Cheaper alternatives to SolidWorks?

[dbassett74]

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Basically, I really like the solid modeling features, the ability to animate movements and the analysis of COSMOS, but I'm on a limited budget. I'm aware of the student version, but don't like the 24 month limitation.

[nervis1]

No such animal yet that I am aware of. The closest you can get under several k is Rhino. No FEA though and it's not really solids (parametric feature based solids), more like boolian and wireframe / surfaces. For what it does and considering the price it is a great prgram though.

You might want to contact edgecam. They have a solid model program if I remember right is under 2k. Not quite SW but pretty nice. I saw a demo about 6 months ago.

[Alan T.]

PTC Wildfire 2.0 is an alternative. You can get a non-commercial/hobbiest version for about $300.00 from journey ed. Its the Student learning version but costs a little more for hobbiest personal use.

[duvlitho]

Try Alibre 8.0. You can download a trial version at www.alibre.com. I like it for the parametric modeling. I also have rhino but I use it for different things.

Dustin

[duvlitho]

If you decide to buy... Please PM me so you can put me down as reference.