/diy/ - Do It Yourself

DA is mega jewy
I filled out the thingy to get a quote for Solidworks and within about 20 minutes some rep called to pester me about buying it and financing (she just left a message). She's called another 5 times in the past week and sent me 3 emails.

I haven't answered the phone or emails and want them to fuck off I just wanted a simple quote not some desperate sales pitch.

>>1898208
>some rep called to pester me about buying it and financing

When I got my first job out of school I was surprised to learn that selling solidworks itself is a job/ business that some people get into. You can't just buy the software, you have to go to a local dealer who deals with you on DAS' behalf. This just sounded so fucked up for something like software that is infinitely copyable and should have a fixed price per unit and not something based on how much the local dealer thinks they can squeeze out of you.

>>1898205
>I will not suffer fusion360/
Just fucking do it.

>>1898205
Just stop being a faggot, why do people swear allegiances to software they can't even afford

I switched to FreeCAD.

>>1898212
perfectly normal for software aimed at corporations instead of individuals.

>>1898296
In a moment of what I can only describe as insanity fueled by CAD withdrawal I decided to try it. It is awful, just pure awful. It works sort of like solidworks, but takes 10x longer to do anything because there are no automatic relations or inferences.

>>1898280
>why do people swear allegiances to software
Because of fundamental differences in the way the programs work. Trying to use any autodesk product usually results in immediate nausea for me whereas solidworks, blender etc I picked up intutively.

>>1898205
>Autodesk makes shit software and I will not suffer fusion360
Autodesk Inventor is pretty nice. Easy to crack too. I don't see why you couldn't pirate solidworks either

>>1898269
I have 8 years experience with solidworks, and 1 year with CATIA, but just 1 hour with Fusion360 was one of the most unintuitive and frustrating piece of shit CAD programs i've ever encountered. Even the shitty vendor made CAD programs on their websites are more intuitive.

>>1898317
>Because of fundamental differences in the way the programs work. Trying to use any autodesk product usually results in immediate nausea for me whereas solidworks, blender etc I picked up intutively.
Sounds like you are shit at CAD, and you spend time learning interfaces instead of learning CAD.

>>1898431
Funny how every other 3d printing faggot who has no CAD experience and arent handy at all can pick it up right away with little to no effort.
This is clearly a *you* problem

>>1898205
I'd agree that Fusion is kind of crap, but Inventor is perfectly good. Also Fusion is still usable if you're too retarded to get Inventor.

>>1898212
>You can't just buy the software, you have to go to a local dealer who deals with you on DAS' behalf.
Makes the piracy angle so much more enticing at that point even if you wanted to go legit.

Should I pirate Inventor or just suffer with 360?
How much pain am I going to go through if I use the shitty freeware crap?

>>1898463
Sorry to strike your Faggot360 fan boi heart. But your favorite Faggot360 program is a fucking mess.

>>1898212
What >>1898302 said, enterprise software is a huge giant mess like that. I work with IBM and other major vendors as the tech implementer; they never buy the software from IBM, they have to buy it through our company or one of our many competitors. There aren't ever straightforward prices on it that way either, it's a whole giant fucking racket of sales people smoothing each other over and partners like mine that handle the actual sale. It's basically exactly like automotive sales, you can't buy a car from Ford, you have to buy it from a Ford dealer and find the one who can get you the best deal + bundle it with whatever packages you want.

Why is it like this? I do not know.

>>1898619
Yet it is an an easily manageable "mess" by anyone who isnt completely retarded.
Again, this is wholly a *you* problem because everyone else can "figure it out" yet you seem to be the only one who cant.

I self taught both solidworks and fusion 360. Neither is "better", they're just different. OP is a boomer faggot who can't learn new things.

>>1898296
How long did it take you to learn? I downloaded it earlier last week and I have yet to be able to figure out how to do anything without a youtube tutorial (vs hopping in Inventor and basically being able to do whatever immediately)

At home I am running an older licensed copy of Alibre. At the day job I got spoiled by NX, which is unreal. My copy of Alibre can't seem to model some geometries (certainly not easily), but it can model just about anything I can weld up or toss on a cnc knee mill. I think the pricing is pretty reasonable too.

