--- title: SOLIDWORKS Reviews meta_title: 'SOLIDWORKS Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 645 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how SOLIDWORKS works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 645 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-28' parent_category: name: CAD url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad --- # SOLIDWORKS Reviews **Vendor:** Dassault Systemes **Category:** [Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD) Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/mechanical-computer-aided-design-mcad) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 645 ## About SOLIDWORKS SOLIDWORKS delivers connected, easy-to-use tools that help you innovate and accelerate every aspect of your product development process. ## SOLIDWORKS Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **user-friendly interface** of SOLIDWORKS, which simplifies complex tasks and enhances productivity. (37 reviews) - Users appreciate the **user-friendly interface** of SOLIDWORKS, enhancing productivity with easy file conversion and robust features. (29 reviews) - Users appreciate the **ease of creating accurate 3D models** with SOLIDWORKS, enhancing design and simulation capabilities. (27 reviews) - Users value the **user-friendly interface** of SOLIDWORKS, facilitating quick learning and efficient design processes. (21 reviews) - Users value the **in-built simulation tools** in SOLIDWORKS, which enhance testing and analysis efficiency for complex designs. (16 reviews) - Users value the **CAD integration** of SOLIDWORKS, which enhances efficiency and streamlines the design process. (15 reviews) - Efficiency (15 reviews) - Users value the **robust features** of SOLIDWORKS, which enhance machine design and support diverse modeling needs. (15 reviews) - 3D Visualization (14 reviews) - CAD Designing (14 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users experience **performance issues** like lag and crashes, especially with large assemblies, affecting usability. (17 reviews) - Users experience **slow performance** with SOLIDWORKS, especially when managing large assemblies on less powerful machines. (15 reviews) - Users face **high system requirements** with SOLIDWORKS, affecting performance and accessibility for less powerful machines. (14 reviews) - Users find the **complexity** of SOLIDWORKS challenging, especially during installation and when working with mesh models. (11 reviews) - Users find SOLIDWORKS to be **expensive** , especially with high system requirements and costly licensing impacting accessibility. (11 reviews) - Users report that **slow simulation** can hinder productivity, especially with large assemblies and complex models. (11 reviews) - Users experience **software instability** with SolidWorks, facing issues like crashes and slow performance with large assemblies. (11 reviews) - Users often face **assembly issues** in SOLIDWORKS, experiencing slow performance and crashes with large and complex models. (10 reviews) - Crashes (10 reviews) - High Hardware Requirements (10 reviews) ## SOLIDWORKS Reviews ### 1. Very useful, but not easy to use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 13, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The many various 3-D functions. Once you create a piece you can drop it in a drawing. If you make a change on the drawing it changes the piece. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Very long learning curve. It's not something that you can just "pick up" on. You really need a class or watch a lot of tutorials. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use Solidworks to produce prototypes for plastic parts we have made. ### 2. Solidworks review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kevin M. | Quality Control Inspector, Defense & Space, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 26, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I like that it is a very easy to learn software and its capabilities in the design industry makes it a solid one for manufacturing. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I dislike the times when the software crashes, which is very rare but it does happen. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solidworks have a great customer support team that are readily available to customers who have valid licenses. ### 3. Productive, wide array of feautures, and many device support **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 18, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** -Supports both 2-D and 3-D sketches -Many feature transformations to allow accurate digitalization of real life objects -Supports a wide range of export file types and supports 3-D printers **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** -The software is expensive compared with other alternatives **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Build accurate and workable models and prototypes for 3-D printing. ### 4. SolidWORKS in the classroom **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 05, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I love the tutorials library feature of SolidWORKS. When you've been doing this for a while, and then you have to start teaching it to a group of high schoolers, it's great to know that they're getting some of the basics down packed before moving on to the more complex functions or designing on their own. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Maybe it's because I'm not familiar enough with this part, but I wish there was an easy way to create a workspace profile and have it be the default for a given instance of SolidWORKS. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** This program is expensive. If you are not serious about 3D modeling or don't have an educational reason, consider a cheaper of free software and see if it can't meet your needs instead. If cost isn't an issue for you, then buy SolidWORKS because you would be hard-pressed to find a better program out there. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** My job is to teach high schoolers a more advanced 3D modeling software than SketchUp, and SolidWORKS is accomplishing that very well. It has its ups and downs, but it's a great program that I personally enjoy. ### 5. CAD Modeling software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 28, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Ease of use. Intuitive. Offers lots of features. I especially like the rendering tools. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Crashes while handling heavy assemblies with many components. Hole wizard is sometimes sketchy to use. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Its a great CAD modeling and simulation software for mechanical engineers. Very easy to use and intuitive. Great for FEA as well. