There's a lot of options in this space. Ansys, Dassault SOLIDWORKS (though they're trying to push the cloud model, lmao), Siemens. Smaller devs like zw3d which plug into dedicated sim packages (it's not like f360's is that comprehensive).
Why don't people move? It's not like a super free market, but there's a bunch of options in the space.
Solidworks is the monopoly and it was only the insertion of Fusion360 that broke it. Solidworks is so entrenched that they still haven't reduced their prices even though Fusion360 is absolutely killing them at the low end.
> Why don't people move? It's not like a super free market, but there's a bunch of options in the space.
I'd love to hear about them and throw some money at them. Before Fusion360, I knew of basically nothing at the low end.
> Siemens has NX and another tool whose name escapes me.
This is also kinda funny in a non-funny way. Why? Because Solidworks is basically a household name at this point (and has been for a few years).
Solid Edge? Much less so, even though it exists way longer and...
drumroll
Siemens licenses their Parasolid kernel to Dassault for Solidworks.
Siemens is so shitty at marketing their (IMHO) superior product that basically nobody knows it :(
I think they don’t need to market them - but that’s because they’re aimed at a different market segment. The licensing costs for these tools individually are very high, but big companies buy them as a package along with things like TeamCenter. Inertia is very strong so if a company uses a tool, they’re unlikely to migrate unless they’re forced to for some reason.
Because learning new software and workflow is extremely expensive for an architect. As software engineers who learn for a living we sometimes take our learning muscle for granted.
Autodesk is simply trying to find what that “cost” is for their user and keep the total price slightly below that.
It is very analogous to programming if you consider it like rewriting a program designed in Java into C++. Depending on the complexity of the program, you will become proficient in C++ long before you finish the code transition.
I use Siemens NX to design. It would take thousands of hours to recreate all the partfiles we use into a different CAD software. Some of the big guys write programs to make a transition easier (from Ideas to NX), but they are not perfect. They may work for some simple parts, but for more complex things... forget about it.
And now that I've learned it, I'm more likely to pick it over other things in the future. If I got a job with any of this stuff, I'd be leaning towards it as the tool for that, too.
https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/solutions/users/hobbyists-a...