What is the difference between buying onshape for a year and the free service? The paid service says $1500 and that’s way too much for me.
“Free” for CAD software is an Educational License" which usually allows you to use the full, professional version of the software package.
Sometimes the educational version will watermark your drawings with an “educational use only” stamp. Online educational software is very likely tracking your IP address for compliance with the license.
Nothing is really free in the commercial world, we get to used to all these free apps on our phone paid for by advertising. Educational versions of software are being provided for training use, with the companies behind them knowing that industry uses the software and if they make training more accessible to students, they would sell more in business.
A business that is caught using educational software could be subject to fines between $10,000 and $100,000. I know a business in my area had an engineering intern work for them and they brought an educational copy of SolidWorks into the company, and the result was a fine of over $100,000 plus restitution.
As robotic students, you have the opportunity to learn to use all the commercial CAD software, including the high-end packages like SolidWorks and UGNX, on educational licenses, versus industry who is paying $5,000 to $10,000 per license plus annual maintenance charges.
Just recently, both on shape and SolidWorks have begun offering a low-cost license, like the one you mentioned for only $1,500, so that smaller companies and single person entrepreneurs can use these higher end products.
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This biggest difference between the free and paid is that anything created with the free version is public, meaning anyone can find your work, copy it and use it for themselves. You cannot mark it private. Paid versions allow you to keep designs for yourself. Depending what you’re doing, this could be a serious consideration.
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