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use SolidWorks in my engineering firm to design and assemble grinding machine parts and also for FEA of those parts. ### 6. Best CAD tool out there for mechanical engineers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** - Unparalleled ease of creation of models - Handles parametric geometries very smoothly - The integrated assembly tool enables the creation of animations - Support for plugins and a large availability of plugins **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** - No command line support that can automate the design process - Poor handling/operations on non-parametric meshes like STL files (mesh smoothing, tolerances etc) - can improve NURBS tools to allow more design freedom **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Use it to model geometries as a part of my research on computational geometry ### 7. Overall good experience **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Design process is pretty easy. I like that it is widely used and it's easy to find design solution among the SW community **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Sketch to feature fail should be more user friendly. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out why fesature failed. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm solving engineering problems. ### 8. A dependable companion for mechanical engineer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 24, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The 3D imaging and the access to various views assists greatly in the CAD process **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The compatibility with other 3D software and their file formats is sometimes limited **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using SolidWorks as a student ### 9. Fantastic **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 17, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** It is perfect for manufacturing process. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Can be a bit complicated. Training needed **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Great for manufacturing. Less for IBM projects. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are solving the issues of very fine dimensional analyses in our manufacturing department. It makes communication of needed dimensions and transfer from an online model to the real life thing much easier. ### 10. Great program but complex **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Military | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Solid works has a plethora of solid tools and setups in order to design practically anything from a 3D part to blueprints for a structure. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The program is very complex and needs the user to go through a few classes in order to get a solid grasp on the functionality. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solid works worked well with integrating with our 3D scanner, as well as giving us the ability to draft up plans for some structures to build. ### 11. Easy and Intuitive 3D Modelling Tool for Students and Engineers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** SolidWorks has a very friendly user interface for engineers to create mechanical design and simple analysis **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Finite Element Analysis in SolidWorks is not as strong as other tools **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use Solidworks for the project at university and it is not for business purpose ### 12. Intuitive user iterface **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 17, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Having used Pro/E in the past, Solidworks has a much better, user friendly interface. Maybe it's the computer, or a newer version, or a smaller model file, but Solidworks seems to run faster and be more responsive. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Having to purchase PowerSurf in order to be able to do some freeform modeling. Not a huge price tag, but still extra. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** More affordable than Pro/E (PTC Creo), but still a steep price tag for an individual. Most likely used in an office environment if your employer is willing to purchase licenses. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick modeling for 3D printing. It's also nice to have dimensions change automatically based on relations and constraints. Even more so within assemblies. Definitely have to be careful with those relations, though. Have to be sure that any changes made will have a predictable effect on everything else. ### 13. Solidworks is Solid **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I use Solidworks everyday at my job and it is great. Very easy to use and support is outstanding. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I really have not found anything that I dislike about this product. At first is crashed every so often but they has since worked that bug out with upgrades. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Highly recommend Solidworks to anyone looking for CAD software **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps with customer dxfs and solidmodels. Speeds everything up ten-fold. ### 14. Very useful for the designing and modeling of the prototype **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 20, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The design library for the foaming tools is very nice addition which is very good for sheet metal fabrication **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** It takes too much time on the system to load some commands. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using it to create the sheet metal enclosure for the product of company and prepare simulation for that ### 15. Solidworks is powerful AND easy to use!! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** It is ready to add components or features that I need, sometimes it seems like it is reading my mind! It works so effortlessly and is the dream ease-of use tool for creating complex parts and assemblies. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Sometimes the assemblies can stumble when making a change, if you aren't careful to remember the relationships and constraints used to build it. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** This is the dream software you have always wanted. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am improving factory assembly line interfaces and conveyance machinery for firms my company provides that service for. ### 16. Great mid-level CAD SW **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 20, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Low cost and easy to pick up. There's a lot of tutorial information and support on forums and distributor sites. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Since it's a mid-grade CAD software, then there are some limitations in functions available in more high-end CAD software. