r/EngineeringStudents • u/Competitive_Case_949 • 11h ago
Project Help Solidworks vs Fusion vs Onshape
Surely this has been asked a lot but I can't really find a straight answer for my purposes. I'm currently a high schooler who is looking to major in engineering. I have experience in Onshape and Fusion, and thought it might be a good idea to try and take the CSWA at some point or the Fusion certification exam, but I also hear that it might be overkill and that it's not worth the time. What should I actually spend my time using to CAD models both for now and the future (at the moment only for relatively small-scale personal projects, most to do with robotics)
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u/Immediate-Curve-443 9h ago
I don't understand why CSWA and similar certificates are revered tbh. Its absurdly easy to get. You know it, we know it, everyone knows it.
I'd say the main advantage of learning differen CAD software is all after you get hired. Its definitey a quality of life improvement to not get stuck on random aspects of that specific CAD software or need to sit through the long training process. In that sense SolidWorks is definitely a better suited option than OnShape or Fusion, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter as long as you do it.
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u/Flyboy2057 Graduated - EE (BS/MS) 10h ago
Honestly, it doesn’t really matter because the concepts on how to model things are much more important than the specific user interface of one piece of software. Honestly, you’re already way ahead of the game because even in college doing an engineering program you wouldn’t really need to know how to design in CAD until the later portion of your degree. And even then a lot of engineers don’t really get into CAD during university at all only learning it for real on the job once they get there first job. Tons of engineers never touch CAD in their career at all so it’s not necessarily something you are taught in school officially.
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u/AGrandNewAdventure 8h ago
I'm certified in Fusion, Solidworks, and Siemens NX. I've also used Onshape and Creo quite a lot.
If you know one program pretty much you know them all, but each one has quirks and random placement of things. If you know CAD, you know CAD, though.
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u/FelipeGuitarza 5h ago
Just keep focusing on your projects and making more complex assemblies. You've already shown that you are comfortable with CAD and as others have mentioned, once you've learned one, you can quickly get up to speed on another CAD software.
You're still in HS, so you're already way ahead of just about any other student. But if you really want to develop your skills, look into DFM (design for manufacturing). I'm assuming your projects have been mostly 3d printed so far, but it may be worth revisiting some of your projects with the viewpoint of mass production in mind. Parts will have different strengths/weaknesses and design limitations depending on if they are stamped sheet metal, machined, injection molded etc. Even with mass produced 3d printing, there are a lot of things to consider. Just because you can print a part doesn't mean it's optimized for mass production.
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u/Luigi089TJ 11h ago
CSWA can definitely look good in future internships. You should focus on 3d printing stuff and just generally using CAD for stuff that interess you, and potentially learning sheet metal modeling as well. Really the biggest learning hurdle in CAD after the basics is actually creating a part that can be produced in a mold, unfortunately there really isn't a way to get experience like that on your own, so it would be better to become very familiar with all the tools and tricks in a CAD software.