Continue to Site

Welcome to 3DCADForums

Join our CAD community forums where over 25,000 users interact to solve day to day problems and share ideas. We encourage you to visit, invite you to participate and look forward to your input and opinions. Acrobat 3D, AutoCAD, Catia, Inventor, IronCAD, Creo, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, and others.

Should I buy IronCAD 2016

Acon

Newbie
Hello everyone. I'm a 12-yr 3D designer and my mail tools are Spaceclaim, Solidthinking Evolve, Sketchup and ZBrush. I always want to learn another parametric, mechanics-oriented CAD software. Most of the designers around me here in Australia use Solidworks but it's way too expensive to me. After some research I found IronCAD might be a good alternative.

But the IronCAD 2019 version is still too expensive to afford (around AUD $6500). I found a online dealer selling IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite 2016 for only USD $499 which is really a good deal to me. So I got several questions here:

(1) How do you compare the IronCAD 2016 with the new IronCAD 2019? I know a 3-yr difference will not be small, but for a normal user I care more about the stability, graphic efficiency and user experience in daily-life functionalities. Some fancy new features might be handy but I don't need them if I'm not ganna use them. Is there any critical improvement during these 3 years that I really need to pursue, or will I be ok with the 2016 one?

I use a Microsoft Surface Book 2 laptop now with the nVidia 1060 graphic card as a main CAD PC. Not a superduper machine but good enough for most of my work.

(2) Is the "Design Collaboration Suite" a full version? I know there are some different IronCAD versions (Inovate, Draft and Compose) and each has it's own limitations. I definitely want a full package in case I need some of the features in the future.

(3) Is IronCAD a subscription-based software? I would not buy it if it is. I hate subscription stuff.

(4) Is IronCAD a cloud-based software? Again I would not buy it if it is. I hate cloud-based stuff (Fusion360/Onshape). Internet speed here in Australia is shxxxt.

Anyway thanks for anyone who can help me. Any input is appreciated.

Hope you have a great day!
 

Articles From 3DCAD World

Sponsor

Back
Top