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For FreeCAD, I recommend trying RealThunder's dev branch, which fixes its main topology issues. (They're working on merging but it's a big review). https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD/releases

But setting that aside, rather than a philanthropic billionaire, I've long thought big companies like Ford / Boeing / Mitsubishi ought to pool together into some kind of consortium and buy out Dassault to open-source the code. It would probably pay back multiple times over for them -- not through saving on licensing fees, but through all the little efficiency improvements throughout their supply chains. Small machine shops would be able to offer more competitive quotes to customers; more shops would pop up; lead times would improve; file formats would standardize and version mismatches would disappear; new and custom features could get added faster Blender-like; independent developers could write plugins to automate or accelerate mechanical design; new ME hires could gain experience with the tools at home. It would be a huge boon to the industry as a whole. Shame that it hasn't happened yet.

> For FreeCAD, I recommend trying RealThunder's dev branch, which fixes its main topology issues.

Hallelujah! Does it fix all cases, or 70%, or...?

> big companies like Ford / Boeing / Mitsubishi ought to pool together into some kind of consortium and buy out Dassault to open-source the code. It would probably pay back multiple times over

Even though I think SolidWorks is actually worth paying for, your idea seems compelling if you consider how poorly SolidWorks deals with integration, automation, platforms, etc. OTOH it’s probably just a hive of Windows spaghetti, so maybe it can’t really be fixed.

Another thing: there is a lot of purchased IP embedded in SolidWorks, so chasing down IP grants might undermine the prospect of an open source product.

Solid modelling software is very hard to build, and FreeCAD, SolveSpace and OpenSCAD feel like they are built by hobbyists who had heard of CAD but not actually used it talked to anyone who had.

Solidworks for makers was kind of hard to find but free until recently. Now it's $99 per year. Of course, you can't use it for commercial work past a certain point. It kind of seems like it's dying as well, they are going all in on cloud but their cloud product is terrible.

I'm a Mech E (well, originally anyway), do hobby stuff and sometimes I do side jobs. I now use and recommend Solid Edge even though it's not as nice to use as Solidworks. It's free for hobby use, and something like $90/month when you want to use it commercially. You can pay for the license one month at a time.

Solidworks is about $4000 to buy and then $2000 to maintain the license. You can keep using the version you bought, but eventually you have to upgrade in order to work on files with someone else, or to fix a breaking bug, like when 1-2 year old versions were unusable with HiDPI displays. Previous versions get no updates, period. When this happens and you need to upgrade, you have to backpay all of maintenance license fees you didn't pay, or start over again with a new $4000 license.

> You can use Fusion 360 for hobby stuff, but if you're attached to your work (as any creator would be), it's disquieting to have it hosted in a cloud that you're just being given permission to access. You're one corporate decision away from losing your files.

I can export things locally in any format I want from Fusion, is that not the case with certain licenses or something?

You can export it... either in a non-source format, or in a format that only opens in said cloud.

No, you can export STEP to local files, or f3d's. f3d's open from the filesystem, so you can send that to another person.

I'm saying that if you've been kicked out of Fusion 360 or it no longer exists, you won't have anything to open the file with.

As opposed to locally installed software which will run indefinitely.

Most professional cad software is behind a subscription or license server, so I’m not sure what the alternative would be.

There’s not as many offline perpetual license options today, but that model used to be common.

Most of the CAD applications have a proprietary source format and can export into more portable formats. I’m not sure I’m aware of a single, portable “source format,” do you know of one?

It's less about the format being portable, and more that the software is portable along with the files. You need both to be able to work with them.

Cad software has lots of options now. OnShape is another one that is cheap and pretty good.