Goodbye Free SOLIDWORKS

[Have Blue]

This is incredibly disappointing news. I've been using SolidWorks for 20 years and when EAA worked with GSC to provide SolidWorks to the EAA membership, it seemed a match made in heaven. Giving a quality CAD tool to a group of highly technical, engineering-centric hobbyist users that could properly harness the software capabilities (and then talk up the product to their associates, employers, etc.) seemed like a win-win for everyone involved. Now, everyone using the software gets to pay extra money to beta test this crippled 'cloud' offering. Not sure about anyone else, but my hangar doesn't have wifi as an amenity, so being able to do modeling as I'm taking measurements off the plane is no longer possible. Back to sharpies and cardboard...

[rwanttaja]

Just a quick comment here... I have downloaded Alibre

https://www.alibre.com/

...and it is able to load and re-save Solidworks files. One doesn't have to wade through all your Solidworks files and re-save them in another format before your license expires. It does export in other formats, such as .stp.

It's not free... $199, currently on sale for $150...but it has a 30-day trial.

Ron Wanttaja

[CAVU Mark]

Now that is the spaceship I dream of. Dr. Zarcoff calling Flash Gordon!

[aeberbach]

I used the education license we had and learned it fairly well. Then when login stopped working I paid for the Maker license, the next day requested a refund (no reply yet). This cloud storage business is just garbage, web infrastructure far too slow and fragile. While Solidworks is clearly superior to most apps once it's running I just won't deal with their nonsense, I don't want deal with teams or roles or importing or exporting. Too bad - I really hoped one day I would be able to justify buying the full product with the use I would get from it.

Am trialling Alibre Atom3D, but also looking at FreeCad and Blender. For the 3D printer oriented things I want to do right now learning any will probably be enough.

[rwanttaja]

Just a quick comment here... I have downloaded Alibre

https://www.alibre.com/

...and it is able to load and re-save Solidworks files. One doesn't have to wade through all your Solidworks files and re-save them in another format before your license expires. It does export in other formats, such as .stp.

Had the first opportunity to actually use Alibre today. Got a simple bracket done in just a few minutes, then exported it and sent it to the 3D printer. Took only a bit longer than it would have in Solidworks, basically learning the new interface.

Saved an .stp file, and SW loaded it. Curiously, the fillets defined in Alibre didn't come across. It definitely works the other way; the SW fillets are recognized in Alibre.

As far as Alibre being able to load SW files, they come across, but not as the usual combinations of sketches, extrusions, etc. They end up as a massive collection of edges and faces. Not too easy to edit, but you can at least access the objects for sending to 3D printers, etc. So if you're working on a SW design, finish it up before your license expires.

Ron Wanttaja

[Jeffrey Meyer]

...As far as Alibre being able to load SW files, they come across, but not as the usual combinations of sketches, extrusions, etc. They end up as a massive collection of edges and faces. Not too easy to edit, but you can at least access the objects for sending to 3D printers, etc. So if you're working on a SW design, finish it up before your license expires.

Ron Wanttaja

As far as "...the usual combinations of sketches, extrusions, etc." is concerned, this is an issue of expectations. There exist international standard cross-platform translators - IGES, STEP, ParaSolid, etc. - that translate basically only the final geometry without the engineering intent and history of how you built the geometry. The history protocol does not exist in any of these translators. SolidWorks, Alibre, FreeCAD, and Blender are not exceptions. Furthermore, the intimate connection between part files and drawing files, as well as mates in assemblies also get lost in the transfer.

That's the bad news.

Good news: I've been trying FreeCAD and I find that STEP files go across just fine, although the modeling interface takes a little getting used to. The program also includes FEM/A modules that I want to use. Obviously it isn't as mature as SolidWorks, it certainly doesn't have a massive user base, but equally obviously the developers are doing a pretty good job coming up with regular fixes and improvements. It seems to me that FreeCAD is engineering software developed by engineers for engineers. IMHO this is definitely a viable alternative to SW.

Jeffrey

[rwanttaja]

Thanks Jeffrey, good info.

Ron Wanttaja

[greentips]

As far as "...the usual combinations of sketches, extrusions, etc." is concerned, this is an issue of expectations. There exist international standard cross-platform translators - IGES, STEP, ParaSolid, etc. - that translate basically only the final geometry without the engineering intent and history of how you built the geometry. The history protocol does not exist in any of these translators. SolidWorks, Alibre, FreeCAD, and Blender are not exceptions. Furthermore, the intimate connection between part files and drawing files, as well as mates in assemblies also get lost in the transfer.

That's the bad news.

Good news: I've been trying FreeCAD and I find that STEP files go across just fine, although the modeling interface takes a little getting used to. The program also includes FEM/A modules that I want to use. Obviously it isn't as mature as SolidWorks, it certainly doesn't have a massive user base, but equally obviously the developers are doing a pretty good job coming up with regular fixes and improvements. It seems to me that FreeCAD is engineering software developed by engineers for engineers. IMHO this is definitely a viable alternative to SW.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey,

This has been my experience too. I came from FreeCAD originally (OSX/LINUX) versions and have been using it since 0.14. My EAA geek buddies/engineers convinced me to switch to SW about 6 months ago for a panel re-design. It worked, but I haven't invested the time to really get to know SW. FreeCad has worked well in other research designs, but has fallen short of some of the SW widget creation. It is improving rapidly. I use it for creating the MESH I need to drive my 3d printer and for exchanging my drawings with the "professionals." What I really like about FC is I can write a few lines of Python code to get parametric modeling/drawing of complex curved surfaces. Never did learn how to do that with SW so I brute forced the curves. But, then, I'm not a professional draftsman.

I just got through buying a Win10 PC to run SW and ran into the new version. Glad I checked here before spending even more money. I do have other uses for the PC so it's not a complete waste. I ran SW on a very fast but older MacBook PRO using Parallels, but it was a bit slow and clunky as it is a non-native Mac program so I had to use Windows Parallel, another expense. I also ran SW on a Win10 notebook which ran it modestly better, but no so much so that I would bring both the Mac and the Win on trips.

I have re-installed FC on the new workstation and it seems to work pretty well. It is not as mature as SW, but I think it has a lot of potential and I've seen a lot of improvement over the past 7 years or so. I think if given the choice of paying for the limitations of the new SW/cloud or donating an equivalent sum to the FreeCad gnu licensed version, I'll donate to the FreeCad Project. Or maybe a little more since I won't need Parallels to run FreeCad which does run on both platforms.

Does anyone think the EAA might consider setting up an alternative CAD section like they did with SW?

[mclade01]

My license expires in January. Can I still take the CSWP?

[JayP]

I agree that this is incredibly unfortunate. Besides Fusion360, have you guys tried out SolidEdge? There is a Community Version (free) for Hobbyists that might help out.