Solidworks and other industry-class CAD software on linux
I am about to go to college for engineering and they require a Windows laptop because of the software we will be using (mostly solidworks I'm pretty sure) doesn't work on other operating systems. I primarily use windows day-to-day for gaming and such anyways so it's not a problem for me but I'm wondering if anyone had experience using solidworks or any other industry-class CAD software like Inventor on linux
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moth
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astropenguin5
in reply to moth • • •Yeah my main PC is dual-booted Linux mint and Windows 10, I used Windows more over time both because gaming is slightly easier but also the way my dad set it up there were time controls on Linux and not on windows so as soon as I figured out or was given the windows password it all went downhill.
I want to get back into using Linux more but I'm worried it won't be until after college
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xsoulp
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astropenguin5
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the16bitgamer
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •I personally use FreeCad. But for school you are probably SOL.
If you absolutely need non wine compatible software on your machine you’ll need to:
1) Dualboot if you care for power
2) Use a VM if you don’t care for the additional overhead
3) try wine and see what happens
See if your school has labs for this, might be easier and the computer might be faster than your laptop.
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astropenguin5
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the16bitgamer
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •It’s a fun rabbit hole, and you’ll be surprise what works.
If you do try, Lutris is my go to tool to install and manage windows programs. That way you can try different versions of wine/proton.
However there’s a reason my main rig still runs Windows. I have Moonlight and Sunshine installed on it so I can remote access windows in my house.
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Valmond
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the16bitgamer
in reply to Valmond • • •appdb.winehq.org/objectManager…
According to winedb no. Or at least garbage. That being said it was tested with an old version of wine, so who knows. Maybe it’ll work now.
WineHQ - SolidWorks
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eshep
in reply to the16bitgamer • •@the16bitgamer
This is exactly why schools should teach general concepts vs specific software, FOSS or not.
If a student is more comfortable producing their works in Blender than a ""proper"" CAD program, I see no issue. Each concept is covered in detail by the instructor, the end product assigned, and students then have to choose which software they want to invest their efforts learning, given the allotted time.
This approach would have the bonus of providing the student with not only the freedom of choice, but also its inherent burden. They would also be forced to learn how to learn, which is something that is being forgotten more often with each new technological advancement.
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the16bitgamer
in reply to eshep • • •From my experience this should be the difference between University and College, but since OP never stated which program they were in, I presumed either the later or a pad prof in uni.
I remember while in Uni doing a Film and TV as well as a Game design course. We used industry tools like Game Maker and Premier Pro. But the skills we learnt had nothing to do with the programs. We just needed to show how to apply them in those software. I moved from Game Maker to Unity after the course.
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kissmedanascully
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •2D & 3D CAD Software for DWG editing - ARES Commander
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slimsalm
in reply to kissmedanascully • • •kissmedanascully
in reply to slimsalm • • •seasick
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •Maybe not industry Standard, but I'm also using OpenSCAD from time to time for smaller things (especially when I want to publish them).
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astropenguin5
in reply to seasick • • •Im pretty sure Inventor is the other main industry cad software, and considering they are both Autodesk it may also work ok.
I've used OpenScad a little, definitely agree it's only good for small things.
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Nuuskis9
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •You should learn Freecad for 3D and Librecad for 2D. They're both used in professional production and works in every OS.
For gaming you should give a try for Linux. I just tried 3-4 games last weekend and they all worked with Lutris without any tinkering. Last time I tried 1,5-2 years ago and couldn't launch any 2010 era game just as you'd expect from the simplest way.
Edit. Some coder guys have recomended me to learn OpenScad for 3D too, but I haven't found time. They claim that ChatGPT knows OpenScad better than many other programming languages.
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astropenguin5
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j4k3
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Omniformative
in reply to j4k3 • • •GitHub - pop-os/system76-scheduler: Auto-configure CFS and process priorities for improved desktop responsiveness
GitHubValmond
in reply to j4k3 • • •Matrix multiplications could be at least somehow multi threaded and few fields has been more optimized than displaying 3D. Do you mean simulations maybe?
I would have thought they were done mostly on the GPU nowadays?
j4k3
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rambos
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •All open source or free CAD is okayish, but they cant replace proper software like solidworks. Inventor, catia, proe, they are all decent, but solidworks became kinda industry standar, so better stick with it since you already have some experience (its easy to switch between them). Compatibility will stop you from using any other if you need to share files (not step or stl) with someone. Even different versions of SW (every few years) are not backward compatible. Solidworks is almost the only reason why I still have windows
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rambos
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slimsalm
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •Omniformative
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •Bottles | Flathub
Flathubslimsalm
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Omniformative
in reply to slimsalm • • •Raphael
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •Don't bother with FreeCAD. You are not a hobbyist, capitalist society is already cruel enough without you shooting yourself in the foot with weaker software.
As an Electrical Engineer I use GStarCAD (AutoCAD clone), it runs well on Wine. There are a few pre-cracked versions on 1337, some of them do not work well. I run it on Bottles on Flatpak.
Could you be studying Mechanical Engineering perhaps? Just dual boot for that. You should give up any attempt at getting those programs to run on Linux. You could use a virtual machine but you'd need a powerful computer.
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astropenguin5
in reply to Raphael • • •Yep I'm doing mechanical engineering, and already like doing CAD on solidworks and have experience on it already so there's no way I'm going to switch anytime soon. This post really wasnt intended to be trying to find how to run it on Linux, more just to see if it's even remotely possible out of curiosity.
My current plan is to just run raw windows 11 on the Dell Precision 3571 that I got recently, I don't use Linux nearly enough on my dual booted PC to warrant putting it on my laptop too, even though the PC will stay at home for the time being
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Raphael
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •Don't dual boot latest Windows, use 10, ideally the LTSC version but it's a taad harder to "acquire" and set up.
Latest will always have too many updates and moving parts. W11 also has much more crap running in the background which might be an issue if you're running heavy software on weaker hardware.
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astropenguin5
in reply to Raphael • • •Raphael
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astropenguin5
in reply to Raphael • • •Raphael
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •Nah, it is not the bloat.
Windows sucks. Linux is much better. Keep using Linux and you'll see it.
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Kiloee
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •That is discord being sucky. Have had that problem a lot with various headphones, only thing that helped for me was using another software to manage things.
As for your actual question, my father has worked as a mechanical engineer for a few decades (recently retired) and after the major players did switch to only windows (they used unix in earlier days) he always had a dualboot system at home just for CAD work.
astropenguin5
in reply to Kiloee • • •Yeah that's a little what i suspected, it's worked fine on win 10 with the exact same setup thoughm What other software did you find that worked? And was something to replace discord or just help with audio mixing?
For the CAD, that's pretty much what I expected and definitely seems to be the overall conclusion.
astropenguin5
in reply to Kiloee • • •Yeah that's a little what i suspected, it's worked fine on win 10 with the exact same setup thoughm What other software did you find that worked? And was something to replace discord or just help with audio mixing?
For the CAD, that's pretty much what I expected and definitely seems to be the overall conclusion.
Kiloee
in reply to astropenguin5 • • •I use Sonar from Steelseries since I have one of their headsets. It does work for other headsets too, afaik it’s windows only though.
Any audiochannel mixing software that has an input (and output for microphone) should work.
The main thing is to not let discord touch the device directly basically.
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astropenguin5
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hfcjxey
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