SolidWorks

[narlydude]

I got Solidworks from Marie Planchard for our team (1189 Gearheads) this past fall. The kids thought it was very easy to use and the four of them were able to learn, for scratch, how to CAD in only 2 weeks, in 4 weeks they were doing swing studies and tolerencing and at 6 weeks they were able to use the Mastercam plug-in to generate toolpaths for automatically making parts on our Bridgeport. Don't underestimate these kids. All this with no meaningful help from mentors.

Last year the team tried KeyCreator, which just didn't work for them.

I reviewed Inventor when it first came out and again last year for business. I found quirks in the program that didn't fit our file control system, otherwise it is a good program.

Frankly, Solidworks, ProEngineer and Inventor are all good programs for what is done on these robots.

We chose Solidworks due to the industrial usage and for its incredible features and ease of use. I wanted the kids to learn a trade while having fun. It may help pay for college over the summers, who knows?