Anyone use Solid Works?

[Skyline]

My son is going to start college next year as a mechanical engineering student. I was thinking about getting him a copy of Solid Works software to play around with. A student version is about $100. What put me off a bit, is that it appears that this cost is just an annual fee for the "rental" of the software. Apparantly it is unusable after a year????

Anyone out there have experience with this software that can perhaps confirm or refute this?

Also, are there better software packages that one can buy with similar/better functionality?

 

[chancez]

Well, if you want to spend tens of thousands you can get a lifetime license

But seriously, wait until he gets into school. At my school (Southern Polytechnic State University) All mechanical students have free access to SW on school computers, and can download it to their computers for free. But when you to download it your computer, you have to check out a license every month from the school server, but its only like a 5 minute process.

Or, look into organizations on campus. Solidworks sends all Formula SAE teams enough1year licenses for everyone on the team.

 

[brent5631]

Yeah its only one year. I can use the schools for free and have a one year version free for being on our BAJA Sae team. But its like everything else if it doesn't connect to the internet it doesn't know its expired.

 

[paris_tj]

I would recommend Alibre (www.alibre.com), great software and starts at $99 last I looked.

 

[dankeenan]

I would wait to see what software his course load requires. Getting any CAD package may be a waste of money if he has no school use for it. Depending on what he finds interesting in his Engineering path he may have no use for a CAD package. I have used Solidworks and Pro-E for both CAD, FEA, and CFD for over 15 years. I chose to go down the path of component design and development, while other Mechanical Engineers I work with have never used a CAD package. He may find he likes heat transfer or mechanical vibrations, which will not require a CAD package. If he is interested in CAD and wants to learn it on his own, Solidworks is a good easy program to pick up on your own. Your best bet is to get in contact with Solidworks (Desault Systems) and ask them directly. The program rules change frequently

 

[rich6490]

Make sure SW is what he will be using. I'm a third year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Maine. We use mostly Solid Edge because thats what local industry uses, however I have used Solid Works and love it, I do know a lot of schools teach solid works and it would definitely be beneficial (but not necessary for success) for him to play around with the software before he gets into class.

 

[ToolUsingAnimal]

I've used Solidworks every day for years, it's very good software, intuitive and easy to use. It's also the least expensive of the 3 that I've used professionally at $4,000/year for the standard edition . Chancez is right, I would wait to see if they offer access to a CAD program through your son's school. If they use another system, like Pro/E or NX, your son will have to do his projects using those systems anyway. I had to learn on Pro/E, then switch to Solidworks later.

Yearly licensing is common for CAD and CAM systems. Where I work now we're switching from Solidworks, which was about 4,000/year per license, to NX (formerly Unigraphics) at about $14,000/year per license. Hefty chunk of change, but $100/year is still an awful lot for a student

 

[Major Ramifications]

I have used Cadkey, AutoCad, ProEngineer, and Solid Works. Give me Solid Works every time!

 

[jjarrell4]

I had Autodesk CAD architecture my freshman year of college for Architectural design, it was the same deal rent to use, but at my university it was a hell of a lot cheaper to buy from the bookstore. Depends on what school he is going to, most of them have awesome discounts on software, I was at NC state

 

[wbclassics]

In recent years we've used Alibre, SolidWorks, SolidEdge (Siemens 2D soft) and NX (Siemens). The Siemens stuff is well ahead of Alibre and Solidworks in usability (way better UI) and functionality.

I stopped using Alibre a few years ago when I had to do some gear design and Alibre absolutely didn't have the capability for it. For anything 2D, SolidEdge is fantastic and very quick to use and if I remember correctly also 100% free now somewhere on Siemens website.

 

[Djstorm100]

Shoot I'm in college as a ME and Machine Drafter. I use all of the major ones Autocad, Pro-E, soildworks. you can google college discount softwares. There are places on the net that give discount software to students. I know I picked up a 5 year liscense for student autocad software (2d and 3d together) for 150ish. One hell of a deal.

 

[y20dth]

If you have a registered student E-mail, you should be able to get AutoCad for free. I did.
http://students.autodesk.com/

 

[MBeaty]

I got free licenses for SolidWorks back when I was on a FSAE car team. Before I graduated, I talked to a SolidWorks representative about what options there were for non students who wanted a copy of the software. He said that you should just be able to set the date back on the computer and use the same year license over and over again. I have actually never tried this because I have several more new copies to use up, but it does sound a little fishy to me.

