I've only ever used FreeCAD and OpenSCAD. I assume SolidWorks is something like FreeCAD, an interactive 3D editor. Out of the two, I'd pick OpenSCAD any day. He

I've only ever used FreeCAD and OpenSCAD. I assume SolidWorks is something like FreeCAD, an interactive 3D editor. Out of the two, I'd pick OpenSCAD any day. Here're some reasons: * If you're a programmer, the learning curve of OpenSCAD is almost non-existent. Assuming you're familiar with 3D modelling concepts, it should take an hour or two to go through and play with the entire feature set of OpenSCAD [1] (which I did). * It's simple and the defaults are sensible. * Your model is basically a line based source file which can be put under git and improved through pull requests, etc. * Your model is easily made parametric. Last model I made was a tripod mount where I could simply change the angle of the legs or wall thickness and everything would adopt. * OpenSCAD can be used as an 2D vector modeler as well. For me, it's replaced Inkscape 90% of the time. There are however things that are not as easily doable with OpenSCAD. One feature lacking is constraint solver so you have to do some back of the napkin trig for such things. I've also found it non-trivial to simply "chamfer" an edge, like I could in FreeCAD. [1]: http://www.openscad.org/cheatsheet/ http://www.openscad.org/cheatsheet/