MakerGear Forum

Does anyone have any experience with Solidworks? I'm looking for a powerful CAD software mostly for reverse engineering compatible with Artec Studio. Never tried Solidworks or any other paid software. Basically, I am familiar with AutoCAD and OpenSCAD.
Any help would be appreciated.

I've been using Fusion360. I used to have a paid copy of Alibre/Geomagic, and it was very buggy. Fusion has had a few quirks, but they are very responsive to bug reports and the latest version is very stable.

I can get Fusion for free because I work part-time at a university. The regular licensing fees are a LOT less than SolidWorks, and they often have "sales" with deep discounts. It's free for hobbyists, and they have a deal for startups as well.

I have some experience with scanning software and Solidworks. Solidworks scan data manipulation capability is pretty poor and half-baked (ScanTo3D). Our Solidworks rep admitted this when we were evaluating scanners and reverse engineering software.

In general, there are a couple stages to the process: capturing data using the scanner software, cleaning/manipulating the data, plane/feature identification/measurement/cross-sectioning/surface extraction, export to CAD for full reverse engineering. I use Creaform's software for everything except modeling the reverse engineered part. I export the scan data and features created in Creaform's software over to Solidworks for modeling. Reverse engineering with an exported scan is no different than modeling a part from a blank slate, but with planes and features already in the model. Creaform will also allow me to export to Inventor. You may want to check if Artec will let you export to other formats as well.