CAD Forum

Good morning all,

You can skip this to TO MY QUESTION SECTION:

I am new to this forum but not new to cad. Been using CAD sense 1990 and have used everything, seen the birth and death of many systems. Now I am 53 years old, getting ready to retire and travel as a nomadic handyman/engineer. For the past 11 years I have used Solidworks for my personal business, and have not been keeping up on the what's new in the cad world. Other than the normal players in the industry, I have no idea what is out there.

Here is my problem, the Solidworks upgrade is quite costly, for what I need the system for. And the pc that is needed to run it, adds more cost. I have no problem purchasing another system(hardware). I don't want to dump 4k-5k on cad, then 2k-3k on a system. I like Solidworks, just not that much.
My primary work is assisting small fab shops, machine shops, archery equipment manufactures. I do not surface model anymore, or large assemblies, just components, jigs-n-fixtures, product design, and re-design for manufacturing. So Solidwork honestly is overkill, and I am on an older version.

****To my question:********

I am looking at Ironcad, I remember when this system hit the market. It was so infantile it was not worth the money.(Sorry I was on Catia,ProE,and SDRC at the time, LOL CAD EGO, young and dumb, Dang I remember Solidworks hitting the market, lol.) Ironcad has come along ways from what I can tell, and the price tag is in my wheel house.

Can someone tell me a little about it? Suggestions of another systems would be welcome

Is it hardware intensive?

How are the translators with the add on package? Solidworks 2014 native files(I have lots of legacy data)

How does it handle IGES surface data? open or closed volumes

Appreciate any help, Thanks,

Matt

Try SolidEdge and Onshape.
Both free.
SolidEdge need download and install.
Onshape is web based.

@sorekllc Do you need to provided finished CAD files or just outputs (PDFs, STEP, DXF, etc.)

Onshape: Has a free version but all files you create will be public. Other users can't edit them but can copy them so that could be an IP issue. Paid tier is $1500/year subscription cloud based. Very similar to SolidWorks so the learning curve will be less.

Solid Edge: Has a free "Community Edition" with few limitations. Drawing prints will have a water mark on it that says "Community Edition" on it.

Fusion 360: Cloud based $545/year subscription. Haven't tried it but I hear it works a bit different than the traditional history based modelers. Free personal version available to try.

SolidEdge seems to be popular if people are not using Solidworks. Fusion 360 and Onshape are web/cloud base that is not good for me. I do not have internet access 60% of the time. Siemens(Solidedge) called me this morning, they will be having a sales rep call me to address my pre-sale questions.

I have not heard from Ironcad, so not sure how that will go.

Thanks

sorekllc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 12:03 pm SolidEdge seems to be popular if people are not using Solidworks. Fusion 360 and Onshape are web/cloud base that is not good for me. I do not have internet access 60% of the time. Siemens(Solidedge) called me this morning, they will be having a sales rep call me to address my pre-sale questions.

Thanks

I'd be curious what they are charging these does but if I recall, Solid Edge will cost a similar amount as SolidWorks.....around $5000-6000 upfront and around $1500 yearly if you want maintenance....although I believe that is optional for both.

I haven't tried it 15 years or so but there is also Alibre CAD which is much less $$$ depending on the edition you need. From what I remember it seemed to copy how SolidWorks functions.
https://www.alibre.com/alibre-design-fe ... omparison/

Yep just got the quote for SolidEdge lic purchase $6000 lic + $1811 sub (not the pay as you go as they normally push) yep be better to upgrade solidworks.
I have a Lic seat of Alibre from before they were purchased. It works, they said they will upgrade me to the current version at minimal cost. So that maybe a route I take. Ill look at it closely again, this was about a year ago when I questioned my lic upgrade with them.

Have not heard one word back from the Ironcad people Oh Well

Design systems are actually cheap compared to running UG or Catia on a unix platform from by gone days. 6k-7k was the sales tax on the purchase.

Thanks

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 9:16 am I'd be curious what they are charging these does but if I recall, Solid Edge will cost a similar amount as SolidWorks.....around $5000-6000 upfront and around $1500 yearly if you want maintenance....although I believe that is optional for both.

I haven't tried it 15 years or so but there is also Alibre CAD which is much less $$$ depending on the edition you need. From what I remember it seemed to copy how SolidWorks functions.
https://www.alibre.com/alibre-design-fe ... omparison/

sorekllc wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:01 am Design systems are actually cheap compared to running UG or Catia on a unix platform from by gone days. 6k-7k was the sales tax on the purchase.

Yeah, I started on CATIA v4 as my first 3d CAD tool in the mid 90's. One license bundle was 20k and the unix workstation was another 20k. Worked at a company using UG NX for a few years in the 2000s and by the time you got all the modules you need, it was the same. May be better now, then again maybe not.

Back then 3d modeling was more knife and fork work. And you had to do freeform surface modeling. The advancement in tech is unreal.
I remember many many late nights clean IGES files up to be use in for tooling design. Yep the young ones missed out on the fun times.

You could keep using your old version of SW. Nothing wrong with that.

There is a "community" version of Solid Edge that is free. Some limitations, but you can check it out. If saving to parasolid works as output, it could be a viable option. I think that comes with all the bells and whistles.

matt wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:49 am You could keep using your old version of SW. Nothing wrong with that.

There is a "community" version of Solid Edge that is free. Some limitations, but you can check it out. If saving to parasolid works as output, it could be a viable option. I think that comes with all the bells and whistles.

Where &how do you get this community version?

Progeek wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:58 pm Where &how do you get this community version?

https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/soluti ... nd-makers/

Solidworks is somewhat of a standard in a lot of industries.
Onshape is fantastic for large assemblies.
Fusion 360 is cloud based, robust enough for companies to use professionally and it has a ton of features built in.
FreeCAD is an open source CAD software. It's pretty easy to use but it isn't very powerful. For basic modeling and learning CAD basics it will be fine.
https://pctechtest.com/best-cad-software

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 10:39 am @sorekllc Do you need to provided finished CAD files or just outputs (PDFs, STEP, DXF, etc.)
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Solid Edge: Has a free "Community Edition" with few limitations. Drawing prints will have a water mark on it that says "Community Edition" on it.
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From their website:

This free download:

- Is available to any active maker, CAD enthusiast, or design challenge competitor interested in using CAD to bring their ideas to life.
- Is intended for personal use, and may not be used for commercial purposes

So, I wouldn't go around doing work for others with this.