Sheet metal software

I’ve run out of my solidworks trial, anyone recommend a cheap piece of software for sheet metal design that will produce flat patterns. I’ll use it maybe one day a month so solidworks and inventor are not financially viable.

have a look at FreeCad3D it offers a lot of SolidWorks like functionality. I don’t do sheet metal so not sure if it offers that (many things are “add ons” so you’ll need to check if there is a plugin to do it). For free software it is probably the best parametric CAD software there is.

I’ve been playing with OnShape, a cloud based 3d cad system from the people who wrote Solidworks. Looks pretty good but not sure if it does sheet metal. It does have a free option.

https://www.onshape.com/

Solidworks do a free 2D software called Draftsight.

Iirc fusion 360 just got a lot of the features of fusion ultimate. This include the sheet metal module, it’s subscription based and only 300 a year

None if the others have working sheetmetal and onshape is still a while away from its integrator getting that online and working with its Web based setup

The only freebie seems to be medusa, never seen it never used it, or pay a subbie to do yer cad

What do you need the flat patterns for?

At the last two places I have worked, we’ve done quite a bit of sheet metal design & the fabricators always seem to prefer to just get a normal drawing & work it all out from there.
They know their machines, so do all the set-up to get the right finished sizes.
I’d end up guessing most of the various sheet metal parameters & give them something they’d have to mess around with to get right, anyway.

Obviously, your requirements might be different or you might have more experience than me with sheet metal (not that difficult, to be honest) to get it all drawn up correctly. But, just thought it worth mentioning.

Can’t find any ref to sheet metal in fusion 360 as yet. I guess I need to build up the amount of work I do in sheet metal to make the software pay.

Will have a look at Medusa, at the moment all manufacturers are asking for either solidworks, iges, stp or parasolid files.

Have to admit if the software companies did a desktop rental per day that would be a winner as I only need it a few days a month (apart from the 5 min tinkering!)

I dont work for them ,it seems if you mention something though it might seem that way

Ive only ever used inventor but as i get the emails and updates etc from autodesks spammy marketing

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Fusion-360-Packaging-FAQ.html

i actually went on the forum to see and it appears to be marketing bollocks, well faux sheetmetal so apologies ill STFU