alternative CAD systems for makers - tomorrow's startups

mischl

due to the announcement 'Changes To Onshape's Plans' : https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/5070/changes-to-onshapes-plans/
makers with a little bit of entrepreneurship have to look for another platform (no private space anymore in the free plan, pro subscription starts at 100$/mth) beside OS. 

I have no clue about other systems on the market now . And absolutely no interest to change completely, but one small part where I would like to have a single bit of privacy.
I've read in the thread about:
- the announced full-cloud CAD systems Xdesign (Dassault) @hakro
- or Leopard (Autodesk) @hakro
- the existing Fusion 360 @hakro
- Rhino @steven_3
- sketchup @sean_willmott772

what are promising candidates and why? the data transfer bidirectional with OS must be given (over import/export a common format)

michał_1

The best deal is this one:
http://www.siemens.com/plm/startup
Startups can get full license (one seat for each engineer within organization) of Solid Edge... but only for one year. So not special for those dreamers with 10's of potential products in drawer, that couldn't lift of, for year or more.
There are some other opitions:
DesignSpark Mechanical: https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-software
123D Design: http://www.123dapp.com/design
Freecad: http://www.freecadweb.org/

There are many option, but just be fair with judging what Onshape offers. In general most of you (complaining ones) overestimating your impact and underestimating generosity of current offer.

mischl

@michal_1 thanks

I am not complaining and have absolutely no expectations of impact. I need just a little bit of privacy in one or two design ideas.
Changed the initial post to work out the intention that another tool can run beside to hold a specific detail or aggregation separate and privat.

øyvind_kaurstad

I'm (unfortunately) in the same boat now, needing an alternative to Onshape. I have Fusion 360 installed, but I haven't really used it for anything yet, so I will have to give it some more usage now. Project Leopard looks like Fusion 360 taken fully to the cloud, and my guess is that they aim squarely at Onshape with that.

FreeCAD I have also tried a tiny bit, but I didn't like the UI. I found it cumbersome and difficult, but in all fairness I didn't spend enough time with it.
DesignSpark Mechanical has also received some praise, but I haven't tried it. Same for 123D Design.

Evaluating many systems at the same time isn't a good idea, so I will focus on Fusion 360 (and I will apply for the Leopard beta) for now. I'm not doing this light-hearted, as I have grown really fond of Onshape, but with this latest decision I have no choice, as using multiple systems for the same task isn't something I enjoy.

And for anyone considering Sketchup for mechanical design, I have one word: Don't.