I used to work as a mechanical designer. At the company I worked for we used SDRC I-Deas, I have also used Solidworks some. My problem is now I am a computer programmer and all my mechanical design work is just for my own garage projects, and I don't have access to solid modeling software any more. Now that I have used solid modeling, I can't go back to the 2D/3D wire frame drafting packages. But I can't seem to find any packages that are reasonably priced. Solid works at $4,000 is the closest, but that is still way to much for me to justify when all I am doing is personal projects that will never make any money. Can't Solidworks or someone else come up with some version that is limited somehow that would still be useful on the small projects a hobbiest would be working on for less than $1,000? -- Chris W Bring Back the HP 15C http://hp15c.org:8080 Not getting the gifts you want? The Wish Zone can help. http://thewishzone.com:8086
I wonder if you could get a dealer to sell you an older version of SW for a heavily discounted price. Ofcourse it would have to be far enough back so that you couldn't upgrade to the current version for less than if you were to by a new liscense right out. Otherwise you could get ripped off by the pretend software piraters that annoyingly post here most every day to get a few suckers to send them money. Corey
Look at Alibre (www.alibre.com). You should only need the basic application (not the Pro or the Expert versions at additional cost), so it should only be $695 if I remember correctly. It seems to be pretty good from what I hear -- poised to become a threat to SolidWorks, Inventor and Solid Edge (if it can ever get some market share). Mark 'Sporky' Stapleton Charlotte, NC
Well, obviously you did not look very hard at all. Here are some under $1Kusd (parametic feature based): Alibre http://www.alibre.com/ Solid Concept http://www.solid-concept.com/english/product/index.htm Inovate (IronCad) http://www.ironcad.com/inovate.asp VX Basic http://www.vx.com/vx_basic.cfm SolidThinking Forma http://www.solidthinking.com/products/forma/index.htm Ashlar Argon http://www.ashlar.com/products/index.shtml ParaLogix http://www.a3ds.com/ TurboCad Professional http://www.imsisoft.com/ CadMax (not sure how parametric it is?) http://www.cadmax.com/products/ Internet reseller which supplies many of the above: http://www.novedge.com/ and some reviews.. http://www.deskeng.com/articles/02/sept/cover/index.htm (I'm sure there are other reviews if you do a google search on either of the above modelers) ...
And, also, as Jeff mentioned... Pro/Desktop (nice program but I think it's in limbo?) http://www.tenlinks.com/CAD/MCAD/users/prodesktop/ Concepts Unlimited http://www.concepts3d.com/ ...
We have 2 seats of Cadmax , we bought it oh about 4-5 years ago and it was more powerfull than solidworks was at the time. Yes it is parametric and parasolid based kernal with there own surfacing module-nurbs based. When we bought it it was about $3000 a seat but the prices have dropped quite a bit. The program is not as user friendly as Solidworks and is a little dated.
Well I have downloaded and tried CADMax, TurboCAD Pro, ParaLogix Level Two, and Alibre. So far Alibre is the only one that is even close to what I would call a good solid modeling package. I post this mostly to see if there is something I am missing in the othere packages? -- Chris W Bring Back the HP 15C http://hp15c.org:8080 Not getting the gifts you want? The Wish Zone can help. http://thewishzone.com:8086
There used to be student/academic versions of some CAD programs available at deeply discounted prices. Perhaps enroll in a class somewhere that qualifies you for this.
Jon, you come back in here with an attitude like someone kicked you in the huevos and you make comments designed to dig at us people here who did not kick you. And you think you are going to be appreciated, liked or whatever? We use Solidworks to make a living. We know there are other choices. SolidWorks has a handle firmly on what it wants to hold onto. If there is a massive void, I can GUARANTEE you that some company is going to fill it, so lets just see if they do. No one I know of appointed you the God of CAD Software. Bo
Jon, Well... the description they chose for their product pretty much says it, doesn't it. "part modeller", not design system. Like most CAM systems, they will never be capable of dealing with 1000, or even 100 part assemblies. They don't even have an assembly environment. Mark