>>1898296
Sieht basiert aus. Meine Hochschule Nutz nur diese Solidworks scheisse.
Any pro here who knows if Solidworks is even relevant in the real work world ?

>>1898205
Why not just pirate it senpai?
https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5924063

Solid works 2020 plus crack is on pirate Bay. I'm not paying their stupid prices for hobby use.

>>1898205
Alibre Design Expert.

https://www.alibre.com

It's cheap and does everything. it also saves files locally. Fuck Fusion360 and their lock-in cloud bullshit. People use Fusion360 are retards and once their free license is gone, all their files will be locked up.

Not him, but I downloaded FreeCAD a while ago and found it completely insufferable, particularly the 2D sketch part. As a babby coming off sketchup make 2017. On the other hand, the free version of QCAD (2D software, not 3D) was really intuitive and easy to pick up.

Still probably going to suffer through it though, since it's what KiCAD uses for its 3D models and I want to make KiCAD memes.

>>1898750
People bother making 3D models that aren't part of kicad-library-3d?? seems like a headache

Solidworks is dying.... for many reasons. It will be gone within few years (Parasolid is owned by Siemens... their competitor). Dassault is spending 80% of their engineering time on their web browser version... OnShape competitor.

FreeCAD is fine. One you learn it, people tend to like it. If you come from some other software, it might take some time to learn it.

I highly recommend JOKO engineering on YT... dude there knows both programs very well and has a ton of FreeCAD tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX8-3rMCbRw

>>1898439
>Sounds like you are shit at CAD
Solidworks is parametric solid modelling, it is literally as pure CAD as you can get while autoshit was some kind of unholy abomination of polygonal surfaces being pseudo approximations of solids with an interface setup for drafting. Inventor is probably not that bad, but my experience with 3DS Max, autocad mechanical and revit has left a seriously bad impression of autodesk products.

Interfaces aren't cad and with autodesk products it feels like all you're doing is wrangling clunky interfaces into trying to produce what you really want.

>>1898752
I want to make SMT versions of THT components (i.e. with their legs folded flat to the board) because doing proper (plated) through-holes with a home-etch setup is a real pain. At least compared to just using some copper wire for vias.
Also the caps will look like this:

>>1898692
>everyone else can "figure it out" yet you seem to be the only one who cant.
Your complete lack of reading comprehension speaks for itself. I didnt say I couldnt figure it out, i said your precious program was a pile of shit. I figured correctly that it would be simpler to just design what i had to on a non-commercial solidworks program and then re-design it on a legal copy for production. You're such a fucking fanboi, you must be so fucking embarassed to defend such a piece of shit.

>>1898724
Solidworks is the most widely used program in small to large industries. Edgy faggot companies like SpaceEx use SIEMENS NX and a hodge podge of other stuff. Some major corps like Boeing use CATIA V5 and hodge podge. But the older a company is the more older CAD program stuff they have like AUTOCAD, examples like YAMAHA, But that was 10 years ago maybe they've upgraded entirely by now. I've spent a great deal of time upgrading AUTOCAD to newer CAD.

>>1898205
Just pirate Solidworks 2020. The install is a bit of a pain but when it's done it's done and you don't have to worry about license bullshit. Realistically they aren't going to waste resources trying to prosecute a single guy designing stuff for personal use not for profit so it's not really risky.

>they're going to go insolvent this decade unless they get their shit together and make their software free to use for non commercial
Not likely. Individual users aren't their market and your opinions are more or less irrelevant. Companies like the one I work for are the ones that buy the licenses and they are those are the only users whose opinions matter.

>>1898780
What is the issues with producing directly on the legal copy or just directly on the pirated one?
>inb4 series of insults
I’m not the other anon. Just an engineering student wondering about this
>>1898781
Aight thanks anon

>>1898780
>I didnt say I couldnt figure it out,

You said it wasnt "intuitive" and got so "frustrated" you quit after an hour.
Thats very telling, and the fact you made this thread in the first place is clearly a coping mechanism.

