# SolidWorks Premium Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is SolidWorks Premium the right Engineering CAD solution for you? Explore 756 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/reviews --- SolidWorks Premium 4.6 (756) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated December 15th, 2025 # Reviews of SolidWorks Premium Ease of use 4.3 Customer Service 4.2 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews CI Chris I CTOMedical Devices, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Powerful design capabilities: Robust tools for 3D modeling, simulation, and rendering.“ May 28, 2025 CI Chris I CTOMedical Devices, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Recent changes to their subscription model make it feel even more expensive and less customer-friendly on price.“ May 28, 2025 Sahil G Sales EngineerMachinery, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Amazing and intuitive design software with an abundance of features that allows you to bring a design to life with ease!“ June 18, 2025 NK Nicholas K Chief Research OfficerResearch, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Also the lack of compatibility with older versions can make it difficult to collaborate to institutions that canot afford the latest model year.“ October 17, 2024 Steven P CEOInternet, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “I liked the 3DExperience cloud PDM fonctionnalities that are now available in my package“ March 6, 2026 CD Craig D Mechanical Design EngineerMachinery, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “SolidWorks crashes very often.“ February 12, 2026 Caleb T Mechanical EngineerDesign, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “It also has one of the most straightforward UIs of any CAD software.“ August 5, 2025 AA Amine A Senior Mechanical EngineerConsumer Goods, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The 3D experience is terrible i've paid like for 2 years it's plugging with solidworks it has 0 efficiency only cloud problems“ January 28, 2025 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 756 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Steven P. CEO Internet Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great product if you're working with a SolidWorks Reseller (3DXperience)" March 6, 2026 5.0 Very good experience overall. SolidWorks Premium offers powerful tools, stability, and efficiency for professional design work Pros Access to the Simulation in assembly is a must for our products. I liked the 3DExperience cloud PDM fonctionnalities that are now available in my package Cons Without an integrator like (\[sensitive content hidden\]) it is hard to navigate in 3DExperience platform by your own. I strongly recommand to contact a VAR to help you during the installation Review Source Kishore E. Mechanical engineer Defense & Space Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Best cad tool for designers" March 19, 2025 4.0 As mechanical engineer i made products to defence sector, by using i can made faster 3d models and production drawings within the one software and so its reduces the time and also money Pros The best thing i like about the software is its simplicity like even beginners can learn easily and a connection between sketch and drafting and finally its Tool box Cons The downside of this software is its sadddenly crashes sometimes ,so all the work we have done before crashing will be lost. Switched from [AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/) For Faster designing of 3d models and simulation Review Source CI Chris I. CTO Medical Devices Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great software, but price is a tough pill to swallow" May 28, 2025 3.0 We’ve really enjoyed using the software – it’s a powerful tool with all the features you could need for engineering design. The software itself is great and delivers on performance for most of our needs. But with the way pricing has been shifting, it’s making me question if it’s worth the investment for our company in the long term. If the cost was more competitive, I’d be all in, but right now, we have to consider alternatives. Pros Powerful design capabilities: Robust tools for 3D modeling, simulation, and rendering. Great for complex engineering designs, especially if you have the right computer specs. User-friendly interface: easy to pick up. Layout makes finding tools and features quick and easy. Solid integration: Works well enough with other CAD/CAM tools, so can drop into existing workflow without much disruption. Cons Expensive: The cost is simply very high compared to alternatives like Fusion 360. Recent changes to their subscription model make it feel even more expensive and less customer-friendly on price. Subscription model changes: switch in how they offer plans compared to a few years ago has made me rethink each year if we can stick with it for the long run, especially for smaller team/company. Learning curve: Interface is good, but still a learning curve to fully get the most out of all the features. Alternatives considered [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/) Reason for choosing SolidWorks Premium Seemed more industry standard at the time, although Fusion's growth and Solidworks increased price burden makes me have to reconsider this in the near future. Review Source CD Craig D. Mechanical Design Engineer Machinery Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Still the benchmark of CAD" February 12, 2026 4.0 It is the benchmark for all CAD