What free program similar to SW & CATIA do you like?
I have just completed an Engineering tech program that focused heavily on CATIA and Solidworks. My student licenses will run out before too long, and I am broke.
What Similar free programs do you recommend?
I have Fusion 360, and I have read that HeeksCAD is similar and free, but have not looked into it yet.
I am just curious what the current favorite or favorites are. I want to keep my skills sharp while job hunting.
Thanks a ton.
1 Answer
Free CAD 3D applications like Solid Works and Catia don't exist. The most comprehensive free cad modeling application would probably be https://www.freecadweb.org/ but as this is not at a stage of it's development for mainstream commercial use, It works much differently than SW Inventor or Catia it is not a good training aid for someone starting out. I make use of it for a few small tasks that I have found it useful for.
Due to the cost of the mainstream cad applications legal versions of these products will be owned by your employer. If you are self employed doing freelance work owning mainstream cad applications is expensive and you need to generate quite a lot of revenue to cover this expense. This makes getting practice outside of a valid student licence a difficult task.
A lot depends on the type of work you are qualified for, and seeking, and how much of this position requires sitting in front of a computer working on Cad models. As purchasing legal SW or Catia software is not possible, and the free alternatives are nothing like the standard industry tools this leaves little choice. You can download Freecad and test your abilities to get your head around a completly different tool to what you are used to just for the challenge or work on the non-cad part of the course, the engineering, calculation and knowledge part.
Cad is only one tool required for a good career in a technical world. You see many well executed cad models that may appear beautiful but in the real world of the finished product are terrible, often the cad bit is the easiest part of a well engineered product.
One other way to get a bit of Cad practice is to download some demos of commercial products. This one https://www.alibre.com/ is similar to SW and Inventor to use and comes in 3 flavors Atom for the hobbyist, a lot of software for the price, to full professional packages all affordable to persons like me who in the past used this software to be able to produce work that I was paid NZ $20,000 for for a NZ $3,000 software cost. Solid Works would, at the time been around the total value of the job. Also you own it rather than rent it, so you don't need to upgrade unless you want to. As I am retired I don't bother upgrading and only do small jobs as a favor for friends.
Download a demo for practice, Quite easy to learn, it will work for a month. The price for the Atom version makes it a viable purchase option for a limited budget. It is a USA product from Texas.