Im not upset that there are people out there too retarded to use it, im just here to point and laugh at you.

>>1898789
>and got so "frustrated" you quit after an hour.
I've quoted above where you failed in reading comprehension. You're probably too retarded to even understand what i'm currently typing correctly though. So just fuck off.

>>1898787
>What is the issues with producing directly on the legal copy or just directly on the pirated one?
If you create your own company and use pirated software to design your parts, some CAD program owners may go after you legally. These CAD program owners typically "tag" their software and can trace how a drawing is made. I've never heard of it being done, but i'm not willing to risk a year of work over it.
>Aight thanks anon
Sure

>>1898784
>Not likely. Individual users aren't their market and your opinions are more or less irrelevant. Companies like the one I work for are the ones that buy the licenses and they are those are the only users whose opinions matter.

Individual users define the commercial market; every professional in any digital industry starts out as an amateur learning at school or at home using non-commercial licenses or pirated software. True enthusiasts start learning in early high school of their own accord. You remove the barrier to entry for learning and your software starts becoming the defacto standard as taught or learned. What licenses do you think companies are going to buy in the future if every new engineering graduate leaves school proficient in autodesk software? The disparity is so ridiculous that you have 'makers' on youtube showing hobbyists how to download fusion360 for free and run FEM simulations on their designs for 3d printed bullshit. Just knowing this was enough to put some one ahead of the average engineering graduate in previous generations, now any idiot off the street can do it following a youtube video.

Why do you think autocad has stuck around for so long despite being outdated garbage from the previous century? Because it's what boomers were taught when they were young and they refuse to let go of their dinosaur software or jobs. Whomever replaces those boomers will decide what software rules next based on what themselves learned and fusion360/autoshit garbage is going to be it unless DAS changes the way they do business and fast.

>>1898802

>>1898797
> I figured correctly that it would be simpler to just design what i had to on a non-commercial solidworks program and then re-design it on a legal copy for production

In other words, you were too stupid to learn something else so you had a meltdown. It so much easier to blame the program than acknowledge your own shortcomings.
Again, you learned one interface and just cant adapt to another. You are shit at CAD and everyone sees right through you.

Not at all surprising you are a 3D printing faggot too.

>>1898815
>NO! You have to design using Faggot360!
>Just ignore that it takes over twice as long to model!
>Just ignore that you have to save your intellectual property on their servers!

I've worked at several firms that pirated both autocad and solidworks. Their justification was that they were so small and had such low volume that it didn't matter. When I saw what they were quoted for licensing I had to agree.

>>1898431
>having any CATIA experience and shitting on Fusion

It's one of the best Solidworks clones out there. You just need more practice.

>>1898898
>>Just ignore that it takes over twice as long to model!
You're just proving the point at how bad you are

Solidworks is on tpb. I'm using 2019.

>>1898954
>Solidworks clones

>laughing in Solid Edge

>>1898802
>Why do you think autocad has stuck around for so long despite being outdated garbage from the previous century?

In many cases because small shops (which may do millions of dollars in business and are the numeric majority of users) have invested time learning it and time really is money. For example one shop I support does not need more than AutoCAD 2007 and GibbsCAM so reasons to not exist to change (and the higher the license fees become the less reason their people should bother with it when what they have makes money).

Software idealists may crap their nappies out of autism but the owner didn't become wealthy by spending inefficiently and has outlasted most of his competitors in the desperately cutthroat machine shop business. (For how bad it is, visit Practical Machinist and check the forums.) Their non-boomer replacements will do similarly because personal familiarity is far more important than anything else. A day's delay = serious money while adapting has no commensurate payoff. They don't mind cracked soft either but the change itself isn't worth it for their use case and busy owner/management/draughtspeeps (people wear many hats in these businesses) have to use time effectively.

