SketchUp is 3D modeling software with an emphasis on usability. SketchUp is a Trimble product.
$119
per year
SOLIDWORKS
Score8.3 out of 10
N/A
Dassault Systemes offers SOLIDWORKS, a computer-aided design (CAD) system for education and manufacturing supporting 2D or 3D design, electrical design, simulations, and product development with collaboration tools.
$1,295
per year
Pricing
SketchUp
SOLIDWORKS
Editions & Modules
Free
$0.00
per year
For Schools (free with G Suite or Microsoft education account)
Automation Engineer in Engineering at Eureka Electrosoft Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 11-50 employees)
Chose SketchUp
When it comes to easy development of the design and sketches SketchUp is a great tool, but in case you require complex design and more specific details I would like to go for SOLIDWORKS. I used this as my secondary design tool but it solves the purpose of basic prototyping of …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Graduate Research Assistant in Engineering at Iowa State University (Higher Education, 5001-10,000 employees)
Chose SketchUp
SketchUp can be widely used in different design disciplines while some programs such as Revit and SOLIDWORKS are specifically designed for making 3D or 2D drawings related to structures, mechanical components, and building elements. The interface of SketchUp is intuitive, all …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose SketchUp
CATIA, NX, AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS - all are higher level than SketchUp but have a high learning curve to use.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose SketchUp
I've spent very little time in other applications and programs, but for the cost, flexibility, and documentation style, SketchUp was the clear winner. I do not need a BIM-capable program or photorealistic rendering capabilities, but I do need a quick, effective, and …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Dassault Systemes
Verified User
Chose SOLIDWORKS
Hated SketchUp at school. It was great for making art, but never really worked to design anything you actually wanted to make.
I've used Blender a little, but don't have much time for working with meshes.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS provides not only aesthetic appearance of a product but also provides the capability to analyze behavior of structural and material components.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Aerospace Product Manager, Technical Product Expert in Research & Development at Technetics Group (Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 501-1000 employees)
Chose SOLIDWORKS
We chose SOLIDWORKS based on previous experience and relationship with the authorized vendor, as well as internal experience in SOLIDWORKS already existing with some of the engineering base. Cost, value and ease of implementation also were factors that led us to make the …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
SketchUp and SOLIDWORKS are both popular Computer-Aided Design (CAD) programs on Both products have over 100 ratings and 35 reviews each. Compared to most SaaS platforms, CAD software has been around for several decades. And while CAD software is most commonly used for engineering and architectural purposes, it has a growing variety of applications.
On TrustRadius, most SketchUp users are from smaller businesses or architecture firms. In addition to being a CAD tool, SOLIDWORKS, also functions as simulation software. Simulation software can be used to evaluate, optimize, and compare product designs meant for real-world applications in a computer-generated environment. On TrustRadius, most of its users are from mid-sized construction companies.
Features
SketchUp’s feature set can differ depending on which version you choose: SketchUp Free, SketchUp Shop, Sketchup Pro, SketUp Studio, SketchUp for Web, Enterprise, and SketchUp Studio for Education. There are even more industry and use-case specific versions available as well. SketchUp’s major selling point seems to be customization to users’ needs. For B2B software purposes, Sketchup Pro, SketchUp Studio, and Enterprise seem to provide the most business-ready offering. They all focus on 3D modeling and exporting projects in HD for facilitating easy collaboration.
SOLIDWORKS comes from Dassault Systemes, a French software company that specializes in design and Product Lifecycle Management software. SOLIDWORKS features several sub-products that cover a wide variety of specialties and capabilities. Whereas Draftsight focuses more on CAD specifically, SOLIDWORKS, as previously mentioned, supports simulation, product configurator, product data management, and technical communication. Its design capabilities support 2D and 3D design, CAM, electrical design, and visualization, with collaboration tools for team projects.
Limitations
SketchUp is considered one of the easiest CAD programs to jump into, however, it is not without some criticisms from users. Interestingly, while it is said to be easy-to-use, it’s actual functionality is difficult. SketchUp can be seen as clunky or lack the finesse of other CAD software. For more advanced projects, SketchUp may not be the best fit.
Critiques of SOLIDWORKS share common themes with most CAD software in that it can be resource-intensive and slow performance. Additionally, it may be more expensive than competitor products. While it excels at electrical applications, it may also not be so suited for certain industries like aerospace and automotive.
Pricing
SketchUp is gaining popularity with CAD users because it has a web-based version available completely for free. Its next non-student offering starts at $119/yr. Its next plan most suitable for businesses that will be using SketchUp as a team starts at $299/yr. Students still enrolled in institutions of higher education can gain access to SketchUp for as little as $55/yr. Teams requiring more than 10 licenses may benefit from special pricing, but sales must be contacted to get more information.
