Adobe Substance 3D Collection vs. SOLIDWORKS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Substance 3D Collection
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Substance 3D is a suite of apps that support 3D design, including texture assets and rendering tools. Workflows can connect to Adobe Creative Cloud apps.N/A
SOLIDWORKS
Score 8.6 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
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Solidworks Annual Subscription
1,295
per year
Solidworks Standard
3,996
per standalone license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Features
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Substance 3D Collection
-
Ratings
SOLIDWORKS
8.6
3 Ratings
15% above category average
3D Modeling00 Ratings9.73 Ratings
2D Drafting00 Ratings9.13 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization00 Ratings7.83 Ratings
Parametric Design00 Ratings7.32 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing00 Ratings9.32 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats00 Ratings9.73 Ratings
Assembly Design00 Ratings8.83 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis00 Ratings6.32 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Customization and Extensions00 Ratings9.13 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Small Businesses
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.5 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.5 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Rhino
Rhino
Score 8.4 out of 10
Rhino
Rhino
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.6
(58 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.2
(16 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Substance 3D CollectionSOLIDWORKS
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
Big and mid-sized firms can really leverage the flexibility and value using the different tools all available at one place in the collection and also the integration with Adobe apps like photoshop, really makes it a seamless experience especially in fast paced production environments like advertising. For many film and game studios the whole collection might not be that much helpful as only painter will be of much use. For the small and indie studio it might be a costlier option and they can consider similar free or cheaper alternatives.
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Dassault Systemes
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!
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Pros
Adobe
  • Great performance
  • Excellent Adobe support
  • Fast and easy
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Dassault Systemes
  • 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
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Cons
Adobe
  • The substance painter is easy to use but its interface could be improved to be a bit more user friendly.
  • More assets can be added to stager, so visualize products better. Also AI workflow can be added for backplates.
  • Substance designer learning curve is very tough. Many people not able to grab it. It could be simplified.
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Dassault Systemes
  • 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.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Dassault Systemes
We have absolutely no reasons to not keep with SolidWorks for the foreseeable future.
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Usability
Adobe
The overall usability of substance stager and painter is quite easy. Many people will be able to use it without much prior experience. But designer is very complicated to learn and not many resources available for that. I think if they integrate the AI and provide better resources in the general interface, it could be a 10 on 10 in usability.
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Dassault Systemes
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.
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Support Rating
Adobe
No answers on this topic
Dassault Systemes
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.
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
For texturing, Adobe Substance 3D is much better than the other options. In other fields, it's another story. I find it excellent for game engines and realistic renders, but it only solves textures. We, then, move to Blender because it has more compatibility with exports, and we can import them into our preferred render engine. We mostly use Unreal Engine, but also Blender3D to do the final rendering.
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Dassault Systemes
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
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • We saved time when texturing models
  • With better looking assets, it's more money in the bank
  • Less time testing, more time doing
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Dassault Systemes
  • Creation of small 3D pieces to generate cash flow.
  • Not being able to create 3D sculptures with this tool, and not being able to fulfill the client's requirements.
  • To be able to sell high visual quality simulations for companies that hire the service.
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ScreenShots