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Is a good mechanical CAD program for product develpment ### 17. Solid Works vs Pro-E **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The ease of use and how things aren’t unnecessarily complicated. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The lack of depth when it comes to finite element analysis. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Others like me who have been trained on other CAD software like Pro-E should give solid works a shot. It’s easier to use and gives you a better return on your investement. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** As an engineer I frequently need to design parts for various projects. Solid works makes that easier. ### 18. Excellent for mechanical design **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ramy K. | Research Assistant, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 08, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Very useful in mechanical engineering. A lot of industries use it for design. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Expensive and you cannot transfer information between versions. This includes from older to newer versions and vice versa. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Very good for complicated designs with a lot of parts. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design problems and challenges. This includes designing a new product or machine. The benefits is that you can transfer data from one person to another in a team easily and assemblies of complicated projects can be done. ### 19. Solidworks **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Medical Devices | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Easily able to create 3D shapes for designs **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The complications of dealing with scan files **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Yes **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** 3D design ### 20. User Friendly **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 14, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Very user-friendly without compromising a powerful functional software for multiple platforms, plus many add-ons such as simulation that are extremely helpful and time-saving tools for engineers and designers **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** none, the possibilities are virtually limitless **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** mechanical engineering and design ### 21. The best for Mechanical CAD design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohana K. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The ease of modeling is the top choice. Just love the features. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Nothing much to dislike this SW. Great work and always appreciated. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Use it. The best CAD software you can find in the market. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designed antennas ### 22. Solidworks review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I use Solidworks to analyze structures for various failure modes. The integration between the design package and analysis package is seamless. It is easy to learn relative to the competition. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** As a long time user of the analysis package that Solidworks purchased, I don't like that they "dumbed it down". It also isn't quite as accurate as their main competition, namely ANSYS. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Make sure you get a trial period to ensure it does everything you need. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Optimization of designs for reliability and life. Reduced cost and increased performance. ### 23. Solidworks is a pretty solid product! - Great for product development. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kevin J. | UX Design Lead, Outsourcing/Offshoring, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 09, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I love the user interface of Solidworks when compared to AutoCad. I also like the online support and community built around the product. I used to help run a Solidworks user group in Champaign-Urbana and the company was 100% behind their product - especially helping newer users learn how to use it. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I dislike that Solidworks is for Windows only. As a product designer, who has a Macbook, this creates a difficult decision to make. Do you bootcamp your Mac and run windows? Or buy a separate computer just for Solidworks? I prefer Solidworks over Autodesk Fusion 360 but have recently switched over because I can fun it on my Mac. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** I would recommend Solidworks if you or your company is looking for a CAD software that is extremely robust. It is great for mid-level to advanced CAD users. I definitely wouldn't recommend Solidworks for users trying to learn CAD. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Rapid product development. Developing prototypes and models for 3d prints and realistic product renderings. ### 24. Great 3D Modeling Software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Medical Devices | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 02, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I like the ability to take a 2D autoCAD dwg and be able to convert into a 3D model. The software is intuitive and relatively easy to learn. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The software can be slow. Especially when creating complex parts or assemblies. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to design parts and fixtures without having to resource from an outside vendor. ### 25. Solidworks is indispensable! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 12, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The ability to dimension features and sketches is the best part. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The relationship between parts, derived parts, parts in an assembly, etc., can get complicated, especially if they all reference each other. Sometimes, my parts change without meaning them to. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Be prepared for a steep learning curve, but a smooth workflow after that. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to produce both conceptual and functional designs with Solidworks! ### 26. So easy to use for small scare projects **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 18, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** This software is intuitive, powerful and relatively forgiving. If you have ever used a CAD software you will understand this in no time. This software also allows for the user to make a mistake without breaking the entire program. The app also has great ad-on support **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Large assemblies do not load quickly. Scythian with over 1000 parts will take a while to load. