Solidedge 2d is now free
Solidedge 2d is now free
(OP)
This is interesting......think Solidworks will counter? Not sure if there are any strings attached (watermarks, etc.)
http://www.solidedge.com/free2d
http://www.solidedge.com/free2d
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2






RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
SW has already "countered" (sort of) with DWGeditor which, IMO, is far more useful.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
I still prefer ACAD over the DWGEditor for cleaning up DXF's.
Flores
SW06 SP4.1
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
I probably still have the CD around somewhere.
I actually used it for some personal projects and just did the entire assembly as discrete bodies offset by .001 from all the others.
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RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Having run acad for 18 years, I’m sick of it. But it’s my industry std. I have it all programmed and can finish many jobs before I decide an “approach” to doing the same job in 3d. And I don’t have to convert for the customer. I’d love to see models detailed directly into a dwg format. If these 2d programs are a step to that end… terrific.
One thing that scares me with direct competitors like SW and SE commandeering the .dwg… is that acad will protect itself, make dwg completely incompatible, take an us or them stance. Then one day I reinstall acad 2006 and can’t get authorized.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Actually, I've somewhere come of the notion that that's exactly what they've done with 2007 which really sucks for those of us who still use ACAD but have jumped off the upgrade train (in my case, in 2002). So, in their understandable effort to protect the defacto standard that they developed, they're also dirting on their one-time customers.
Of course, that's no different than anybody else, including SWX and their ridiculous refusal to provide free service packs for their typically buggy baseline releases.
I just hope all the CAD companies can hang around and continue to fight it out because the competition can only benefit consumers.
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RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
3D opens up many more possibilities then 2D could ever imagine: FEA, Rapid Prototyping, photo rendering, mass properties analysis, and I'm sure their are more.
2D is a thing on the past.....why play pong when you can play Grand Theft Auto’s latest sequel: San Andreas
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
I’m ready to switch, but just today, I swear, I sent an edrawing for review. And the customer specifically told me to deliver dwg files. As do all my customers. Whatcha gonna do?
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
What purpose is served by trying to make a point by sending them something that they don't want?
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RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
I totally agree with Beggar send your customers exactly what they want not what you want to give them if you wish to stay in business.
The “problem” with 2D drawings created from 3D models is they are to accurate, as a simple example take a piece of corrugated sheet in plan view with one slot pierced in it. How many lines/arcs etc is that if you draw in 2D now how many if created from 3D? The drawing becomes massively larger and less usable to the shop floor better drawn in 2D IMO.
However go the other way and take a complex shape, say a body panel that is formed and trimmed on mostly cast tooling and all of a sudden 3D becomes the only way, all the poly patterns are created with very little extra work and the machining surfaces are created (with a few run offs), basically you are giving the customer what they want and need and all the drawing are (if required) is a reference.
It is like turning up to take a bride to a wedding in a minibus or taking a bunch of backpackers on a trip in a white limo, you need different tools. Either find customers who want what you can offer or offer what your customers want.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Solid Edge V18 SP6 on WinXP SP2
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
Ajack, I agree with you 100%. Simple profile representations convey the intent much more efficiently than an exact picture. Right now, most tools, I design in acad and extrude in SW for checking. Of course surfacing work is done in SW for machine data, but I don’t put holes in because it’s too hard to keep the separate 2d and 3d synchronized. It’s horse crap, but if I did it all in SW I’d have to give the customer a 50 meg acad mess rather than a clean 4 meg file.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
The only dowside I see to this is if you ahve to provide dwg files to someone. Then you have to translate and worry about losing data in the process. On the other hand, Acad ain't cheap and this is free and if you don't need to worry about dwg that much, then this is appealing. Bold move by UGS....I give them credit.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
We do supply customers who work solely in solids and have a very strict set of rules, for example all dowel holes are .005mm under size so if they find a 11.995 hole they know it is a 12.0 dowel, the same applies to tapped holes and a very strict set of rules apply to face colour which dictates machining. This does take some time to get set up but is well worth the effort for the work it brings in. They do everything to solids, tool buy offs, patterns, analysis, machining, it is a very forward way of thinking IMO.
As I see it the problem is many companies request/ need .dwg. Autodesk of course have no desire to change this and any one else needs it as an output option as it is a question most customers will ask, however dwg is a lousy way of outputting solid models. It is hard to see this catch 22 changing any time in the near future. Unfortunately edrawings or PDF are no better if they require usable data, rather than lines on a piece of paper and if that is all they require why solid model in the first place? Back to square one.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
At one time I had 1500 tool designs on my server, most of them in production and we usually did a few revs every week. Even though they were all 2-8 meg dwg files, all the different design styles and layer schemes from different vendors made them a headache to work. Imagine if the designs were 200-1000 meg solid designs from 8 different Modeling programs. Makes my head hurt. I have no ideal how companies that do work in solids only manage… unless they only accept models from one brand with specific modeling procedures.
Actually… for us die designers anyway… once a tool gets approved, it can become a dumb solid. In fact, keeping the parametrics looks very dangerous. Say if you need to move a hole in the part… even if you could find the one dimension that controlled the hole location, and changing that updated the entire design… the old hole is still in the tool. The physical tool don’t update. Putting a new hole in the design would duplicate the real world better. And you can make changes to a dumb model without worry that other things will get wacked.
The big problem with a dumb model is… prints.
What we need… is a neutral drawing format. Or better yet… for all these companies to standardize the drawing environment so dumb solid translations can include prints. That’s why I like my ideal of drawing environments to be native .dwg
Fat chance. I think the corps that make products are the big target for cad makers. And they don’t have our problems, they don’t need to translate prints for customers. They all sent out PDF’s.
So, until our INDUSTRY standardizes on a single 3d modeler, like they did with .dwg … OR becomes paperless, which I think will not be practical… job shops like us are going to be screwed.
RE: Solidedge 2d is now free
All of this is of course a work around and we all long for the day when systems are far more integrated, however I don’t see that happening any time soon.
My other big bug bear is translations, especially when it has gone through a few systems, trimming goes out the window “flat” surfaces are in fact .00001 out of flat and round holes become splines. Again good companies will spend time and effort to sort out import and export options, bad ones just give you a file to spend a day or two to fix.
I am sure I will be pushing up daises long before all this is fixed.