SOLIDWORKS buyers have 5 different pricing models from which to choose: Commercial, Academia, Research, Students, and Entrepreneurs & Startups. Buyers can directly purchase the Student edition for $99 as a 1-year license. Pricing for other tiers requires buyers to contact the SOLIDWORKS sales team.
Features
SketchUp
SOLIDWORKS
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of SketchUp and SOLIDWORKS
SketchUp is great for individually studying options for building design. It is an awesome conceptual tool to be able to quickly model and manipulate a building to study different designs. It is not good for complex geometries, especially curves. Surfaces have a hard time registering and cutting into one another. It also eventually needs to go into Revit to be more realistic as it is not good as a documentation tool
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
As a mechanical engineer, it is one of the best tools to just start modeling and engineering with. The UI tools are intuitive and engineering analysis such Mold Analysis, FEA, are great! Other 3D CAD modeling tools have a longer learning curve to master. All in all, if you're not planning to design an entire airplane with large assembly files, then Solidworks is your tool!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Quickly exploring solutions in 3D: We get a lot of "what if" and "what would that look like" questions. While hand-sketching and hand-drafting can be fairly quick, SketchUp allows me to quickly create 3D and 2D views of a detail or solution, change dimensions and materials in a flash, and show a client or installer the plan in minutes.
Creating professional design documents in LayOut: Projects of any scale need good documentation. Using a combination of SketchUp and LayOut, I can create a Design Intent Set, plans for permitting, a set for mechanical trades to mark-up, etc. Having clear, appropriately-scaled drawings with dimensions or notations is a must, and we don't always have the time or budget to get an architect involved!
Using live files to guide discussions: Not all clients are "visual" people, so opening their model and orbiting around their space in real time has been extremely helpful. Clients and trades enjoy the perspective views so much that we often include them in the full-sized drawing sets to give a good "overall" view of the project intent. For complex or tight spaces, sometimes un-rendered plans and elevations just aren't enough!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
The collaborative work environment is a cool and useful feature where groups of people can work on the same model at the same time, and SOLIDWORKS ensures that you don't overwrite each other's work.
The ease and amount of customization options are very useful for creating a personalized and intuitive user interface, whether SOLIDWORKS is your native CAD package or not.
It is very easy to quickly edit a model you have already created. The software allows sketch and feature editing without having to take the time to actually enter the sketch/feature environment.
The use of configurations and configurations-specific dimensions in the same sketch is very useful for creating different forms of the same part
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Save DWG 2D files in inches or metric easily, defaults to metric and has to be manually converted to inches
When using the sketch feature, the ability to disable ALL references. If I don't know the exact shape and I want to draw/adapt my design, it harshly interprets the references which have no value to me. The easiest exact is to think about when you have a Microsoft Word document that has a lot of formatting, photos, tabs, etc. If you accidentally hit the "enter" key, you can explode the formatting and everything goes crazy. SW does this to me, I just want to "doodle" my sketches, edit/delete/etc and not be bound by arbitrary references.
For the sketch feature, ability to use a DraftSight plugin of some sort. I'm super fast in DS, if I could draw using the commands in SW then I would probably never open DS again and convert to SW full time. Currently, I only use SW as a way to convert 3D files so I can build everything in DraftSight.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We typically wait a few years in between renewing, as even older versions are powerful tools for modeling, and we make sure the amount of feature changes are worth the re-investment.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
It is very user friendly and easy to learn. It's simplicity allows for a low learning curve so more people can learn it faster. The downside is that most schools are no longer teaching it, so many younger professionals come out of school not knowing it and knowing more complex software and they have a hard time "dumbing down" their skillsets
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I have been using SOLIDWORKS for around 12 years as of writing this review, so have learned where most things are and how they work. When first starting out it was quite daunting, but the interface is well laid out with like functions near each other which made finding new functions relatively easy.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Sketchup is so intuitive; I can't recall ever looking for official support. However, there are many user forums online that can answer more questions. The usefulness of the online forums is, however, tempered by the fact that there have been many versions of the software under different ownership and support regimes, and thus finding the right information for the right version of the software can be a challenge.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We have an unusual arrangement. We don’t pay for support, but we’re partnered with a VAR for second-tier support.
I work with other users if I have questions but when we’ve had to ask the VAR, they always have answers. It appears that all of the VARs have access to a support platform from DS SOLIDWORKS that helps them answer most questions.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We have not evaluated any other competing software to this one. I heard about this software from a friend who teaches how to use it. She showed me in just a few minutes and I was HOOKED. I saw immediately the possible help it would be to my business. Thank you.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Onshape is a direct competitor. It has great entry level pricing and it is easy to access with no installation required. Being a web based app there is sometime some lag being based in NZ. Management also have concerns over where the data is stored on the cloud. With SW we can control where it is stored
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
