# SolidWorks 36 Hacker News commenters recommended SolidWorks and 26 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Widely used parametric CAD praised for its easy interface and power; critics say it is costly, proprietary, and crashes or slows on complex assemblies. ## Why people recommend it - Easy, intuitive user experience (6 comments): "its interface is much better than FreeCAD's, and it's more powerful than both FreeCAD and Fusion" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47090925)) "I would rank Solidworks way up there in usability and functionality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46605680)) "SolidWorks is one of the easiest pieces of CAD software to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46603225)) - Familiar, widely used in industry (4 comments): "I'm more comfortable with Solidworks and Creo so the tool isn't in my way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47935460)) "commercial CAD software like Solidworks, OnShape or Autodesk Fusion" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46822315)) "they can do so in a tool like Solidworks, CATIA, NX, etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48178873)) - More capable than open-source alternatives (4 comments): "For [non-EDA] CAD, I use SolidWorks, as I find FreeCAD (and OpenSCAD) is not in the same quality and user-experience tier." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47093023)) "its interface is much better than FreeCAD's, and it's more powerful than both FreeCAD and Fusion" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47090925)) "The pro software does things that are impossible or clunky in the OSS alternatives." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47979129)) - Good first CAD tool to learn (3 comments): "definitely learn solidworks or something in that vein first" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787616)) "It's got the easiest UX so is ideal for learning." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176289)) "Start with a parametric program like solid works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105792)) ## What people warn about - Crashes and slows on complex models (3 comments): "It's usually pretty stable for a while. It's when you get into very complex parts and assembles that it starts to really show problems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46970405)) "I've never heard any engineer discribe any CAD package as anything other than slow and full of bugs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46592859)) "I'm too busy restarting Solidworks after its third crash of the day. I pay thousands a year for the privilege." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46959427)) - Costly, proprietary license restrictions (4 comments): "Solidworks, needs special license to work in a VM that my company is not willing to pay for" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537543)) "engineers pay Dassault through the nose for Solidworks because there are no real alternatives" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450762)) "The proprietary nature of the major players (Creo, Solidworks, NX, etc) is a major drag." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46994645)) - Poor Linux and VM support (2 comments): "Anyone who says Linux solves all the problems has not tried to make something like solidworks and masterCAM run on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46355201)) "Solidworks, needs special license to work in a VM that my company is not willing to pay for" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537543)) - Poor high-DPI scaling and installer (2 comments): "their local installer is really bad" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100560)) "it was unusable with a display higher than 1080p because it did its own bad scaling of UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000595)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [FreeCAD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freecad.md): 199 recommend - [OpenSCAD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openscad.md): 173 recommend - [Onshape](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onshape.md): 65 recommend - [Autodesk Fusion 360](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fusion-360.md): 60 recommend - [SolveSpace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/solvespace.md): 37 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "SolidWorks", https://hackerapproved.com/p/solidworks/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).