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Make sure you keep in mind garbage in = garbage out. Double check and sanity check everything. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** CAD design, CNC Manufacturing ### 27. Solidworks is an essential tool for the design engineer **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Solidworks has an easy to use interface that is fairly intuitive. You do not need to memorize keyboard shortcuts to use the program, which is useful especially at the learning stages. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Although the newer version is better, I had a lot of trouble in the past with Solidworks crashing and losing my work. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Get extra RAM on your computer. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Efficient designs and you can easily spot mistakes once you mate up an assembly. ### 28. CSWA Certified **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Display of 3D models which were being designed prior to manufacturing. Being able to run simulations with material properties added to the parts was very nice. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Some of the commands are not very intuitive. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Do the tutorials **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allows you to see how part fitment would work in real life. ### 29. Solidwork is very solid **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bryan L. | Project Engineer, Machinery, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Updating on the fly. Change a model and everything else updates as well. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Lack of reusing views through different documents. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Just do it allready... **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bom exporting ### 30. Only CAD software I'll use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Hardware | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 19, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The software is easy to use and for a novice can be learned quickly and easily **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I'd like it to be more intuitive about what I'm doing. It sometimes takes more effort to get it to do something that I feel it should be able to do on it's own. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** It's worth it. I've used several other CAD programs and this is my favorite by far. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm designing complex handheld systems for rugged use. The simulation aspect of Solidworks has saved us time and money by being able to do analysis on designs and then optimizing them even before making our first prototype. ### 31. Amazing tool, with great tutorials **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Paul G. | Sales -materials Consulting- Desing Consulting , Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 26, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The ability to quickly create and edit 3d models, and export STL files for 3d printing **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Certain design elements, like 0 thickness errors when trying to have two parts of an item meet, but not interface with eachother **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** when starting out, use tutorials provided. Then go to you tube. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** design, rendering, 3d printing, prototyping ### 32. The Advance cad tool for new Designers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** In this software sketch, Feature, sheet metal, weldment module are best for work... It's environment very supportive to work. Render tool and Assembley are amazing.. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Surface and mould module are use in certain limit. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Critical moulding and mould tools are less We can't reach in get exact simulation as per customer requirements ### 33. Solidworks gets the job done **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Aviation & Aerospace | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 29, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I think it is very intuitive and I like all the shortcuts **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Wish it was easier to customize shortcuts **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** If you are new to solidworks - there is a very large community that uses solidworks and are there to help - use youtube and google to help get insights on how to do things quickly and effiecently. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I mainly use if for facility layouts ### 34. Very user friendly **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 09, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** SolidWorks is very user friendly. Usually the order in which you select things does not make a difference on how a feature is created. The menus are easy to follow and commonly used tasks aren't hidden in a bunch of different menus. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Sometimes SolidWorks will allow you to create features that it probably shouldn't. Things that really shouldn't work do, but there is no rhyme or reason to what it did to make it work and it doesn't behave the same way each time you create the same thing. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** SolidWorks is a solid 3D modeling package that allows us to do engineering design. ### 35. Solidworks is a great tool for modeling **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bernard C. | Product Marketing Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** It is very flexible and easy to use as long as you are familiar with modeling software. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Some functions are more difficult than others. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Online tutorials are great. If you can follow simple step by step directions, you can create anything. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** It makes it manageable to create engineering drawings that are effective in articulating our ideas. ### 36. Solidworks for Design Engineers **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Colin H. | Application Engineer, Furniture, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Solidworks is an intuitive and easy to use CAD platform. The user interfaces are well designed, and the features available offer everything I need. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** It doesn't tie your hands with file structuring, and the parent child relationships can lead to bad solid modeling practices. A skilled user can make up for these deficiencies. