What does Solidworks cost?

[CNCadmin]

What does Solidworks cost? How does it compair with MD?

[dherbman]

$4495 for the seat I just purchased. $1295 for the maintenance contract that keeps it current and provides support.

Totaly different beast from MDT afaik...... More similiar to Inventor as both are solids native.

Hope that helps. Far more info on comp.cad.solidworks

[rsera]

*****

[Jennifer]

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/news/3DSkills.html

I didn't know if this would be of interest to anyone, but Solidworks is offering a free seminar/training program along with a free personal edition of the software. The software you'll receive isn't the full edition you'd buy (with all the features) but will give you all the necessary junk to learn it, apparently. I'm going to check it out tonight - I'll report back.

[vacpress]

apparantly alibre design has a solidworks type program for around $1000. much more affoardable for personal projects, but i doubt its anywhere near what solidworks is..

SW also offers a educational version for around $250. any version outputs the files needed for CAM programs.. thats a plus - even the free version exports igs and stl .. i think... so it can be used to make many parts i bet..

[Kipper]

I think I just saw $8000 for the office premium version :meispoor: scared the bejeesus out of me Maybe i'll buy a pencil lol I suppose it is great if you're making money ie lots of it but interesting and good looking as it is I just cant afford it. It's a shame i'm not a little younger as theres a student version for $99.... I suppose I could shave my beard and dye what little hair I have left

[phantomcow2]

At the shop it is 4k plus the ~1000 dollar yearly fee as dherbman mentioned.

[mxpro32]

I got my sw student version for my solidworks class at csu fresno for around 50 bucks, and it came with a book with step by step tutorials. No need to be a student, just go to schroff.com they have tutorial books and student versions of solidworks and many other programs. I believe the student version expires in 6 months though.

[sdantonio]

As a slightly lower cost alternative there is Rhino3D. Version 3 is a 3D modeling software (not a true CAD). But combined with something like MadCAD (both are about $500 each) it will do a lot of the things solidworks can.

I an told Rhino v4.0, due sometime is Sept (as of the last timeline I have heard) will incorporate a lot more true CAD features.

Remember, if you intend to do CNC work with solidworks, you not olny need solidworks, but you need something like solidCAM which is also quite costly.

[DareBee]

SW is compatible with most all CAM software.
Models can be output as any generic format you wish.
Once you make an ACAD "type" of print you can output that as dwg or dxf.
ANY CAM worth having will accept 1 or more of these formats.
I use VisualMill with SW.

[msomerville]

I am thinking about purchasing SW student edition. Where does the student version fall short of the real deal? Everybody seems to love SW, for $90 could I go wrong?

[JerryFlyGuy]

I am thinking about purchasing SW student edition. Where does the student version fall short of the real deal? Everybody seems to love SW, for $90 could I go wrong?

The student version is supposed to be the same, w/ some feature limitations.. whatever that is.. however anything that you make in the Student version can't be opened in a licenced version of SW. There is supposed to be some conversion possibility enabling a person to convert these files [ provided by the creaters of SW] but I've not heard of anyone getting to use it. I think there is some fairly restrictive measures in place to limit its use to only select files under special criteria.

Jerry [FWIW]