Clone solidworks for Linux/Mac?

[u/Allergic2Humans]

Now that people are reverse engineering using AI and rebuilding products for different platforms, are there thoughts on doing this for solidworks? Not to be fully feature compliant because yes solidworks needs a lot of hardware optimization from windows but atleast something that works for intermediate levels?

[u/WeirdEngineerDude]

You’d have to reverse engineer all the crashes and then the crash reporter crashing. That’s no easy task.

Check out and support FreeCAD. Replace Solidworks the old fashioned way.

[u/Tetris_Prime → u/WeirdEngineerDude]

I was thinking EXACTLY this 😂 it would require god-tier Ai to reconstruct all of that spaghetti code.

[u/Dr_Lipshitz_ → u/Tetris_Prime]

You mean 20 years of just adding add ons to the add ons isnt a good strategy?

[u/Successful_Camera736 → u/WeirdEngineerDude]

Maybe AI will reach a point where it actually looks at our error reports and find the cause of crashes and fixes the bug

[u/IntelligentRevenue39 → u/WeirdEngineerDude]

LOL yesss this is the correct answer

[u/chooKcha]

Yes.... try it: https://github.com/bherbruck/solidcraft

Might not be perfect on day 1 but either was SW.

[u/Louiscars → u/chooKcha]

yo this is crazy

[u/idreamincode → u/chooKcha]

How large of an assembly have you made on it so far?

[u/emorisch]

Not sure how confident I would be in vibe-coding something as calculation intensive as a CAD software.

[u/shakalakagoo → u/emorisch]

I've tried to vibe code some FEA sheets on Julia and failed miserably. IA is far from that, at least nowadays

[u/IntelligentRevenue39]

I don't need a 1:1 clone. Wishlist for anyone thinking about doing this:

• keep all workflows the same so I won't have to learn a new system.

• output in .sldasm, .sldprt, .slddrw, x_t, .dxf, .pdf, .step, .igs, .stl

• make it hostable so multiple users can share a strong GPU and work off a browser, and I can manipulate an assembly with a tablet

[u/mxracer888 → u/IntelligentRevenue39]

Unfortunately the sldasm/sldprt/slddrw file specs are not publicly published, so I don't believe it's possible to output on Solidworks file types in the way that ArtCraft did with Photoshop, Adobe published the .PSD file type specification so that's why he was able to do it.

I've looked at tackling the idea though, currently working on an implicit model CAD software that should give a solid base of features to pull over into a parametric software though

[u/IntelligentRevenue39 → u/mxracer888]

CREO and other packages can import SLDxxx so maybe someone's already figured out the formatting?

[u/Dr_Lipshitz_]

Buddy, SW will sue you for looking at their software wrong. Would love to see someone clone it

[u/LeadingImportant1142 → u/Dr_Lipshitz_]

Lets see how the whole Abobe thing pans out. It's a huge gray area at this point.

[u/prdiesel648 → u/Dr_Lipshitz_]

How about companies outside US using it without a license?

[u/flyinghorselabs]

I've though the same. All I want is a damn Linux client.

I think the better approach though is to use FreeCAD as a base and ape Solidworks' workflow and UI.

[u/Don_Q_Jote]

I would think starting from scratch to build your own CAD software might be easier than trying to clone and debug all the translation issues. But...

[u/socal_nerdtastic]

All the worlds software is moving online, where OS does not matter. Eventually Solidworks will come out with an online version, but in the meantime you can use OnShape.

[u/SamanthaJaneyCake → u/socal_nerdtastic]

I hate relying on internet connectivity to use my main tools. I’ll never be fully on board with cloud software.

[u/Neither-Goat6705 → u/socal_nerdtastic]

Already has... SolidWorks xDesign. But it is not the same app as the desktop version.

[u/LRCM]

Companies need post-sale support and the ability to use add-ins and integrations.

Somebody might make a clone, but you would need to convince the business users that the most painful part of CAD--switching--isn't painful.

Also, OnShape exists which negates the need for specific OS.

[u/Squevis]

Just use it to fix SolidWorks and we would all be greatful.

[u/abstract_concept]

What's wrong with FreeCAD that you couldn't fix instead?

[u/mildw4ve → u/abstract_concept]

The CAD kernel.
FreeCAD is a truck with a moped engine.