New to 3D printing. Solidworks or Autocad for design?

[miner_tom]

Hi to the forum. I have had some experience in the past with using Solidworks for design of packaging for electronics, etc. I am an electronics engineer by profession (age 60) but I am by no means an expert with Solidworks. I have been reading that Autocad is also used extensively for 3D design for printing.

I don't have a prejudice against either and I am certainly not trolling. I expect that this topic has been discussed before.

I may even be missing a "better" solution for 3D printing. Hence my post.

Thank You
Tom

[ServiceXp]

I guess it depends on what you can afford? I have been learning Fusion360 and for makers and companies below 100K it's free. I've not used Solidworks, but if you can afford it I would go that route because you are already familiar with it.

That said there are TONS of options available, both paid and free.

[3dex ltd]

Yes I would go for Solidworks but at the end of the day they are both great pieces of software and it will depend on your preference.

[Mjolinor]

It also depends on what you want to do with it. I think you should explore someof the other options before you make a decision such as Blender, Openscad and Freecad to name but a few.

[Sebastian Finke]

Whatever works for you is fine. Also, proprietry (i.e. paid-for professional software) is always better than freeware.

[curious aardvark]

Whatever works for you is fine. Also, proprietry (i.e. paid-for professional software) is always better than freeware.

well find me a better version of openscad I can pay for - and I Will :-)

To say commercial software is 'always' better than freeware is definitely not the case.
In many cases freeware does things commercial software doesn't.
Is there a commercial program available that does what 123dcatch does - but better ?

Apart from the odd microsoft package I pretty much just use freeware these days. Primarily because it's better.
And i suppose, with the exception of autoroute, I could replace microsoft stuff as well. No end of free office applications and google earth does 'most' of what autoroute does.

So - yes, while there are some very good commercial cad packages, there are also some exceptional freeware ones as well.
Without openscad I very much doubt I'd have designed anything and would definitely have struggled make and print my own designs.

[Sebastian Finke]

Firstly freeware is never as good as pro software. Ever. Some freeware is ok but far too limiting when compared to the real stuff.

Secondly, 123D Catch is not CAD software.

[curious aardvark]

now are you talking freeware in general or just cad software.
Because a linux based computer is always going to be better than an apple os based machine, and all the software is free :-)
Given that people are getting used to different interfaces through tablets and smart phones, I'm surprised that more people aren't using linux machines. But that's mainly down to how computers and software are sold. And for that we can blame bill 'the bastard' gates.

And what criteria are you using to define limitations ?
And is there ANY commercial cad software out there that is even remotely similiar to openscad ?

And as cad means: computer aided design.
Then any piece of software that helps with design is cad - 123dcatch definitely fits the description :-)

The other thing to bear in mind is that different pieces of software will be better for different things and different people will use them in different ways. A lot of a persons experience with software is entirely subjective.

[Mjolinor]

Better is just the wrong word. Better is certainly up to your measurement criteria so in terms of price Blender is way better than Solidworks and there is absolutely no way of denying that.

They all have different good points. I personally love Solidworks and I could do anything with it, knew it backwards but since I stopped using Windo$e it was not an option to continue with it so I use a variety of other software to do the same things and more.


Interesting bit of information. I was thinking of converting to an SSD so I went looking how big I would need. Talked to some people and the general belief was around 60 GB minimum. This is based on most peoples general needs for the software they use.

It seemed big so I had a look at my PC. It has not had a reinstall for over 10 years and the programmes area is 14 GB. It does everythign that Windo$e computers do but apparently only needs quarter of the space to do it.

[makerparts]

Checkout Freecad its pretty good. then Fusion then Solidworks. Avoid Autocad