New Guy looking for 3D design software recommendations

[Sebastian Finke]

But does anyone who's not a commercial cad designer actually NEED commercial cad software, when there's so much around that's free ?

I'd say not.

Maybe, maybe not.

As a professional design engineer I have had the pleasure of working with many different softwares over the years and every now and then I will try a free software, just for larks. Let me tell you, there is no comparison between free and paid-for. Yes, you can do basic designs with the free stuff but to really take your designs to the next level its worth it to spend a bit on software.

CA: you bought S3D, right? Why not just use the free slicers?

[curious aardvark]

Maybe, maybe not.

As a professional design engineer I have had the pleasure of working with many different softwares over the years and every now and then I will try a free software, just for larks. Let me tell you, there is no comparison between free and paid-for. Yes, you can do basic designs with the free stuff but to really take your designs to the next level its worth it to spend a bit on software.

CA: you bought S3D, right? Why not just use the free slicers?

that's easy - the only ones that work without any hassle on a replicator clone are makerware desktop, which I have a few major issues with and rep g - which, if it were a joke, would be in extremely bad taste.

The only off the shelf hassle free alternative to these two for a rep clone is simplify 3d.
Otherwise I'd be using cura. Which is very similiar to s3d, just doesn't do x3g files.

It wasn't a case of I prefer to pay for software - there wasn't any real alternative.

with cad packages - there is a LOT of realistic alternatives to commercial packages.

[dklassen]

Guess it really depends on what you're after. I work a lot with STL's, scan data and reverse engineering in a "CAD" environment. Free tools just can't pull that off.

[dklassen]

True but if you've ever used Solidworks, SpaceClaim, DesignSpark or even Sketchup, Blender is a joke for CAD at least in the mechanical sense. If you have the coin to spend SpaceClaim can't be beat. For free packages, DesignSpark is very very nice.

[Sebastian Finke]

The free stuff I have played around with:
Blender
Sketchup
BRL-CAD
Creo Elements
FreeCAD
123D Design

Day to day I use Catia, Powershape, Geomagic Design and Moi3D. Even simple software like Moi3D blows the free stuff out of the water. And I don't get this culture of paying for a slicer but not for a modelling program. Its like playing a £10 guitar through a £1000 amp... makes no sense...