Goodbye Free SOLIDWORKS

[CharlieN]

Hey Charlie,

Is 1982 a typo? Was it a commodore 64 version...

I started in ACAD with release 9 around 1990 I believe. Then to mechanical desktop when it was offered than Solidworks in 1997.

Yes as a matter of fact it is, 1992 is the correct year that I intended to state.

My wife and I had just bought our first computer, the salesman heard me state I intended to do drafting work and he included ACAD Lt on our new Win 3.1 system.
I soon had drawn a track car I was building for a customer and carried the computer a few towns away to use his plotter, how many here remember pen plotters?

He looked at my drawing and said you can't draw that in ACAD Lt, I said you should have told be that before I drew it.
I went home with ACAD 12 Dos on my system.
Far cry from pen on paper all my previous work was done with.

Below are two renders of my current build drawn on ACAD R14, not 2014

[JWF]

Has anyone installed the 3dExperience version? if so, does it have the 'model based definition' module included? Also, can you save the parts created to a local drive as sldprt files?

[ripley98]

Such a disappointment, 3dexperience is garbage. Cannot concentrate on designing because of so many issues with the platform. On top of that, can’t save to my local computer only the dreaded cloud. Anyone else feel the same?


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[rwanttaja]

Such a disappointment, 3dexperience is garbage. Cannot concentrate on designing because of so many issues with the platform. On top of that, can’t save to my local computer only the dreaded cloud. Anyone else feel the same?

I got an email from an Alibre sales rep, asking for feedback on my experience. I suggested Alibre contact EAA to see if a discounted version might be included as a membership benefit. He said they're aware of the rancor involving the Solidworks change. At least buying Alibre, you don't have to worry about Lucy pulling the football away....

Ron Wanttaja

[Eric Page]

That’s some heads up baseball, Ron! Let’s hope something comes of your suggestion. I’m planning to give Alibre a try too, as soon as I get through some other chores…

[cwilliamrose]

Well, I'm resigned to buying a seat of SWx. I'm way too invested in modelling my current project and in over twenty years using SWx as part of my job. I hope to acquire the seat I'm currently using instead of buying a new seat because I'd be unable to run the older versions like I do now on this 9 year old Win7 workstation. Going to the newest version would likely mean a hardware update so the expense gets crazier. I never really considered using the EAA version due to the difficulty some folks have had renewing each year. I tried Alibre years ago and decided life's too short to learn yet another CAD software.......

[Kim]

Can someone do a comparison of FreeCAD vs Alibre? Do we need a new thread, forum for alternatives to SW Student Edition?

[MB107]

Such a disappointment, 3dexperience is garbage. Cannot concentrate on designing because of so many issues with the platform. On top of that, can’t save to my local computer only the dreaded cloud. Anyone else feel the same?


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My Solidworks computer has nothing but Solidworks on it. Very rarely is it connected to the internet for security reasons. Right now I am typing this message on a computer that is sitting besides my Solidworks computer. The cloud breaks that security. It sounds like it is about to become a FreeCad or Alibre computer very shortly.

[Vandellyn]

This is bad, really bad for me. I retired in 2019 after many years in product design, used many different CAD programs - Xerox Expert in the mid 80s, Pro E in the 90s, Solidworks from 2000 onwards. I found out about the 'free' S/W version from EAA and have been using it for numerous projects, but they cannot be made public or hang out on the web. Too much intellectual property at stake. I've got too many assemblies, subassemblies and parts to store in the cloud on someone's server I have no control over. Not going to happen.

I'd like to stick with S/W but now I'll have to look at Alibre or Onshape, but they have their limitations too. Over 20 years invested in S/W and now they do this. Just awful, truly awful. Goodbye S/W.

[gwbruce]

Well, I pulled the trigger on Alibre Design Expert over the weekend. I had been doing the trial version for a couple of weeks. In my day job I use Solidworks everyday doing tooling design so the EAA setup was great for me. I also do design work for myself and my own wood working projects and such. So I didn't have to learn another software package. I like Onshape but not the free public idea and can't afford the get a subscription. Not real fond of the whole cloud thing either. Alibre will do everything I need even if it is in a different way than Solidworks. It is close enough that I can manage and I own it and can save local, also I don't have to rely on an internet connection to do anything. For the power it is really affordable.