>>1898734
i'll bookmark that for later, ty
how good is the community for it in terms of tutorials etc?
>>1898205
i use a "student" version of catia v5 for my projects, guess whenever i get around to make money off of 3d-prints i'd switch to my company-license. i tried out fusion360 for a bit but i'm always in a hurry so i switched back to catia, have to watch some tutorials for f360
>>1898781
in addition: mercedes uses NX afaik while BMW and VAG use catia v5

>>1898625
I vaguely recall a Planet-Money episode on this topic, such structures grew before the Internet became big and now it's sometimes hard to get rid of it.

>>1898625
Because support costs are huge, and when the software is complex, just knowing all the config options is a career. when it's really complex, knowing a fraction of the config options is a career.
You need to employ specialists just in knowing how to use the software to support people who buy teh software.
Leaving support up to a 3rd party means you can focus on the core business of creating the software.
Not only that, but you want pseudo-independent 3rd party experts for a number of reasons.
For example, if you are deciding to spend 10m to 100m just on software for the next 10 years that will basically define your business, you want someone who can help you decide which software to choose. That requires somewhat independent 3rd parties whose expertise is in a few different competitors, who get paid to help you, not to sell a specific vendor's software.
But that has nothing to do with your small shops, it's only a corporate thing, The more you expect the software to do, the more it defines your business, and you really need some kind of trusted 3rd party.

I member having issues getting used to 360 but once I got the idea I relalised that I can shit out prototypes in minutes

>>1899060
Oh yeah I mean, my whole career is specializing in setting the options on these beasts. It's comfy.

I gave in and installed pirated 2020, going from 2011 my first impression is AAHHHH where the fuck is the selection manager. Why can't I do loop selects anymore?

Selection in general has become way more annoying, the old way of double click to edit a dimension/single click to select it has now become single click only dependent on what part of the dim the mouse is hovering over. I keep editing it when I want to select it to delete it.

>>1899185
>where the fuck is the selection manager. Why can't I do loop selects anymore?
What kind of modeling do you do? I remember the old selection manager and vaguely remember loop selects, but in my line of work they were almost nonsensical. I do machine design, mostly automation. Typically now whenever i'm designing a complicated part and there's a difficult to select critical feature i just roll back the design tree to where it is easily visible, create a hotbar hotkey, and these hotbar hotkeys now save camera angle and zoom so it takes you right to the feature and it's literally always less than a mm mouseclick away. I could always bind it to a hotkey too but that's excessive.

>>1898205
You can always buy the student/education version. It's like $100.

Also, it pisses me off that they expect me shell out over $10K a year just to get a license for personal use. In my opinion they should have some version you can buy for like $300-$500 for hobby/enthusiast stuff.

>>1898205
>>1899555
The standard package is ~$5k which is still too much, I'm assuming you guys need features in the premium version?
>paying for the student version
They really give no fucks do they.

Previously I've tried to stay away from Inventor because fuck autodesk, but because of work I've been using it for some time now.
I actually like it more than solidworks now
Also used NX for few years but I felt that it was kinda overkill for what I was doing

>>1898706
I used all the YouTube tutorials.

>>1898431
>waaaah
It's just you being unfamiliar with the UI. You'll get over it once you stop being such a pissy-pants. It's not like you're being asked to get used to Blender or Maya.

>>1898205
Not sure if this helps anyone but for 500hundred bucks you can get an off brand fully compatible version of AutoCad, I think it's called corealCad but the point is that's it looks and feels very similar to AutoCAD. A while back I was trying to up skill---(ended up giving up because of the cost of the student and hobby LIC Cost), but before that I found a free trail with non registration/activation copy for AutoCad 2004. I was also about to use corealCAD but I've since moved on to other things, the cost for solid works isn't worth the risk.... Unfortunately idk if corealCAD had a trial or not.

LoL no SoildWorks world 2021 for me or thee!!!!

>>1899558
He needs to be able to import a basic fully designed pickup truck template into solid works with a Bill Of Material for all of the parts and links available on Amazon.

Because he's a designer his job will be to customize the logo and hood.

It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it..