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Have good solid modeling, assembly practices, and file management in place. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solid modeling, design, assembly, and drawing. ### 37. Solid works is user friendly **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The updates are really good and ai would any day prefer solid works over any software. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Thread tool still needs modifications and not many options are available. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** I would definitely recommend Solid works for modeling and design. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Skid , drawing,soldi models. Oil and Gas. Edm offers fast review of drawing. ### 38. Good for not-too-complex models **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jim L. C. | Product Design and Development, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Color rendering is convenient and realistic. It also seamlessly converts 3D models to drawings. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** It has little support to more complex shapes and surfaces. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Name all the sketches and features to remind yourself what they are and what they do. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designing enclosures / shells for the company's electronic devices. ### 39. Extremely powerful 3D modeling and analysis software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The sheer power of the modeling and analysis software. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** It is bulky and activation and updates can be a burden. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Each license is expensive so make sure they are used correctly and more hardware resources equals better performance. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have used it for 3D modeling and to evaluate liquid flow through cooling plates. It is a very good tool for determining flow patterns and efficiency with the correct add ons. ### 40. Best 3d modeling software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** PARDEEP S. | Sr .design engineer, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I really like it's custom user interface. Easy to build design cad commands and assembly features. It's online interface is also good. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Some times it lags due to large assembly file. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** I really recommend this. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** 3d design based problems as per project. ### 41. SoildWorks, Best parametric 3D CAD for the price **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 21, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** It is an easy to use parametric CAD system that can do virtually every thing you'll need. Easy to customize, implement standards, and share data across multiple platforms. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** The fact that you con not send a file that was created in a newer version to a customer or colleague that has an older version, no option to export native file at an earlier version. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Best parametric 3D CAD system for the money around... **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Assembly Models and Drawings, Tooling, Weldments, Fixtures. ### 42. Industry standard **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joshua E. | Technology Education Teacher, Primary/Secondary Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 26, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Solidworks is the leader in 3D modeling for mechanical design. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I’ve used this program for so long I honestly cannot think of something to dislike. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Solidworks implements great tutorials that make the learning curve less severe. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Most people who learn the program really enjoy it. Most who learn it want to learn more about it. ### 43. I use Solidworks everyday **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lauren B. | Industrial/Product Designer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 06, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Solidworks is a great way to visualize product designs. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I hate when Solidworks crashes. Or I change something in the feature tree and it breaks everything. I have to go back and fix each feature, I wish it were smarter. Sometimes things are ruined and can't be fixed. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** There are a lot of CAD tools out there. Solidworks works best for me and I find it translates well to other companies, engineers, for 3d printing, mold-flow analysis or for tooling. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Solidworks to designing products, to visualize it before it's a reality and to engineer final parts for tooling. ### 44. User friendly CAD modeler **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael B. | Quality Engineer, Aviation & Aerospace, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 02, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Ease of use with logical menus and excellent graphic modeler **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** This product has come a long way since it came out in the early 1990’s - however, dimensioning when transitioning to 2D drawing format is a bit cumbersome. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Great software to model assemblies and verify fits & clearances ### 45. Simple and Powerful 3D Design **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2017 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The feature tree is very useful. UI is user friendly and simple as well as consistent. Still listens to user feedback for enhancements. I mainly use Weldments and Sheetmetal features for auto creation of cutlists and flat patterns. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Use to be more stable (2015 was most stable IMO). But it gets better from release to release. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use the FEA as well as CFD simulation packages to validate designs before we go to fabrication. We also use an add-on to SW called Tacton to automate our design process thus reducing engineering to fabrication time significantly. ### 46. Bracket design **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Purvesh R. | Analyst, Pharmaceuticals, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** It’s flexibilty to design and model the product. The final design can be exported to various formats **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Nothing it all. Everything seems to be perfect. