Blender, that shit is a mess.

I heard that Rhino3d is good, but it's windows/mac only. It's still expensive if you plan on buying it but its a few thousand less than solidworks. I've used solidworks for a class and unless you actually plan on using the engineering tools it's probably more than you need for design. That being said, is there any reason not to pirate CAD software?

i'v heard that Solidworks send your hardware details and mac addresses to the company's server.
apparently, some people have been charged that way.

idk

...

well, if i was making a +$7k software i would make sure nobody stole it either tbh

How shit is freecad?

one problem that i immediately notice was the slow rendering especially if your object is complex
and not that complex, i tryed to work on a CNC machine, nothing fancy, about 50 parts.
i was getting around 20 fps it was noticeably laggy.
the second problem was the loading time, ridiculously long

i think its not using all the cpu capabilities and isn't optimized.

third problem is the mouse control with is just odd and unpractical too.

but hey, the shit is free so we can't really complain.

could anyone tell us about other differences ?

why would you let your CAD app access the internet in the first place?

Blender uses polygons, it's not parametric.

Personally I prefer Inventor but that's mostly because it's easier to work with CAM in it. Try a couple different alternatives and see what you like best.

Why don't they monetize it by offering paid (but reasonably priced and maybe subsidized) training courses at engineering colleges? Between that and selling support they could even open source that bitch.

dunno

Fuck FreeCAD. Go torrent Siemens NX 11.

is it better than Solidworks?

is it easy er to work with than Solidworks?
not gonna lie, i'm having a hard time with it.

anyone?

That's not where they make their money. You've got thousands of engineering companies around the world, each buying anywhere between a few licenses and a site license. Each company absolutely has to grab the latest version since they're not forward compatible (version 2014 can't open 2015 files, but 2015 can open 2014, and will only save in 2015 format) because if one company updates, then everyone they work with has to update, and so on until the next version's released.

That said, they also offer training courses at all the usual places. They've got no reason to open source it since that would mean someone could figure out their file format and make a converter.

tl;dr they do it because fuck you.

Siemens NX11 phones home. If you use it, use it on an offline computer.


FreeCAD has a sketcher and offers parametric modeling. Watch a few tutorials on YouTube and in a day you can make some simple stuff, sure. It does slow down the more features you add to the model, but I haven't done a benchmark on performance to tell you just how significant this is. It happens for anything other than simpke parts though. Once you have 30 features things slow down quite a bit. Still, its a good program that can do a lot of modeling, more than most people expect. Even the top-end CAD/CAM systems will bog down when the models are complex enough, but of course if I had to venture a guess I'd say that FreeCAD is 1/100th in performance once the model is complex compared to a commercial CAD product. For simple parts there is no noticeable difference.

Now, SolidWorks is the defacto CAD package in industry today. You would do well to learn it if you are a designer. GE and Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed Martin, etc. use Siemens NX. NASA uses Pro/E. Boeing uses Catia. Catia is more popular in Canada than the USA but the point is, rarely do you get to decide what software you want to use when you work at somebody else's comoany. You learn what you have to. You can get cheap training at myigetit.com on pretty much all the major CAD/CAM packages, something like $200 per year for access to content. If you want to get trained in a class you will be hard-pressed to find anything cheaper than $200 per day, and you will need a week to learn the basics, and usually you want a follow-up class. Its not uncommon for a two-week training class to be a lot more, something like $4k per student. Per-person versus onsite starts to make a difference economically depending on the number of students. When I did software training the rate was $1750 per day plus expenses onsite. So what I'm saying is: if you can't afford training then watch some video tutorials and if possible pony up some cash for structured lessons.

I am hoping to use FreeCAD to do some simple CNC toolpath stuff at home. The CAM side is very under-developed but its the only free CAM package that I know of. Low-end CAM for a few hundred dollars is BobCAD, and of course people pirate Mastercam, which is shit at modeling but OK at making toolpath. Mastercam has the most number of seats installed world-wide, so there's that.

It all depends on what you are trying to do. I am learning Blender right now and use FreeCAD because I love free software, even though I can afford and have used better. I like free because I like that a poor kid can do something cool without needing a rich family to help him/her/xe along. You get it, I'm sure. Low-end but effective CAD is AutoDesk Inventor. You have a lot of choices but SolidWorks is used a lot by mechanical engineers. Its a good package. I've used a shit-ton of CAD/CAM packages over the years, ask me and I could probably tell you something.

I know their current business model is jewing businesses. But the unfortunate collateral damage is students and other small fry who can't possibly afford a license yet need to learn it for career reasons, so are force to pirate. Same thing with astronomical costs of MS Office, but at least MS priced it more reasonably over time.

But is there no other way? Is software of that caliber flat out impossible to make without the racket they run? I get that Autodesk are assholes and wouldn't make it affordable if they could, but what's stopping an honest competitor from doing something similar and taking over the market?

Yeah and it's hideously overpriced and very ineffective. Only a moron would pay for it.

They don't really care if you pirate, as long as you're learning and using their program, and their program remains industry standard.

A competitor would have to offer not just feature and support parity but also perfect compatibility with the other programs to break into the market. No engineering company would use a program that has a chance for their ten thousand dollar component getting fucked up due to file differences. MS was only forced to lower their price due to competition from OpenOffice, and OO only got in because it was backed by another large company and office programs are used for relatively simple stuff in many cases.

It for sure phones home, I can attest to that from experience.


I hear the opposite. They tend to hang back at least a year or two because they fear instability or workflow breakages. Plus the opposite is also true; the older your version is, the more people you can share it with.

I don't have much to add here but I know that Hyundai USA uses (or at least to) use Catia

it doesn't call hope while the program isn't being used, righ?
i installed it on my main PC and use it while offline,, i can't afford to buy another one just for it

bump for knowledge

It does it on program startup

so i don't have to worry about homecalls if i don't use it?

hairy balls

That's right.

so i should just disconnect every time i use it?

Pls cum in my ass
t. (You)

Desu

I don't need a trip because you are only the second user in over two years to do that. >;^)