When designing anything software is only one tool of many. Designs start off as an idea, a solution to a problem, or an opportunity to make some money. In taking an idea to a working salable product, software used, is not only CAD software. The design often starts as a pencil sketch, and a few quick calculations to work out if your idea is a reality. At this initial stage non-CAD software such as a spreadsheet may be used to do more complex calculations or start to work out some costs. The CAD software starts to be useful after these initial design steps.
When it comes to the CAD software, deciding on the exact product you should purchase is a complex decision not to be taken lightly especially considering the cost of these products. After a bit of experience and training, if you ask your CAD operators they will all be excited about Solid works and Inventor, possibly Catia, as this is probably what they trained on and are familiar with. Purchasing which one of these mainstream products, for a large organization with a decent CAD budget, usually comes down to who makes the most noise in the CAD department, and how sharp the local reseller's sales staff are at pushing their product against the competition. any half decent CAD operator should be able to adapt quickly to whatever of these mainstream products, or they are in the wrong profession.
It is much more complicated for the small, independent operator, CAD software cost is a big budget item. Many independent operators pretend they have a viable business by pirating their CAD software, as they can't produce enough work to cover the cost of legal Solid Works or inventor software. back in 2012, when offered s contract by an ex colleague when he started his own buisiness, to produce production-ready designs for a range of fans and dust filters. I was in this position, about $10,000 to $12,000 worth of part time work, my preferred software Solid works was out of my price range. so it was onto the internet to see what I could find. I settled for Alibre Design, about $3,000 NZ to purchase, worked close enough to Solid Works to keep take up time short. it has been an excellent choice of software for my purpose.