>>1898296
Ayy nice

You sound like an insufferable bitch, just pirate the damn thing and shut the fuck up.

>>1898317
there is nothing intuitive about blender tho

>>1900006
>It's just you being unfamiliar with the UI.
So are you saying there's a problem with the UI? Is that what the other anon was saying? How can they fix it?

dumpster fire in here

>>1899533
>What kind of modeling do you do?
Sometimes I need to do surface modeling or thin features for 3d printed stuff.

>>1898205
I sailed high sea and found old SW 2012 and AutoCAD 2010 with offline cracks
I used one for 3d and other for 2d
old version because newer ones don't offer enough improvement and I'm old fart used to old interface
Improvement I would get with upgrading would not be worth time spent readjusting because I use them once a month at best and not for very long
I think you can't be done for piracy in some jurisdictions if you use them non commercially because they suffer no loss if they can't prove you make money off it and just dick around
>>1898431
you have to get used to user interface, it was like that for me with SW at first
Might be steep learning curve first without good tutorials
look up indians on jewtube or just go sailing

>>1898725
H-How many trojans am I installing?

As someone formally trained with Solidworks and that has used it professionally for over 10 years, I like Fusion360 too and you can get the hang of it.

How do I learn CAD? Do I need a good PC?
can I get a job with just CAD knowledge?
fucked up my life by majoring in CS. trying to pick up the pieces

>>1900724
>How do I learn CAD?
Same way you learn anything, books, and stolen software.
>Do I need a good PC?
To learn? no. But when you start getting into large assemblies with hundreds of parts then you need a monster PC to stay productive, or have serious CAD kungfu with memory allocation.
>can I get a job with just CAD knowledge?
Yeah, but nothing as good as a CS can get. Without engineering skills you will be relegated to being a drafter.
>fucked up my life by majoring in CS. trying to pick up the pieces
CS doesnt seem so bad. With just a few books you can become a low level Controls Engineer or dedicated PLC programmer. Maybe much much more over time and the right work environment.

>>1900130
hmm i can see how you would miss features i never use then. Typically in my profession you try to keep everything as just bricks or cylinders otherwise a $200 part suddenly turns into a $2000 part. Much different from surface and thin feature models.

>>1898205
If youre making very simple things, solvespace is pretty nice. It cant do fillets though, which sucks. To do anything like that you have to manually cut a circular edge into the piece.

>>1898296
The workflow is very different which makes it hard to get into. If it were a raptor vs kicad situation, that wouldnt be a problem, but freecad just isnt quite at the same level as solidworks when it comes to the ease of modeling things. That said, free software wins out in the end, so Im just gonna wait.

>>1898205
just pirate solidworks pleb, 2020 edition cracks are up on piratebay

>>1898802
>Individual users define the commercial market
Aww, he's retarded.
>What licenses do you think companies are going to buy in the future if every new engineering graduate leaves school proficient in autodesk software
You say that like the student picks the software that their school uses.

>>1899185
>the old way of double click to edit a dimension/single click to select it has now become single click only dependent on what part of the dim the mouse is hovering over
I am pretty sure you have a setting turned on called "instant2D" that does that. If you turn it off ot goes back to the standard 2x click edit. Also when you say loop select do you mean lasso? Lasso is still there you have to toggle between box and lasso.

>>1900785
can you fix my life?

>>1901158
>You say that like the student picks the software that their school uses.
Not that anon, but any half decent engineering school will have a variety of CAD programs to choose from.

>>1901363
Yeah. Why though?

>>1901365
im unemployed & aimless

>>1901374
>aimless
Then gain a direction. Learning anything other than that right now is useless because you'll just wake up one day and quit.

>>1901402
dont be cruel

>>1901415
Sorry kid but you're acting like the literal definition of "SPOONFEEDME!". You're hopeless :(

>>1901437
why

>>1901463
That's what you've gotta answer. Then you can start fixing it.
I'm gonna throw out a guess of "laziness".

>>1898800
You can import files into other CAD programs to strip any tagging then export the file. Also remember if you make something you've no obligation to show anyone the code. You're selling finished products or parts. Subcontractors give no fucks and just want to get paid.