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design ### 47. It is very interactive and user friendly **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** Different kinds of views provided e.g Isometric. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** Do not like the space it consumes on hard disk. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design problems- Redesign, Analyze, Implement ### 48. Awesome design software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** I like the the user friendly layout and the ability to search for commands that you cannot find or just the ability to search for something you don't know how to do. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** I don't like how each model year only has a limited number of service packs before applying suggestions or fixes to the next model. **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** This software is awesome and very user friendly **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to work with 3rd party erp systems ### 49. A necessary evil **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 02, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** It's extremely useful and powerful. There's a lot of ability to customize through custom add-ins. **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** It's not very stable and crashes constantly. **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have written several add-ins that work with solidworks and PDM to create our own customize ERP system. ### 50. Solidworks **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2018 **What do you like best about SOLIDWORKS?** The simplicity of using the program and the tools **What do you dislike about SOLIDWORKS?** That you have to pay for non commercial use **Recommendations to others considering SOLIDWORKS:** Create free use for non commercial purposes **What problems is SOLIDWORKS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating a concept to life ## SOLIDWORKS Discussions - [What is SOLIDWORKS used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-solidworks-used-for) - 3 comments, 1 upvote - [How to stop or cancel a ongoing command.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-stop-or-cancel-a-ongoing-command) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [best use o this software](https://www.g2.com/discussions/35425-best-use-o-this-software) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [Where is the Features toolbar in Solidworks?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/where-is-the-features-toolbar-in-solidworks) - 1 comment - [What are features in Solidworks?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-features-in-solidworks) - 1 comment - [View SOLIDWORKS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/solidworks/reviews?page=10§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-31+05%3A46%3A59+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=759fddd4-5abc-41c4-8bb3-5f5504a6d43c&secure%5Btoken%5D=c2774fe46030a1d9e812969921bbd2d831acb22d48f832d8dca5443b3a0ec51c&format=llm_user) ## SOLIDWORKS Integrations - [Ansys Fluent](https://www.g2.com/products/ansys-fluent/reviews) - [Ansys Mechanical](https://www.g2.com/products/ansys-mechanical/reviews) - [BIMDeX](https://www.g2.com/products/bimdex/reviews) - [CATIA](https://www.g2.com/products/catia/reviews) - [COMSOL Multiphysics®](https://www.g2.com/products/comsol-multiphysics/reviews) - [Designcenter Solid Edge](https://www.g2.com/products/designcenter-solid-edge/reviews) - [ENOVIA](https://www.g2.com/products/enovia/reviews) - [SolidCAM](https://www.g2.com/products/solidcam/reviews) - [Teamcenter](https://www.g2.com/products/teamcenter/reviews) - [Total ETO](https://www.g2.com/products/total-eto/reviews) - [Windchill Navigate](https://www.g2.com/products/windchill-navigate/reviews) ## SOLIDWORKS Features **CAD to CAM** - CAD-CAM Import - CAM Data Exchange - CAD/CAM Compatibility **Design** - Drawing - Modeling - Visualize - Rendering **Library** - Categorize - Search - Deduplication - Feedback **Data** - 3D Format - Data Quality - Extra Information - Standard Format - Translate - Validation **File Support - Additive Manufacturing** - STL Compatible - 3MF Compatible - OBJ Compatible **File Options** - Import files - Export files - View 2D files - View 3D files - Batch convert files - File size **Design** - PCB layout editing - Schematic editor **Design** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Rendering tools **Tools - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Rendering Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Text Editing Tools **CNC Programming** - CNC Workflows - CNC Feature Recognition - Programming Control **Edit** - File Import - Push/Pull - Views - Grips **CAD** - Types - Models - Compatibility **Logistics** - Integrate **File Editing - Additive Manufacturing** - Mesh Repair - File Editing **Tools** - Dimensioning tools - Change units - 3D/solid modeling tools **Tools** - 3D modeling tools - Component placement **Tools** - Fluid analysis - Finite element analysis - Multibody dynamics **File Options - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - Export Files - Import Files - File Interoperability - Backwards compatibility - File size **Collaboration** - Annotate - Documentation - Data Extract **Integration** - Catalogs - CAD & PLM - ERP **Software Integrations - Additive Manufacturing** - Standalone Slicer - Inetgrated 3D Modeling **Design** - Drawing **Library** - Component libraries **Work** - Discrete event modeling - Continuous event modeling - Mechanical event simulation - Manufacturing process simulation - Integrate **Customization - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - Custom Commands - Custom Scripts - Custom Menus - Custom Interface **Machining** - Job Set-up - Operations - Tooling and Toolpaths **Software Type - Additive Manufacturing** - Cloud-based Platform - Downloadable Application **Platform** - Board size - Layers **Environment** - Hardware support - Task - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity **Environment - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - Hardware support - Task-based interfaces - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity **Customization** - Custom commands - Custom interface **Generative AI - Additive Manufacturing** - AI Text-to-Image - AI Text-to-3D **Building Preparation - Additive Manufacturing** - Material Management - Building Simulation - Slicing Optimization ## Top SOLIDWORKS Alternatives - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (510 reviews) - [Onshape](https://www.g2.com/products/onshape/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (712 reviews) - [Designcenter Solid Edge](https://www.g2.com/products/designcenter-solid-edge/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (597 reviews)