Would "3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers" be right for me?

[cjoy36]

I have read a lot of bad comments on these forms and reddit about the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. I want to know if anyone recommends is subscription product of $99/year if you were in my shoes. I am also thinking of paying for 1 month ($10) check it out and see if it is as hard to use as people say.

Background: I am 28M Mechanical Engineer (3 years of SW experience, 5 years of CAD) but a woodworker at heart. I will soon be living in a house and building my own garage wood shop. My goal is produce unique home furniture, home improvement, and possibly larger backyard projects for myself and develop my woodworking skills to become a small business eventually as a 1/2 retirement plan.

In your opinion, would 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers be a right fit for me, if...
1. I would be starting all my designs and files from scratch
2. I am comfortable using the SW program
3. I am working solo, no need to share permissions.
4. I am wanting CAM software with this package, but I wouldn't need it until many years from now. (It will take me a long time to build and invest in my woodshop and buy a CNC)
5. I am wanting to keep on the same platform for may years to come (futureproofing). Not switching from cheap software to cheap software.

Your thoughts are much appreciated

[Uncle_Hairball]

Beware, there are a LOT of people on the SW forums, asking for refunds for 3DXperience (but can't figure out how to get one).

[mike miller]

I'd say try it and let us know. You can't go too far wrong for $10.

However, in all honesty, I'd check out Onshape if I were you. It's free as long as your files are public, then if you subscribe someday you can make all your files private.

[matt]

Beware, there are a LOT of people on the SW forums, asking for refunds for 3DXperience (but can't figure out how to get one).

Is this true? Do you have links?

[Ry-guy]

I have read a lot of bad comments on these forms and reddit about the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. I want to know if anyone recommends is subscription product of $99/year if you were in my shoes. I am also thinking of paying for 1 month ($10) check it out and see if it is as hard to use as people say.

Background: I am 28M Mechanical Engineer (3 years of SW experience, 5 years of CAD) but a woodworker at heart. I will soon be living in a house and building my own garage wood shop. My goal is produce unique home furniture, home improvement, and possibly larger backyard projects for myself and develop my woodworking skills to become a small business eventually as a 1/2 retirement plan.

In your opinion, would 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers be a right fit for me, if...
1. I would be starting all my designs and files from scratch
2. I am comfortable using the SW program
3. I am working solo, no need to share permissions.
4. I am wanting CAM software with this package, but I wouldn't need it until many years from now. (It will take me a long time to build and invest in my woodshop and buy a CNC)
5. I am wanting to keep on the same platform for may years to come (futureproofing). Not switching from cheap software to cheap software.

Your thoughts are much appreciated

I"d say no. If you are going to be doing custom furniture and woodworking I'd look at Solid Edge. It's 1 of 2 tools that have convergent modeling functionality. And you are going to need that for woodworking.

[SPerman]

Is this true? Do you have links?

I would provide links if I could figure out how to navigate that site. Search for "refund"

[jcapriotti]

I would provide links if I could figure out how to navigate that site. Search for "refund"

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[Damo]

I would provide links if I could figure out how to navigate that site. Search for "refund"

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WOW..!!

I suppose I'll give it a miss too..

[matt]

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o m g

They tried to push me onto that maker edition. They pulled my media/partner license and suggested I get the maker license. Glad I didn't fall for that one.

That's kind of unbelievable.

[jcapriotti]

o m g

They tried to push me onto that maker edition. They pulled my media/partner license and suggested I get the maker license. Glad I didn't fall for that one.

That's kind of unbelievable.

So does the desktop software they give you force you to connect to the 3dx cloud to store files or can you turn off that add-in?

[Lucas]

I would suggest you to go SolidEdge, they offer a free maker version.

Also:
Onshape, as mentioned. Also heard it is easy to swap from SW.
Fusion360. Not really, but it's free.
FreeCAD. Why not? lol


But if you decide to go to SW don't forget to check this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DiMonteGroupInc/videos

DiMonte Group has a lot of cool videos explaining sculpting in SW, G2 continuity and lots of advanced stuff. Probably will be very useful for your woodwork.

[matt]

So does the desktop software they give you force you to connect to the 3dx cloud to store files or can you turn off that add-in?

Don't know. I didn't take the bait.