For the benefit involved it's worth studying effective piracy. If you resent studying, pay the nice people and don't pirate. When you become wealthy you can buy a legit seat.

A good way to learn if/which cracks work is always run them in virtual machines. Install Windows with nothing but the minimum drivers and other progs for a clean install, then snapshot that so you can revert to a clean slate quick as rebooting the VM. Then when you get your soft working, snapshot that. The last commercial soft I paid for was PartitionMagic 4.0.

>>1900685
Run it in a virtual machine without network access like I do for all my Windows soft and use a Linux host. BTW AV soft flags cracks because AV makers swallow cock.

I find it odd the first thing noobs don't learn after buying a PC is how to pirate soft. It's not difficult with some study and quite useful. If you're worthy to run CAD soft you should be techy enough install OS and run VMs in your sleep.

I'm fucking retarded and I learned fusion in under a week just fucking around with it occasionally

>>1901158
>>1901364

We mainly teach Siemens NX. The students are free to use what they want for their capstone team projects, which I normally see split between Solidworks and Inventor.

>>1901673
pics or it didn't happen

>>1901679

>>1901635
>You can import files into other CAD programs to strip any tagging then export the file.
This also introduces many model errors and deletes the design tree. It's fine to just get by, but eventually it fucks everything up and loses its link to the engineering drawing which is the most important part.
> Also remember if you make something you've no obligation to show anyone the code. You're selling finished products or parts. Subcontractors give no fucks and just want to get paid.
Depending on what kind of ripoff copy you have, some companies print or hide revealing information on your printed copies. And fabricators/manufacturers will typically request copies of the 3D model and the drawing. This is just liability you dont need unless you plan to stay small forever.
>When you become wealthy you can buy a legit seat.
and all the wealth you gained is now fair ground for lawsuit.

>>1898205
I don't get what your problem with Autodesk is.
I'm using Inventor and I get by just fine.
You might already know this, but for everybody else:
Go to https://www.autodesk.com/education/edu-software/overview and set up an account. You'd usually have to be a student and put your school/university in the form, but they obviously have no way to check if that's true as long as the school is not in the US.
With that account you can use most of the programs Autodesk makes without any cost. The only restrictions are usually that they can't be installed remotely and you can't use them commercially.

>>1900724
Solvespace, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, or separate PC with pirated stuff.
>>1900827
My concern with Solvespace is, that I can't import a lot of other file formats. I'm generally wondering about how I could work on creating a mechanism that would fit into a .stl /mesh object, for example. Maybe Blender will be able to do it.

>>1901627
its not i just have no idea what to do

I want to do flow/fluid simulation how can I do that for free?

Is there any CAD/CAM package that will run on Linux?

FreeCAD's CAM stuff is buggy as fuck.
And I tried getting an old NX Linux release to run without any luck.

Fuck SW 2020 is such trash. It installed like 50 services that are always on in the background which just makes it harder for me to identify shit I don't want running jewgle update or jewgle software reporter tool.

i dont understand how im supposed to crack solidworks and actually learn anything
it really does feel like that if you're not an engineering student who gets his CAD paid for than you're just fucked

>>1898208
Cool it with the anti Semitic remarks please

>>1903841
Your rambling sentence structure and mistakes in word usage makes me think the problem lies with you and not your situation. Dummy.

>>1898296
I know the pain, but just fucking being able to install it anywhere, anytime without problems is worth the pain man. Never again learn a Closed Source software.

I even paid for a solidEdge course, and they auto-deactivate like 3 months later and you cant even open your own fucking files.

just Yar har har'd sw 2020, only used it for like 30 minutes fucking with the tutorial but it seems fairly easy to use, a little clunky but it feels like all CAD programs are in their own way. worth a shot since it just takes data and time.

>>1903553
Sheetcam has a Linux version. I find it a bit buggy, but it does work.