systems, for all its quirks and the cost, SolidWorks remains the software all CAD systems compare themselves to. Pros 3d Design is excellent. I like how more and more companies are integrating their products into the features of SolidWorks. The part to drawing integration is excellent. Cons It is very expensive in comparison to other products. SolidWorks crashes very often. I've lost a good amount of work due to this. We get a huge number of notifications telling me we have the wrong graphics card Review Source AA Amine A. Senior Mechanical Engineer Consumer Goods Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solidworks" January 28, 2025 5.0 Overall it's still correct because it fullfill my daily needs Pros It centralize a lot of tools for multiples tasks Cons The 3D experience is terrible i've paid like for 2 years it's plugging with solidworks it has 0 efficiency only cloud problems Alternatives considered [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/) Reason for choosing SolidWorks Premium I do use both actually because each one of them has pros and cons Review Source hS harsha S. Mechanical engineer Medical Devices Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solidworks Review" December 18, 2024 5.0 I've been using solidworks for almost 5 years medical devices ....it's the best in market & never faced any serious issues that couldn't be resolved Pros Able to Navigate Large Assemblies smoothly and better Cons There is still lot of Lag using PDM within the Tab Switched from [AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/) Better features & user friendly Domain Of solidworks Review Source Caleb T. Mechanical Engineer Design Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A User-Friendly CAD Solution That Delivers" August 5, 2025 5.0 Overall, I am very pleased with SolidWorks. In my experience, it is the easiest to learn and use daily out of any of the CAD software. Pros I like the ease of use and the intuitive feature set. It is a very user-friendly program and super easy to learn. It also has one of the most straightforward UIs of any CAD software. The learning curve for even advanced features is relatively small. Cons There are times when the entire program freezes. If you let it sit for a few minutes, it sorts itself out usually, but I wish it had some indicator that it is still functioning. In the task manager, it always shows up as "not responding". I also wish it did a little better job with importing and feature recognition. It will not import Creo files. Review Source Cody C. Executive Director of Operations Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: 2+ years ### "SolidWorks is a Must for the Precision Machining Industry" August 4, 2025 5.0 My overall experience with SolidWorks has been great, it's easy enough to use for jr. engineers to learn, and advanced enough for senior engineers to leverage creating blueprints very quickly and efficiently. Pros SolidWorks Premium is THE best software for creating manufacturing/process blue-prints efficiently and it is also a great tool to extract GD&T and PMI data from a 3D model. Cons I had to purchase Mastercam in addition to SolidWorks for CNC programming capabilities, I wish SolidWorks would implement CNC programming software, such as Mastercam, so it's an all-in-one package for creating blueprints and programming CNC vertical mills. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Project Engineer, Team Lead Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product! Price is a bit crippling!" April 2, 2026 5.0 This is a very intuitive software that allows for suppressing components within the assembly FEA that you want to exclude from analysis, change remote loadings, and much more! Pros The Simulation for FEA is invaluable for analyzing the strength of assemblies. Solidworks express gets left in the dust when you can analyze entire assemblies Cons This is a very expensive add on. Our company has only 1-2 licenses with this premium feature because of the costs Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior analyst and consultant Logistics and Supply Chain Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best balance between easiness of use and technical features. " July 13, 2025 5.0 Amazing! Best software for engineering cad design and products innovation. Also well integrated suite adding 360 degrees capabilities. Pros Best software overall in terms of balance between features, features quality, complexity of use, 3d and 1d interoperability and renders capability. Cons Sometimes got issue with motions video and also to download some parts from library, but overall always managed to get it fixed or find a turnaround. Review Source RL Ronald L. Engineering Manager Plastics Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good Deal" August 10, 2021 4.0 I have created a lot of product designs quickly to determine the weight of a product to get our customers an accurate quote, and a picture they can see. We also use it to design fixtures that can be made at another shop. Pros Solidworks is very easy to use. You don't need a lot of training because once you have the basic concept down, it becomes intuitive on how to create models. There are many ways to complete the same commands, so it can just be a matter of preference on which method works best for you. Customer support was able to help me with almost every problem I had except for third party hardware issue. It's customizable, but not too customizable. Cons Solidworks can crash at times and work is lost if you don't save it. There are some features that I was not able to create in solid that probably could be done in surfaces if I had time to learn it. Alternatives considered [Designcenter Solid Edge](https://www.capterra.com/p/179964/Solid-Edge/) Reason for choosing SolidWorks Premium Solidworks has the support and the market presence to continue developing a first class 3D cad product. Review Source NK Ngiria K. Mechanical design engineer Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Delighted with the results " November 23, 2024 5.0 im impressed to share my good experience using this software as i learned using it within weeks due to its ease of integration. Pros its amazing architecture and incredible features like solid cam Cons Solidworks has low storage which limits designers from large data processing Switched from [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/) I wanted a more cheaper to maintan software Review Source RB Ryan B. Manager Construction Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Design Abilities" January 15, 2025 4.0 Pros I like the features and the ability to navigate through all of the tree managers. Cons SOLIDWORKS has a learning curve and the features are not all intuitive but once you learn it is a very powerful tool. Review Source NK Nicholas K. Chief Research Officer Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Industry standard" October 17, 2024 4.0 Overall I have a positive experience with solidworks Pros Very capable software. The industry standard, so it makes it easy to collaborate with others. Cons Very closed ecosystem, so it makes getting support difficult. Also the lack of compatibility with older versions can make it difficult to collaborate to institutions that canot afford the latest model year. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer designer Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My first learnt 3D software" June 11, 2024 5.0 Pros It's nice to create and build 3D model, especially if the product is going to be produced, it can easily be evaluated within manufacturing phase and perspective. Cons For mesh and curve 3D models, it's quite hard and requires other software to integrate with. Review Source Kushan C. Planning Engineer Construction Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Easy way in managing my design work" August 26, 2023 5.0 The design part is critical for the company since our company is a design and build company. In my role as a planning engineer, I work as a member in the design team. SolidWorks Premium application provides the best designs to achieve design expectations. Pros 2D modeling is not much different compared to other applications but when it comes to 3D modeling, it can be highly rated since it is a very much updated software where I can find the most recent tools to meet the design standards. rendering and creating 3D images is critical to making a realistic design to meet clients' requirements. User-friendliness is another positive fact on SolidWorks Premium. Cons Although it is very useful, It is a highly expensive software. Complex designs will have large file sizes which are difficult to share easily. A powerful ram is needed especially for rendering process. Review Source Supun S. Student Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Design with SOLIDWORKS" December 9, 2019 5.0 As a whole Solidworks is one of the best Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software in the world. When considering with other CAD software, Solidworks is specially designed to model 3D mechanical parts. We can model every single part of a machine separately and then we can assemble it using the same software. Also, we can simulate some machinery parts. But for the simulating, we need much powerful hardware. After assembling the parts modeled we can take a print of the machine including different elevation views. This software is very useful for professional designers and they can buy this software for their companies. I do not recommend this software for individual use because of the price. Pros Solidworks is a great software to design objects in a professional level. Either a 2-dimensional plan or a 3-dimensional object, we can design it easily using Solidworks. If you have not used this software previously you might think it is hard to learn this software. There are many menus, buttons, panels, etc. in the user interface. But you can learn it very easily because of many tutorials for this software available on YouTube for free. I too studied the software in the same manner. The price of the software is in the midrange but it is worthy because of the features included in Solidworks. Solidworks has a new way of marking dimensions in our design. It is so easy that we only need to select the dimensioning tool and drag down the needed piece. Extruding also became easy because a ruler pops up when we begin to extrude. Solidworks is very useful especially for mechanical engineers, civil engineers, and architectures. They can model their dream using this software. Cons There are few drawbacks of the software that I faced while using Solidworks. Since I used some 3D designing software earlier, I feel little bit hard to model objects in Solidworks. Only few primary shapes are included with the software. Some shapes are very hard to model. The price of the software is relatively low when considering with other professional CAD software. But there are many free solutions available in the software market. Therefore buying Solidworks is not a good idea if your project is small. My friend has an Apple computer and he could not find Solidworks software that compatible with mac OS. I think Solidworks for mac OS will release soon. Review Source AR Anthony R. Mechanical Engineer Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solidworks Review" August 14, 2022 5.0 I use Solidworks everyday all day. I have used Pro-E and NX in the past as well as some of the free 3D cad softwares on the internet. Hands down Solidworks has the feature sets and ease of use that made my job so much more fulfilling and productive. Pros Solidworks allows me to do solid modeling as well as surface modeling. The feature sets for both are equally powerful. I tend to use solid modeling as it is the most straight forward for the type of parts that I am required to design. The tools are logically grouped and easy to find. I can customize where those tools are and how they are grouped as well. The goal is to reduce the number of clicks and mouse movements so I can be more efficient. Solidworks is always finding ways to achieve this. Foe example, I enjoy the use of keyboard shortcuts and mouse shortcuts to get to contextual menus. The icons are easy to understand what tool they represent which again allows me to rapidly locate tools. Cons The one item that has vexed me over the years is the thread creation tool. Sometimes, I need to create an actual thread (not a virtual thread) in the model. There is a tool but it is rather clunky and difficult to use. I would just want to define what size of thread and where it starts and then have it create it. If I want to customize it then there should be an option available. Reason for choosing SolidWorks Premium Solidworks is very affordable for what you get compared to the other complicated and over priced software packages. Review Source Mammaye Ousmane T. Student in Industrial Maintenance Mining & Metals Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "SolidWorks Premium review" January 10, 2023 5.0 SolidWorks Premium is an effective CAD tool for mechanical product design, it offers robust features such as parametric design tools, simulation and 3D visualization. It is user-friendly and allows for effective project communication. However, it can be costly for some users and its advanced features may require some time to master. Overall, it is a solid choice for professional CAD projects. Pros I use SolidWorks Premium for mechanical product design and I am extremely satisfied with its performance. The user interface is easy to use and the parametric design tools are incredibly powerful, allowing for quick and easy modifications to existing models. The simulation tools are also incredibly useful for testing the functionality of models before production.The 3D visualization is excellent, the photorealistic renderings allow you to truly see how the finished product will look, and the animations make it easy to effectively communicate projects to other people.I am also impressed with SolidWorks Premium's interoperability. It's able to import and export files of various CAD formats, making it easy to collaborate with other members of the team.In conclusion, SolidWorks Premium is an incredibly powerful tool for mechanical product design and is highly recommended for anyone looking for a high-level CAD solution. Cons One of the least appreciated aspects of SolidWorks Premium is that the cost can be high for small businesses or individual users. There are less expensive licensing options available, but they may not include all the features of the full version.Another aspect that could be improved is the complexity of some of the simulation tools. The simulation tools are very powerful, but they can be difficult to master for less experienced users and may require training for those not familiar with simulation tools.Finally, there are compatibility issues that can arise when importing or exporting files from other CAD software. Sometimes data can be lost or corrupted during file translation and can cause errors in the models.Despite these drawbacks, SolidWorks Premium remains an extremely powerful CAD tool that is ideal for mechanical product design and offers great flexibility for users who are willing to invest time in learning to use its advanced features effectively. Review Source shaikh A. Subject Matter Expert E-Learning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "SolidWorks: One of the best software for Mechanical Engineers" March 14, 2022 5.0 Overall SolidWorks is the most useful tool for the Mechanical Engineers beginners, as it will give them the foundation who want to design and analyze real life models as per the real time scenario. There is no need of another software is assemblying the product, SolidWorks will also do the same for you, plus it also has drawing window where we can make General Assembly drawing and can add Bill of Materials, Title Block, Detailed Drawings, etc. Pros The best part about the software is that, I can directly use it without any prior experience because of it's simple user-interface and placing of all the features in a very concise manner. SolidWorks has a large collection of Material Database I can any materials ranging from metals, alloys, non-metals, and super-alloys and with the presence of Design Library I can directly import all the standard components like gears, nuts,bolts, keys, washers, etc. Thus, saving my modeling time. Also, there is no constriction in using the feature, I can make simple model to very complex models very easily. With integration of SolidWorks Simulation, I can analysis and study my