 

[steven083008]

I've used SolidWorks since 1998. Student licenses are probably different, however if you get any other type of license you will not have to set the date back or pull any tricks. Once you buy (or illegally acquire) a seat of SolidWorks it is yours to keep. You will not be able to get updates, etc. but you can keep using it w/o worrying about it expiring.

My advice would be to use as many different software as possible and try to get good at all of them. I've been hired at several companies strictly because I knew the software they wanted me to use. I've worked with probably 12-15 different CAD packages and use AutoCAD, Pro/E, and SolidWorks on a daily basis now. Like others have said, don't pay much for CAD until your boy knows what he wants to do, but then look for student discounts and free offers, and get him as many as you can. SolidWorks is a great software, very easy to use and learn, and extremely powerful as long as you aren't doing 50,000 component assemblies or advanced free-form surfacing. AutoCAD is still what I turn on it I just want to do a quick 2D sketch, and Pro/E is what I turn on if I want to be aggravated as hell or work on a HUGE assembly.

 

[afazz]

Solidworks is very expensive, professional licenses are $5k++ per person per year depending on options! I had the student version, then the free FSAE version. In college it's pretty easy to "find" any software that you need, especially in an ME program. A large group of smart, broke nerds can make anything happen!

 

[Krokodil]

Wait until he goes to school. Sometimes institutions have educational versions of these programs that students can use for non-commercial purposes.

In my day we used Cadkey.

 

[Major Ramifications]

Pro/E is what I turn on if I want to be aggravated as hell or work on a HUGE assembly.

LMAO!

 

[bochnak]

I'm a ME. I would put the money towards the tuition bill. At the end of the day, the company that is about to hire you is interested in the diploma.

He will learn some sort of CAD software along the way.

I was a SW user who got hired by a company who uses PRO. They hired me with no PRO experience and sent me to training.

 

[Bo Heck]

I just graduated, as in, one hour ago I was sitting in the graduation ceremony, and my school is switching to Solidworks next year from Pro/E. I was on the Formula SAE team which means I got a free copy with the license being good for a year. Autdoesk Inventor is free download for students, but many of my classmates simply download a cracked version of Solidworks for their own personal use. I would never do that of course...

 

[Bo Heck]

I'm a ME. I would put the money towards the tuition bill. At the end of the day, the company that is about to hire you is interested in the diploma.

He will learn some sort of CAD software along the way.

I was a SW user who got hired by a company who uses PRO. They hired me with no PRO experience and sent me to training.

This is very true, as an ME, you are simply expected to understand the concepts of solid modeling. By the time you graduate, there have been 3 newer versions of the software you originally learned to operate. Not to mention that it's one software in several that a company may use, all which have a new version every year. The company will pay for training when hired. He will always have access to it while he's in school on the school computers anyway.

 

[masya44]

My advice would be to use as many different software as possible and try to get good at all of them.

Pro/E is what I turn on if I want to be aggravated as hell

I second that!

The truth is that every school and workplace choose their own software to work with, for one reason or the other. SW is a very easy to learn program and I would not spend money on it simply to learn it. Plus, at this stage, it is early for him to start using it.
You may, however, download a free 2D drafting program, DraftSight (from DS, BTW, makers of SW).
Also, try finding books or sites that explain design for manufacturing, DFM. That will be of huge benefit.

Learning software is secondary.

 

[helterskelter]

I'd wait until you know what his school uses and get him a copy of that. There will be opportunities to use it after the introductory CAD courses for other projects. I sort of disagree with the 'people are only looking for the degree' mentality. Yes, they want the degree, that's your foot in the door. But there's something to be said for someone that shows up and is able to start being productive faster because they took the time to learn some skills as well. If he showed up with a decent understanding of drafting, datum structures, GD&T, modeling conventions, etc he'd impress people.

For someone learning CAD, any package will be fine.

 

[Cummins_Powered]

I worked a little bit with ArcGIS, which is a pretty big geographic information systems program. At my school they gave everyone a student copy which was good for a year, and you could just go back and get them every year. Also, the computer labs are typically stocked with the newest full versions of common software. So i wouldnt buy anything.