Onshape/Fusion360/Solidworks

Hello All,

Im curious to hear other peoples thoughts about Onshape or Fusion360 and comparisons to Solidworks. Im a biased as I have been using Solidworks for many years but would like to expand my CAD abilities. Any thoughts on these new programs? I have played around with both Onshape and Fusion360 can can see many parallels to Solidworks.

thanks

As a Solidworks User for over 17years, you ask a good question. Also instructed SW for about 8 years as an Adjunct Faculty member.

Full Disclosure, I work on the Fusion360 Education Management team now. I think you answered your question, you have to give them a try and see where the ups and downs are. I think Fusion has a 90 free trial for SW users now.

OK perhaps a better question inventor vs fusion 360? I took and inventor class and was impressed by it. At this point I dont have a ton of time to spend learning multiple autodesk programs.

Inventor is more Direct SW competition (both are good products). Fusion asks a different question about where CAD will go and how broad the acceptance can be for the general public. It is targeted at Design and Engineering, but strives for a larger adoption.

Thanks, do you think they will continue to stay separate products?? My dream software is a combination of organic modeling like rhino and the logic’s of solidworks

thanks!

Onshape is in its infancy but has great potential. Still limited in what you can make surface-wise.

F360 had me very excited following Autodesk University last year - it was cool to see that a couple of design firms were starting to use it, most notably Industry PDX for that titanium bike concept. I like almost everything about F360 - the multiple platforms, low prices, stable backing by a big company, well-thought out interfaces. The t-splines surface modeling concept makes sense as well, at least theoretically. The biggest problem with F360 is there’s no installed user base and so they are going to have to slug it out seat-by-seat with Dassault, for the hearts and minds of SolidWorks users.

Surfacing in SolidWorks is like being a dentist and pulling teeth using a dull butter knife and a roll of toilet paper.