Designspark Mechanical
13 likes
DesignSpark Mechanical is a 3D modeling software reported to be easy to use so that all engineers will be able to create and share models.
License model
- Freemium • Proprietary
Application types
Country of Origin
United Kingdom
Platforms
- Windows
Features
Designspark Mechanical News & Activities
Highlights All activities
Recent activities
POX added Designspark Mechanical as alternative to AdamCAD
DrawAFence added Designspark Mechanical as alternative to Draw A Fence
Designspark Mechanical information
Developed by
DesignSpark Licensing
Proprietary and Freemium product.Pricing
One time purchase (perpetual license) that costs $0 + free version with limited functionality.Rating
Average rating of 2.5Alternatives
63 alternatives listedSupported Languages
Comments and Reviews
DSM is a great tool, has many of the feature of ANSYS SpaceClaim, but you have to remember that to make it free they had to cut some. You can't then save in STEP format, and when you import STEP models they are read-only. You can't even put any text in your model (like carving a name or number). All those features are in the paid add-on, so this is more specifically a "freemium" software. When paid for the add-on it's in the price segment of Alibre or Rhino, however the latter look to have a more flexible licensing option.
RS Components has offered a free version of Designspark Mechanical for a number of years. I was sucked into committing to their software in terms of learning hours and library creation. Now RS Components have intentionally disabled DSM5, the software that can edit the library. DSM6 will open for viewing a large DSM5 assembly file. But any attempt to modify simple geometry in it fails. A support ticket pleading to have DSM 5 reinstated has not been responded to. A logical move to this would be to switch to another software supplier. Note that RS Components force you to pay extra to have full export functions enabled. And export to industry standard STEP files is believed to operate only on single components, not on assemblies with references to external components. So beware of being like me, not exercising prudence and being sucked into creating a Designspark library. You will be faced with an expensive, massive library migration task to switch software suppliers. “Software terrorism”.