Solid Edge now has a "community edition" of their software which includes both 2D and 3D CAD software. No real restrictions accept that the files won't work in the professional editions and you can't use the software for commercial purposes. I downloaded it and will play around with it.
I've been using their free 2D CAD software for quite a few years now and, IMHO, it's the best free 2D CAD software available. I've probably tried all of them and none can compare to Solid Edge 2D.
Solid Edge Community Edition Download
Ed
Thanks. DL now.
I use Solidworks at work, and you used to be able to have a home copy, as long as they were not both used at the same time. No longer the case, and I have been without a home 3D CAD program for quite some time.
(01-09-2022, 01:20 PM)rleete Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks. DL now.
I use Solidworks at work, and you used to be able to have a home copy, as long as they were not both used at the same time. No longer the case, and I have been without a home 3D CAD program for quite some time.
You should be able to pick up Solid Edge pretty quickly then since Solidworks and Solid Edge are fairly similar.
Fusion 360 use to be free but they've gone to a subscription basis now.
There's always FreeCAD which is what I've been using for 3D CAD work for a few years now. Not as polished as Solidworks and Solid Edge but it's done what I've needed it to do so far. I think it'll be nice to have the 2D and 3D CADs integrated so they can talk to each other.
Ed
You can still get the free version of Fusion 360 but there are limitations on it. The main one being no more than 10 active drawings, which isn't really a problem, as you can switch between active and archive with a single click. You can no longer export drawings to PDF but that doesn't matter either, as you simply print as PDF instead. The one thing that does bug me is that you can no longer use custom title blocks but I understand why they do that. So I'm still using it with very little noticeable difference from when it was the full free version.
I've finally gotten around to playing with Solid Edge 3D and I have to say it's very nice. The interface is much more user friendly than FreeCAD. Somewhat like Fusion 360, if I remember correctly.
Ed
Tried it last night. Might have to watch some vids, as it wasn't as intuitive as I'd hoped.
I'm really mad that SolidWorks doesn't allow multiple installations anymore. Having the same package at work and at home made it really easy to transfer files back and forth.
Didn't SolidWorks have a cloud based 3D CAD that was free, similar to Fusion 360?
Ed
It used to be that you were allowed to DL SW on a home PC, using the same license as you had at work. The only provision was, they could not be used at the same time, and it had to have an internet connection to verify. The username was supposed to match in both cases. I did this for many years, with several different companies. As long as it was my license number, and my work computer was not connected, it worked fine.
The issues came when shady businesses started having one seat for multiple people. Since this was causing their resellers (middlemen) to lose money, the practice was changed. There is a way for a company like mine - having multiple seats - to use a web-based licensing system, but that requires all users to switch. And, naturally, there's a small fee associated with it. My company, being cheap, wasn't interested.