Hey there! As a 3D printer addict I do a lot of small parts in CAD to print and use around the house. Lately I’ve been exploring all sorts of CAD software since finding out there’s a more around than just Fusion360 and Onshape so I started exploring what’s out there and jotting down my impressions.

Hope this is not spam, just want to help people see what’s around and help them pick!

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is a field where free software is unfortunately way worse than the paid options, and all the paid options are expensive.

    If you are still a student, you can get SolidWorks for 100 USD a year, or Creo, Inventor, or Solid Edge for free. Completely non-commercial though.

    If you are serious about this, get a SolidWorks permanent standard license (it’s like 4 thousand USD?) or ZW3D permanent license which is just a bit cheaper, it’s a relatively new Chinese company though, so a bit of jankiness is expected, but up to you if you want to try them out.

    • Ash@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Solid Edge is available for free for non-commercial use to everyone, I’m almost done writing its article and it looks really good tbh!

      Never heard of ZW3D, sadly the pricing seem a bit steep for what I’m looking for :S

        • Ash@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          It’s up! Let me know if you have anything I should look at correcting

          • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Looks good to me.

            You can use Lemmy as your comment section. Would like to see you try out more CAD software, since this place really needs original content to grow.

            • Ash@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              Oh that’s a neat idea, I was exploring comment systems but the ones that inspired me (like Cactus Comments which is based on Matrix) I had trouble getting to work. I’ll try setting it up when I get more time!