Why don't you torrent SW2017?
I use the legal version at work and the cracked one at home for 3D-printing stuff and for lulz.
Faggot360 is ok for simple 3d-printing projects, but it's easy to make a design that is really hard to modify if one is sloppy and uses the timeline.
I love open source software like Kicad, but FreeCAD can go suck it. Being spoiled by SolidWorks ruined FreeCAD for me.
Let me know if I should reupload the SW2017 torrent.... my upload is slow as fuck, tho.

Sorry for the shitty post, I'm new to DIY. How does one get into this shit? I may have shit brain, but tutorials are shite. I'd like to dick around with 3D modeling for the sake of making fun little games. I'm not really interested in making money off it, I figure that's unrealistic for my sake, but I'd enjoy it nonetheless.

>>1899007
Catia came way before sw you know, it was private. Catia was released in 1977, the first version of Solid Work was released in 1995.

Solid Works is a clone of Catia, not the other way.

>>1906451
just get blender

>>1898205
Just use onshape, its perfect

Does anyone have blueprints of a random milling vice?

>>1901647
Where do you even go for a Solidworks pirate?

I have looked around and can't find anything that is not obvious malware.

Rhino 6 :^)

beg for a student license that won't expire or pirate it easily

>>1908680
tbp duh

>>1903553
Ive done a lot of 2&1/2D machining with
I've done a lot of 2 & 1/2D machining with LybraCAD/Qcad for sketching then import into HeeksCad. It's buggy as well. You have to get the right version. FreeCad is the way forward though ;)

>>1898205
Is it that bad?
I jump between vectorworks and SketchUp usually and I find both (and kind of any other CAD software I've tried) to be mostly the same after you learn your first one.
The only one I found strange was Rhino. Because it represents everything in 4 different views constantly.

>>1903553
Baby steps in FreeCAD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWFC17MIfOE

>>1911269
No it is not, most of the time it is completely fine to use any software that suits you. Remember that most people's on this board are larpers like op, while it can be a bit odd switching from fusion to sw the other way is pretty simple, but you need to have basics in design software. And most of the software people use professionally is dictated by the company they work for, nobody is going to give you rhino to run extensive fea or inventor for single complex part, but in hobby use it doesn't mater because all of the software can achieve basics/semi-advanced stuff.

>>1898205
be a CAD Chad and torrent Creo Parametric. you'll realize solidworks is pussy shit once you unlock the power of quilts.

>>1898431
You spent an entire HOUR trying to learn a program? I'm so sorry you had to experience that. At least you showed some determinaton!

>>1898734
Free Fusion ends Oct 1st. Users are pissed they have to pay a small fee. Inventor with CAM costs me $2600/year.

>>1908680
>Where do you even go for a Solidworks pirate?
Didn't look into it yet, some torrent from Limetorrents or something like it, I guess...

>>1906390
Why the 2017 version? Is the newer one harder to crack? Or did they chance a lot for the worse?

>>1898205
You can get a student/hobbyist license for one year for $100. Got one earlier this year. Takes like 5 minutes to get one.

>>1912555
Don't you need to be a student for that?

I heard EAA members can get a student version for free and membership is only $40/year so I wonder if there's a catch somewhere.

>>1903845
Fuck you, kike.

I used Fusion for about three years now but the cloud ans the fact that they could delete all my data one day because they want more money seems scary.
Has anyone made the switch to openSCAD for more serious models? It looks pretty based and I can honestly imagine that I could build more complex stuff with it, except multi part assemblies of course.
Should I start learning it? Fusion doesn't run with wine so having a gnu/linux conpatible alternative would be neat.
FreeCAD sucks in my experience, maybe I just couldn't wrap my head around it though.

>>1911567
turns out he was right to avoid that program since Fusion just nuked its options for free users.

>>1898205
>not just pirating everything
shiggy diggy

>>1911600
>a small fee
$300 ain't that small dude.
anyway, my prediction was spot on... lol.

>>1913287
Difficult to into it but its good

I can't find a torrent for cracked Inventor that isn't riddled with malware. Any sources? I've also tried ZW3D, which works surprisingly well.

