Anyone use any "cheap" 3D CAD programs for home with success?

[jomofro39]

Hello everyone,
I use SW at work, and they own the license. Needless to say, I can not afford to have one for my house (where I would also enjoy 3D CAD, either to work a little at home, or for pet projects of my own). I refuse to go the torrent/pirating route, as appealing as it is, it just plain and simple goes against my values. So, I am stuck with a small selection of affordable 3D CAD programs. One brought to my attention is ALIBRE (99 bucks for bare bones personal license), another is VIACAD pro v6(200 bucks for pro). I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with "other than SW or ProE" CAD software, and how it panned out, or compared. I do not expect to get the full SW experience from a 200 dollar program, but to have a majority of the modeling abilities would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

[grunt58]

You are allowed 2 installs of a SW license. You just can not use them at them same time. If you are doing a little work at home and some personal non profit projects I'd ask your employer if you can install at home. If you are moonlighting then I'd suggest Alibre. For $99 its a very good program depending on what you are doing.

Certified SolidWorks Associate
SW2009 X64 SP 1.0
Dell Precision T5400
Nvidia Quadro FX 5600
Xeon 2.5GHz Quad Core, 4GB RAM
XP Pro X64 SP2.0

 

[Eltron]

You also get a home use license with each SW install. Check into that. I used Alibre eons ago, and it was OK at the time. No idea how she is now.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[Pud]

I use Alibre for the low number of parts I (re)design - feels like SW2003 with the icons in different positions.
For what I do it's a good buy.

H

http://www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk

 

[fcsuper]

If you have a network license at work, SolidWorks Home License is one option, but it has a lot of restrictions. Some are hard (encoded), some are soft (unenforced). The advantage for your employer is that they can reclaim your license if they wish.

If you have single site installs of SolidWorks at work, then you can just install a second copy of it for home use (no home user license needed). The main restriction is that only one copy is in use at a time. This is easiest for you, but not as easy for your employer since they will not be able to easily deactive your license if they wish too.

If you are working from home, both options are fine (but of course you'll only have access to one or the other depending on the licenses at work).

A third option is to check out a license from work to use at home. This a bit more cumbersome on a day to day basis, but there are no issues with potentially miss using a license. This would also require a network license at work.



Matt Lorono
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks & http://twitter.com/fcsuper

 

[Eltron]

Checking out a license sucks as an option unless you're the only user. We used to have a guy that always forgot to check it back in so we had to wait around for him to get back from parts unknown. It didn't take long for me to nix that all together.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[KirbyWan]

With a network license you should be able to connect to the license server at work and check out a license when at home. This should not cause a problem since it would be the same license you would be using if you were at work. Just make sure you shut SW down at home or you'll be twiddling you thumbs at work.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.

 

[drawoh]

jomofro39,

I am running Qcad at home under Linux. It is available for Windows.

[ul]
[li]Strictly 2D[/li]
[li]Stores files in DXF format.[/li]
[li]Not capable of serious mechanical design.[/li]
[li]Adequate for home renovations and carpentry projects.[/li]
[li]Free Software. "Free as in free speech", and free as in free beer as well.[/li]
[li]Runs natively under Linux if you want.[/li]
[/ul]

JHG

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

http://www.ptc.com/offers/tryout/pe3.htm

 

[biff44]

there is this free one:

http://sketchup.google.com/

have not tried it yet, but another engineer recommended it.

http://www.MaguffinMicrowave.com

Maguffin Microwave wireless design consulting

 

[MikeHalloran]

Dassault DraftSight claims to be a 2D program, but handles 3D objects just fine. Price is right.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[beachcomber]

TurboCad might be worth a look.
2D and some 3D and there is a free trial download available.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.

Where would we be without sat-nav?

 

[fcsuper]

Just a comment about sketchup...that appears to be more of a 3dstudio max kind of modeller rather than an engineering modeller. Thoughts?

Matt Lorono
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks & http://twitter.com/fcsuper

 

[Eltron]

Agreed. It relies upon textures too much for my liking.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog