About three years ago, we chose One Space designer over SolidWorks (we compared SW 2005 with OSD 12). We did an extensive research, sent our engineers to a training for both applications, and we did a few projects in both SolidWorks and OSD. The main reason we chose for OSD, is dynamic modeling (and related advantages):
- OSD is easier to use. This became very clear, because our engineers could do complete projects in OSD by them selves after a short training, and for SolidWorks we needed to hire an experienced SolidWorks user.
- Engineers can modify and use models created by others without the need to study the structure and modify relations.
- OSD was much faster (and has a lot smaller documents (MB)).
- OSD was more stable.
- It was easier to create our sheet-metal parts in OSD.
- It is easier to program in because you don't need to take a models history into account when creating automated procedures.
It wasn't easy to make the choice, because before version 12, OSD was lacking a user-friendly interface and appeared outdated, and SolidWorks is more of a 'main stream' application and seemed to be the big winner in the market place.
But we never doubted our choice and are very pleased with OSD (and the progress they are making ever since).
So I would definitely recommend you to invest some time. As you are a long time SolidWorks user, I think it will take some time to get used to a completely different approach of working with 3D models, but it will definitely be a worthwhile and fun experience, even if you don't switch.
Good luck!
With kind regards,
Marten Verhoeven
Van Beek B.V.