>>1913287
I've used autocad and blender in the past. OpenScad is all I use. If you into any programming, it should be easy to learn

>except multi part assemblies of course.
You can use multiple files and include them in another using "include" (use whole file) or "use" (use modules only)
Check out the openscad cheat sheet

>>1913746
>25 bucks a month
>Not small
Have you considered not being poor? Or at least having a cheaper hobby or using one of the other million alternatives. Not that I'm excusing Autodesk for being a bunch of kikes, but I think your priorities might be out of order if 25 bucks decides if you go hungry or not.

>>1914830
cheaper hobby?
>don't design anything for 2 weeks
>still costs more than half a roll of filament
For $300 you could get a new printer and several rolls of filament every year.

Unless they changed their ToS, even free was too expensive for software that spies on you

>>1912547
2017 because there was a torrent with cracks for SW2017. It would be a good idea to only use this software on a computer without access to your data.

>>1914856
Then use any one of the alternatives discussed here? If you're not using it often enough to be wasting money paying for it then learn something else. But like I said before if the prospect of burning 25 sheckles a month raises your heart rate perhaps you shouldn't be wasting it on 3D printing.

You could download current version. Use it until trial period is over, uninstall it and reinstall it. You may need to fuck around with registry to remove any keys it dropped in there.

You could also download a full version and say you are a student. It is free for students. Some software require a .edu type email. I think you can get people to set them up for you on fiver or one of those other freelancer websites.

In Europe you can resell software licenses. A court ruling allowed it. So you could buy it from there.

You could try Gumtree, some people advertise discount versions.

You could torrent a version but need to be careful for hidden malware.

>>1914912
Why do you need complex CAD/CAM software for 3d printing anyway?
You're using like a tenth of their functionality if you only need it to return a simple mesh.

Blender and OpenSCAD is enough for 3d printing.

>>1914928
>Need

I got a cracked copy of SW 2019 to use while I learn FreeCAD or some other POS opensource software.

I want to like fusion360, but having to have an account and it tied to the cloud 24/7 just annoys me. I may have to just get over myself and learn to like it. I just like SW and blender so much more though.

>>1914976
If you like SolidWorks and already have a copy why not just stick with it? Why bother suffering through freecad? Just run it in a sandbox and firewall it or run it on an airgapped computer and go about your day.

>>1914981
I will stick with it as my job has me using it.
I like learning other software too, however.

Couldn't be arsed to read the thread, but is Solidworks Student Edition OK for what you need? It has flow sim and most the other shit, not sure what limitations it has, but works fine for me (3D printing mostly).

If so, Google EEA Solidworks, you can join (some aircraft club) for $40 a year and you get legit access to SW2020 student.

>>1898302
The difference though is that corporations get service contracts and different levels of customization/support/etc. This is literally just selling you the equivalent of a standard CD but charging whatever they feel like for it.

>>1915361
>EEA
EAA (experimental aviation association)
They didn't strike me as an organization that any random dude from across the globe could just walk in, hand over the money and enjoy all the member benefits no matter if he's never touched a plane in his life and never will. But apparently not, there doesn't even seem to be any kind of member rules or terms you have to accept before entering credit card info lol. Still makes me wonder if there's some catch because solidworks student (and it's a premium edition that comes with pretty much everything they have save for some business stuff) for $40/year that anyone can get sounds too good to be true.

>>1915580
It's me you replied to.
Yeah, I thought the same, but joined a couple of weeks back and have downloaded and installed SW just fine, I don't even live in the US (UK), no issues at all.

>>1914928
Parametric designs are better to alter later on. I hate it when I only get stl files of something. Would you like to sculpt some mechanics in a modelling program, or alter them? Please try it. I can't even cut that stl files without getting a ton of errors in the model, like spikes coming out of somewhere. One file I did repair, but then the slicer worked worse with it than with the unrepaired file.
>>1913287
Does dxf/dxw import work in OpenSCAD? There's also Solvespace, which is easy for beginners but my version has problems with importing said formats (bug).