models in different scenarios and boundary conditions. Another plus part is that I can save my file to any extension I require, I can save my model as jpg, png, pdf, iges file to use it in ansys, stl file to 3D print it, etc. Cons The meshing feature present in SolidWorks is not advance as compared to Ansys and lacking manual meshing option, hence with increasing complexity of the parts I can't mesh according to my requirements. The SolidWorks Simulation is also quite time consuming considering the involvement of the complex parts. Intermittent crashing of the software is also oneof the major concern I face sometimes. Review Source RM Rajiv M. Senior design engineer Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "One of the best 3d modelling software with simple but powerful tools ." November 7, 2023 4.0 Overall my experience with solidwork is very awesome, I use solidwork daily form last 6 years . Pros Multi body feature in a part modelling is very helpful for me , top to bottom assembly is so easy , it's sketching tools are are very reliable. Motion study analysis, 360 photo-realistic image is amazing and so on ... End apart then all these features it's user interface is really good. Simple n so powerful software I'm using it from last 6 years. Cons Apart from all powerful tools the only issue is crashing some time some commands are taking lot of time end something software got crash which is not good. Large file are also taking lot of time open . Solidwork drawing is quite boring end not so effective it got crash when you use for long time without saving. Review Source PK Praveen K. Senior Engineer Construction Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Beginner Friendly fully featured CAD software" June 17, 2022 5.0 I used SolidWorks for new product development. Definitely, this software had been a companion from the idea initiation phase to the final design through a number of iterations. Pros The interface of Solidworks is awesome. It is very intuitive and a beginner can get started within minutes. Also, the performance of the software is also impressive. I am able to run SW 21 smoothly on 11gen i3 along with other parallel software. The rendering is also eye-pleasing. The high customizability is also a pro. Additionally, the plethora of features and options make it possible to model anything with this software. Cons Sometimes when I had to create rapid 2D drawings, then I found Solidworks to be less helpful and I have to revert to other drafting software. Review Source Ajoob S. Engineer Trainee Chemicals Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Easy to create engineering models with great accuracy." March 12, 2022 4.0 Solidworks premium helps us in designing of 3d models of the part and assemblies to be manufactured. We are perform stress analysis using the software to analyse the design will withstand under various loading conditions. The stress analysis gives accurate results and according to the result we can make changes to the design if needed. Pros Solidworks premium is the most widely used design software by mechanical Engineers. The software helps to create part models and assembly models in 3d with high accuracy. The best about solidworks premium is that we can easily make edits to the parts in an assembly model and the changes will automatically applied to all the associated models. The simulation of the designs can also be performed using the software to avoid failures during manufacturing. Cons No difficulties were faced during our use. Review Source AD Amira D. Site Architect Construction Used the software for: 2+ years ### "One of the most user-friendly 3D design programs available." March 29, 2022 5.0 Because of the many plugins and capabilities that Solidworks offers to its users, we were able to speed up the exporting of designs for use by our work teams, especially for simple designs. Pros The ease with which a design may be built and the precision with which 3D models can be created are two of my favorite features of Solidworks. As a designer, I use Solidworks because of its many basic 3D tools and flattening choices for producing free-form pieces, which allow me to show my clients accurate renderings of the designs I've created for their space. Solidworks is a user-friendly program that lets you create drawings and apply different textures to surfaces, making it easier to bring your ideas to life in 3D. It also includes an outstanding online component library full of downloadable pieces that you can use to create your designs. With this option, it is easy to find faults in the design plan and solve them, which leads to the design being completed on schedule and to the satisfaction of everyone involved. Cons Large-scale model creation in Solidworks is incredibly flexible, but assembly of many components is slow and requires a high-speed computer to be able to execute orders faster. Review Source TK Tomasz K. Production Engineer Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Production engineer - sheet metal structures" February 17, 2023 5.0 Pros Very friendly and intuitive interface, lots of design options. Good tools for converting solids into sheet metal structures. Good looks, fast working tools. Cons I did not notice any significant deficiencies. All the options I need are and work very well. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Related categories [3D CAD](https://www.capterra.com/3d-cad-software/)[Engineering CAD](https://www.capterra.com/engineering-cad-software/) ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.