The Everything 3D Printer Thread

[Citation]

I've been using Solidworks off and on since SW'97. Currently you can get the 3D experience for about $50/year. It's basically SW with a horribly annoying software launcher.

There is a SW "mountain board" PDF on the Web that's a training guide for the program. It's old but still a good guide. It was something SW did for schools a while back. Easy to find with a web search.

 

[gamescastspencer]

I used to use Fusion and even considered paying for a license, then I discovered that Solid Works offers a makers version for $50/year. They often run sales for 1/2 off.

At $25 for a year, I think it’s an excellent value, even at $50 it’s worth it. It seems that fusion keeps rising in price, I think it was ~$360 for a year when I last looked before going to SW, I see it’s $510 for a year with 25% off, $680 regular.

 

[coldh2o]

I used to use Fusion and even considered paying for a license, then I discovered that Solid Works offers a makers version for $50/year. They often run sales for 1/2 off.

At $25 for a year, I think it’s an excellent value, even at $50 it’s worth it. It seems that fusion keeps rising in price, I think it was ~$360 for a year when I last looked before going to SW, I see it’s $510 for a year with 25% off, $680 regular.

I struggle with Fusion, don't find it very intuitive. Is it difficult to transition to Solid Works?

 

[mike93lx]

I was trying to find a thread that I swear we started last time this came up, so we could keep this thread focused on the 3D printer side, and address CAD separately. However, I can't find it specifically (some related ones, but not a definite). Maybe it ended up getting snipped due to egos? Happy to post here as well, but worried about it getting buried within the 170 pages.

Overall, I find Fusion less intuitive than OnShape/Solidworks, but that may be because of what I learned first (Dassault vs Autodesk is like Windows/Mac). Happy to help with any program though.

The issues I encounter tend to be more a desire to do things more efficiently. I manage to find a way to brute force my way to a result, but when I look back at the time line, I cringe.

 

[mike93lx]

I used to use Fusion and even considered paying for a license, then I discovered that Solid Works offers a makers version for $50/year. They often run sales for 1/2 off.

At $25 for a year, I think it’s an excellent value, even at $50 it’s worth it. It seems that fusion keeps rising in price, I think it was ~$360 for a year when I last looked before going to SW, I see it’s $510 for a year with 25% off, $680 regular.

I just use it personally, so I'm on a free personaly/hobbyist license. It doesn't have every feature, but I haven't run into a problem

 

[Cruzan80]

I struggle with Fusion, don't find it very intuitive. Is it difficult to transition to Solid Works?

Depends on what you are struggling with. They are both parametric CAD, but they "flow" differently.

OnShape is 90+% Soldworks alike (for the basic features), besides small UI things like a floating window vs a sidebar, and navigation keys.

You would lose your "feature history" moving existing files to the new program.

 

[gamescastspencer]

I struggle with Fusion, don't find it very intuitive. Is it difficult to transition to Solid Works?

Maybe? Cruzan beat me to a reply, functionally they are fairly similar, being both parametric. The workflow and environments are somewhat different.

In trade school (PMT/Precision Machining Technology) we started on Mastercam doing both modeling and cam, then switched to solid works for modeling and continuing with mastercam for the cam. That was a big change as mastercam is direct, not parametric, but once acclimated most of us much preferred SW over MC there was a few that wanted to stick to MC for modeling. Learning to make use of and take advantage of the parametric capabilities and relationships was a big thing.

Personally I can wade my way through fusion but I like using SW much more. One I have a formal education and training on, and the other is YouTube university, so that certainly influences things too. Both are extremely capable and powerful in the right hands.

 

[Cruzan80]

OnShape is 90+% Soldworks alike (for the basic features), besides small UI things like a floating window vs a sidebar, and navigation keys.

Sorry, realized I only typed half of what I thought. Since OnShape is free, but SW costs money, I would try OnShape to see if you like it better than Fusion. The main difference between OnShape/SW comes with assemblies (they are handled vastly differently). OnShape also has a CAM feature that should be rolling out soon (was in Beta last spring).

Solidworks does have a CAM feature set, but it is fairly involved compared to Fusion.

 

[ER70S-2]

What happened here? This was the first layer, petg. The layer wasn’t curled or warped but i could see what looked like a crack, and it pulled back easily.
.

That looks like a lot more than one layer to me.