Re: SolidWorks is cool, sort of (but FreeCAD might be better)

In sci.electronics.design Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:26:06 -0700, john larkin wrote:
 

I don't want to do mechanical design myself. I have two guys who do
that, and they use Solidworks.

 
Is it really a good idea to have all the work you have done locked up in a
proprietary format under the control of someone else?
 
Perhaps ask them what they think of open-source alternatives like FreeCAD?

Especially when you are not even able to BUY that software, only rent. Not
just it gets extremely expensive after couple of years like it is now with
e.g. Altium Designer -- its cost PER YEAR is now the same as I paid for my
PERPETUAL license when those were still available and "subscription" was
(still "is" for me as mine only expires in 2027) something like 1/4..1/3 of
that and not mandatory. The biggest problem is what are you going to do when
the company goes bust (it is not "if", it is _ALWAYS_ "when" -- the bigger
they are the harder they fall) or just decides they don't want to support
that outdated weirdo anymore when they have a newer one or suddenly want 10x
last year price...

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