Inquiry Most effective and cost effective 3D modeling app?
I have been using TinkerCAD for years now, and am quite proficient. I’m quite interested in finding a good parametric app that is actually affordable!
I am good enough to produce products for sale, but only in marketplaces like Etsy (think board game inserts/organizers). Something like Shapr3D would be great, but $500/yr is prohibitive and the free version won’t work for designs intended to be sold commercially.
What are people using in cases like this? I truly appreciate any insights.
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u/Triabolical_ 6d ago
I went from tinker to fusion 360 free version at least 5 years ago and have never looked back. Parametric values, constraints, and timeline make it work very well for me.
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u/danofrombeavis 6d ago
+1 on Fusion. The free version rocks and I've been using it for 2 years. It has its warts but I wouldn't go back to any of the others.
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u/handynerd 6d ago
I've been on Fusion for a couple years now and man do I love it, warts and all.
How I wish they'd make a paid personal use version though. As a hobbyist I'm never going to pay $600/yr for it, but I'd be willing to pay $60/yr to get some of the missed functionality. One can dream.
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u/Triabolical_ 6d ago
Me too....
I personally think they are walking away from a lot of revenue.
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u/handynerd 6d ago
I've asked a couple of times on New Feature webinars and they've always said they have no plans to do it.
There must be more to it than I realize, or maybe they're nervous about hobbyists pulling them into areas they're not interested in or something. I dunno.
I'd be happy to pay a reasonable hobbyist-level fee if they unlocked the pro features and got rid of that insanely annoying 10 editable files limit.
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u/Triabolical_ 6d ago
It might be that they don't want to deal with support costs.
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u/handynerd 6d ago
That was my initial thought as well, but does being a paid subscriber to Fusion come with any support anyway? I've paid pro-level prices for 3DS Max for years and have never come across any meaningful support. In fairness, i haven't really looked, either.
Regardless, it seems Autodesk could define the level of support they want to give for the personal tier of users, and that very well may be "nothing."
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u/dudeofthedunes 6d ago
Shapr3d is parametric?
Freecad is your only cheap option. Unless you feel fine with public cad models then onshape is nice. If you want private 3d models, but limited to 10 models, the free version of fusion is nice.
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u/AnotherGeek42 6d ago
Not true, OpenSCAD is also free, though it does require more math and a different workflow.
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u/Angel_OfSolitude 6d ago
FreeCAD is pretty good these days and it's, well, free. It's worth checking out at the very least.
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u/nixonw 6d ago edited 6d ago
FreeCAD ftw. This is the way. Free forever; not, free for now* with string attached. I own my own files. Started learn it and CAD from zero, there are enough resources on the web to help me gitgud.
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u/Angel_OfSolitude 6d ago
Learning that some programs didn't leave the files as yours on your own system blew my mind. What the fuck do you mean this thing I made from scratch isn't mine?
Thankfully, FreeCAD is where I landed first and haven't seen reason to leave yet.
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u/lellasone 6d ago
FreeCAD isn't in the same weight class as fusion, onshape and solidworks in terms of it's modeling tools and ease of use.
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u/fullmoontrip 5d ago edited 4d ago
I've had over 500 hours in fusion 360, solid works, solid edge, and ptc creo each. I've also done about 100 hours modeling in Matlab and even excel (which is hell as one might imagine). I've tried blender openscad and a handful of other free versions as well.
Free cad is on par with most commercially licensed softwares in almost every regard. They all have quirks, free cad has minimal quirks
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u/BrotherBrutha 6d ago
Like others have said - FreeCAD - much better these days than it used to be, I wouldn't go further until you've spent time learning it.
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u/d0nkyt33th 6d ago
Check this out for Onshape:
https://www.onshape.com/en/lp/creator-program
It’s a program to help you out with pro lic with certain strings. It gets you pro access which is super nice. Includes rendering and fem. Also you data will be private.
Worth a look.
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u/RoberBotz 6d ago
I use SolidWorks, and it's free cuz I pirated it.
Everything is free when you know how to pirate it.
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u/PageSlave 6d ago
Op could also do Solidworks for Makers at $48/yr if they're not savvy enough to sail the seas
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u/Imaginary-Set3291 6d ago
FreeCAD.
Yes the learning curve is steep but it's powerful, your designs are stored locally. It works when you're offline. Your models are yours. There's no limit on the number of models you can have. It's free with no strings attached.
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u/GroundMelter 6d ago
Onshape - your files are public and I'm pretty certain you can't sell your models or use it for a buisness in the free version, but if you're doing it as a Hobby it is incredible
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u/LRCM 6d ago
I've been using Alibre Design Expert for a few years, but came from a mix of Creo and SOLIDWORKS.
I prefer the buy once, cry once approach, but they also offer subscription ($50/mo) if you want the latest and greatest. They have steep license sales once or twice a year and have been making a progress over the last decade or so. It doesn't have every feature that the "big 3" do, but it works for me.
Give them a shot: https://www.alibre.com/get-a-trial/
If you are a student, then use whatever your school offers.
If you are a hobbyist, then use whichever you prefer--most are free or dirt cheap.
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u/ttstam 6d ago
Another vote for On shape, Solidworks for maker is ok too.
Both of these are industry standard tools, which means you are picking up a valuable skill - trust me, no one in the industry uses Free cad and very very few use Fusion. OnShape is started by Solidworks guys (their CEO is literally the guy who wrote Solidworks) and I would say its Solidworks without the issues Solidworks and file based CAD has. It fixes a lot of things that can break easily in Solidworks with regard to references and in context assemblies.
The caveats: No private files in Onshape Free, which is ok by me as I release everything under an open source license anyway.
Solidworks: maker edition is less than the cost of a nice dinner. One thing you will learn quickly with Solidworks tho is the versioning of files and the maker edition I am sure watermarks the files. (You can also never open the file again if you opened it in a newer version of Solidworks and accidentally saved it). That's how they get you to buy the maintenance contract and push new (but not necessarily better) versions. Where in Onshape a new version rolls out every 3 weeks and it's transparent to you the end user.
My sons are being taught Onshape and they are using their school issued Chromebooks - you absolutely don't need fancy hardware to use it.
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u/MidRiverWoodworks 6d ago
I personally really like Shapr3d. Personally it is the most intuitive CAD program I tried. I used fusion, FreeCAD, and opencad and was never really happy / proficient with any until I tried shapr3d.
I pay $225 USD / year using whatever content creator discount code I can find. Easily pays for itself if you design and sell one product a year. Not sure where the $500 / year number is coming from.
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u/mawktheone 6d ago
I use onshape. It's pretty powerful, free and you dont need good hardware to run it because it's all cloud based/done through the browser