[RichGergely]

What I would look at is how much it is going to cost when you eventually turn it into a small business. That's the time solidworks and solidedge will get expensive.

Suddenly something like Rhino will look awfully cheap.

[Dtief190]

I'm in a similar situation - I use SW at work, that's different. But for my home projects, I need something to make 3D models, and export STL files for my 3D printers. I don't need endless updates. I don't want to use an online program, since you never know when they may change the rules or how it works, change to pay, etc. I want something I can download [pay some or not] and run on my local machine, which will primarily only do this job, and not need a new OS every other year either. I saw some possible options in earlier posts in this thread, I'll go look at them later.

[jcapriotti]

I'm in a similar situation - I use SW at work, that's different. But for my home projects, I need something to make 3D models, and export STL files for my 3D printers. I don't need endless updates. I don't want to use an online program, since you never know when they may change the rules or how it works, change to pay, etc. I want something I can download [pay some or not] and run on my local machine, which will primarily only do this job, and not need a new OS every other year either. I saw some possible options in earlier posts in this thread, I'll go look at them later.

I would probably go with Solid Edge Community Edition in your case:
https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/ ... /community

[jcapriotti]

What I would look at is how much it is going to cost when you eventually turn it into a small business. That's the time solidworks and solidedge will get expensive.

Suddenly something like Rhino will look awfully cheap.

Rhino has some cool 3d capabilities, but if you need create drawings from your 3d models, it looks very rough.

[Lucas]

I don't want to use an online program, since you never know when they may change the rules or how it works, change to pay, etc. I want something I can download [pay some or not] and run on my local machine, which will primarily only do this job

Guess FreeCAD might be the one for you. Opensource will always be opensource.
There's a bug in it that might be a deal break tho. I still need to test it, might try on the holidays... somehow I like the UI lol

Rhino has some cool 3d capabilities, but if you need create drawings from your 3d models, it looks very rough.

Yep, but the main problem with Rhino is to make changes in the model after it's done.
Rhino is good to get a concept model from a hand drawing and it's easy to go without measurements. Once you have measurements you will want to go parametric so you can make small changes in a second.

[RichGergely]

Yep, but the main problem with Rhino is to make changes in the model after it's done.
Rhino is good to get a concept model from a hand drawing and it's easy to go without measurements. Once you have measurements you will want to go parametric so you can make small changes in a second.

Many would count that as a blessing not being tied down by a history tree. It all depends what you want to change and in what way.

I remember the dream they sold with parametric modelling back in the 90's, a few clicks and everything is done or changed.

[mike miller]

Many would count that as a blessing not being tied down by a history tree. It all depends what you want to change and in what way.

I remember the dream they sold with parametric modelling back in the 90's, a few clicks and everything is done or changed.

Solid Edge has both history-free (Synchronous) and history-based. And they're both parametric.

https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/resour ... n-changes/

[Lucas]

Many would count that as a blessing not being tied down by a history tree. It all depends what you want to change and in what way.

I remember the dream they sold with parametric modelling back in the 90's, a few clicks and everything is done or changed.

Indeed, working with surfaces is much better in Rhino; It's easy to explode a solid and start trimming and knitting it. While in SW any small surface repairs end up in a lot of slow steps and useless history items.

Plus Grasshopper allows some parametric modeling and many cool math geometry that is impossible to do in most parametric CAD (or without expensive plug-ins): https://www.food4rhino.com/en/app/crystallon

It all depends in the desirable product, SolidWorks is better for mechanical parts and assembly, hands down. When I started doing some Model Mania parts in Rhino the limitations were clear, Fillets and Draft are much more powerful in SW, and the history features end up saving your work on the short and long run.

Solid Edge has both history-free (Synchronous) and history-based. And they're both parametric.

https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/resour ... n-changes/

Synchronous also works the same way with dumb geometry, right?
It's pretty amazing stuff. Guess in the near future Siemens will beat DSS hard, SE gets NX updates downstream while DSS products do not talk to each other and seems to be left in time. Heck, even their online platform is not properly integrated, we are seeing many new users rage quit during software installation lol

[jcapriotti]

Solid Edge has both history-free (Synchronous) and history-based. And they're both parametric.

Biggest problem is: