>One thing that struck me is that this appears to be more analogous to Sketchup than Solidworks or Inventor. It doesn't appear to be truly parametric, which means it's not terribly useful for product design -- although probably entirely capable of creating 3D printed enclosures. Yes that what I noticed too! They even claim it to be an advantage to be history free, but I call it lossy on the design intention, and effectively while some changes may appear to be faster maybe, once you get into multiple versions, or you have to apply changes to a pattern it can turn into a real nightmare! I notice 'Alibre' is not free anymore either, and its is now 'Geomagic' ( https://www.alibre.com/products/mainpage.asp ), no idea how much it costs after the trial... Looks like it might have grown up well though, maybe another trial would be interesting! On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Marc Nicholas wrote= : > > On 2013-09-17, at 10:57 PM, RussellMc wrote: > > > Import / Export major industry standard 3D languages. > > Major+ for me: Can reads STL files and can export designs in STL > > format (yeeha!) > > Whether it is compatible enough with eg Solidworks to allow exchange > > of files between them is TBD, but it should allow people to produce > > drawings for eg injection molding fabrication. > > I took a quick boo. It's great to see all the interest in mechanical > engineering, and all the free ("as in beer") programs. > > One thing that struck me is that this appears to be more analogous to > Sketchup than Solidworks or Inventor. It doesn't appear to be truly > parametric, which means it's not terribly useful for product design -- > although probably entirely capable of creating 3D printed enclosures. > > Mind you, maybe I'm just bitter, having recently dropped $5500 on Autodes= k > Product Design Suite ;) > > -m > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 Tobias Gogolin Tel. D1 (49) 0151 5187 5210 Tel. D2 (49) 0152 0839 5060 skype: moontogo messenger: usertogo@hotmail.com You develop Sustainable Ranch Technology at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SURA-TECH an Open Source Electric Motor/Alternator at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Performance_Axial_Flux and an Open Source Motor Controller at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoBox --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .