Cinema 4D vs. SOLIDWORKS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cinema 4D
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Maxon, headquartered in Germany, offers Cinema 4D, an animaton suite for 3D artists, which the vendor states is suitable for beginners and seasoned professionals alike, who can take advantage of Cinema 4D’s wide range of tools and features to achieve stunning results for demanding, fast-paced 3D production.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
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Solidworks Annual Subscription
1,295
per year
Solidworks Standard
3,996
per standalone license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Features
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
Cinema 4D
-
Ratings
SOLIDWORKS
8.6
3 Ratings
15% above category average
3D Modeling00 Ratings9.73 Ratings
2D Drafting00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization00 Ratings7.83 Ratings
Parametric Design00 Ratings7.22 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing00 Ratings9.22 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats00 Ratings9.73 Ratings
Assembly Design00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis00 Ratings6.42 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation00 Ratings8.92 Ratings
Customization and Extensions00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Small Businesses
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.3 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GIMP
GIMP
Score 8.1 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.6 out of 10
Enterprises
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Score 7.3 out of 10
Rhino
Rhino
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(5 ratings)
9.6
(58 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
5.2
(16 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cinema 4DSOLIDWORKS
Likelihood to Recommend
Maxon
Photorealistic Rendering (it takes a LONG time to render for print, but it's insanely realistic). Commercial Production Graphical Integration into print materials (and digital) We did a lot with brochures and billboards. Hi Res rendering takes hours, but the output set us FAR apart from the run-of-the-mill competition we had.
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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
Maxon
  • Seemingly endless selection of tools
  • clear and powerful manipulation tools
  • effect use of hotkeys for navigating the 3D space
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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
Maxon
  • Weak UV mapping interface.
  • Redshift integration is not 100% seamless yet.
  • Weight-mapping is a nightmare.
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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
Maxon
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
Maxon
For reasons mentioned before: an intuitive interface and speed of the viewport, speed of loading, and ease of plugin integration. The MoGraph module encourages experimentation and the creation of highly modifiable scenes. Crashes are extremely rare and the support team and community are hyper-responsive to requests for help. For real... Maxon's staff hangs out in Slack and Discord communities, regularly assisting users with issues. No support ticket required.
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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
Maxon
Maxon's staff regularly hangs out in Slack and Discord communities, ready to assist. This goes beyond the support ticket system, which is also extremely robust. Hundreds of optimizations and bugs are fixed in every patch, even when the user experience is already 99.9% smooth. This is a proactive, not reactive, support and engineering team at Maxon.
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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
Maxon
Well, I go for cinema 4D if I want to create dynamic animation instead of Autodesk 3ds Max as I can easily create that animation compared to Autodesk 3ds Max.
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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
Maxon
  • Producing quality training content reduces mistakes and improves ebitda for our restaurants
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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