17 years helping Australian businesses
choose better software
IronCAD
What Is IronCAD?
CAD Programs Designed for Collaboration. The IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite is a complete range of CAD products that provides seamless collaboration between 3D and 2D to optimize your engineering teams design process and simplify 3D and 2D CAD data management and communication throughout your organization. Create bidding proposals quickly, design more iterations in less time leading to better products, and simply design faster than any other CAD system available today.
Who Uses IronCAD?
Custom, low-volume, special purpose machinery manufacturers, including conveyors, factory automation, racking systems and producers of fasteners, fixtures, jigs, pipes, shafts, valves, tools.
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Reviews of IronCAD
IronCAD bridges the crazy expensive CAD software world
Comments: I'm a small one-man studio. I can't afford the price that CAD developers get away with in their pricing. They seem to forget that there are many more small designers and engineers then there are large firms and we can't throw $10K or more at software anytime we need to. Ironcad provides all the functionality of software that costs 2 and 3 times more yet is as solid and reliable. It's as powerful and robust just fair on how it's priced.
Pros:
First of all, because it doesn't cost $10K to deploy it. Secondly, because it is incredibly capable and I have not found anything I can't do with it. It has some fantastic tools that no other software has, one of them being what they call the "TriBall." It's a tool for manipulating objects and it's so fast and efficient.
Cons:
It doesn't come with all the CAD format importers you need. If you share files with other more expensive software users, you may have to purchase additional importers. If you work alone like me, you rarely need that but occasionally I'll have a file I can't import and have to request an alternate format that I can. IronCAD can import a lot of formats by default, but a few exotic ones are not included.
IronCAD - very efficient
Comments: IronCAD with the KeyShot plug in has made a big difference in our business. There is so much more we can do, from detailed models to high quality renders and animations. IronCAD has allowed us to build detailed models quickly and the catalog system means we can easily use the same model parts over and over again.
Pros:
The workflow is very efficient and with a minimal learning curve. It was easy to transition from Draftsight to IronCAD and we can do so much more with this program.
Cons:
Very little cons, we work with a lot of large assemblies and IronCAD often switches into large assembly mode automatically. This had to be turned off to allow for a deeper level of editing but can be useful in certain circumstances.
For your plan designs or modeling, choose IronCAD.
Comments: IronCAD is still a design software used by engineers and designers for product modeling and documentation.
Pros:
I really enjoyed the functionality based on the Dual Kernel design technology in IronCAD, which allows users to create 3D models using parametric modeling techniques. Additionally, it allows importing multiple file formats.
Cons:
I didn't quite like the interface and some of the features in IronCAD. I only used it for a few months for a construction project, and it ultimately didn't help me much.
How Does IronCAD Shape Up
Comments: I don't use it daily, but I'm able to jump back in and create fairly complex designs and 2D drawings. I'm not a particularly proficient mechanical designer, but IronCAD helps me do needed design and prototype development.
Pros:
While IronCAD is feature rich and generally bug-free, it is an outstanding value when compared products like SolidWorks. Like any CAD program, there is a learning curve. Once you get past the initial learning curve, you can quickly become productive with IronCAD The Triball object positioning tool is the best; it makes moving 3D objects very easy.
Cons:
While there are many video tutorials available to help anyone learn and use IronCAD, the lack of a comprehensive, current User Manual is a negative. I recognize that such a manual would be a large undertaking, but I still think it is needed.
IronCAD from an insider
Comments: I can't speak on behalf of our business as we are resellers of the software, but I can categorically say we have a bunch of extremely happy clients that love to tell us how much they love the software and how much it has transformed their businesses. Very proud to be a part of that process. It makes selling the software very rewarding when we get that sort of feedback.
Pros:
After many years of struggling against the giants of Autodesk Inventor and Dassault's SolidWorks we have now cracked the tipping point and find people are keenly embracing IronCAD over the other choices. As far as I can recall we have never had a former user of the competitor software ever return to those products and that is a testament to IronCAD's abilities and productivity increases for its users.
Cons:
Simply the lack of proactive marketing by the developers who were very focused on the software and its abilities rather than getting involved in its awareness in the market. If they had been more marketing focused in the early years then they would have had the development funds earlier for product enhancements.
Alternatives Considered:
Nice advanced features. Complex interface to use the advanced features.
Comments: It seems to have all the nice features I want. But I may need a 4 year post-graduation course to learn those advanced modes.
Pros:
I like the ability to create designs variation and quickly visualizing various alternate designs.
Cons:
Poor documentation especially in advanced features.
Cheap CAD alternative for top market players
Comments: I started to use IronCAD as an alternative for AutoCAD and Inventor because of the price increase. In the beginning, I was not satisfied. Its strange menu, less intuitive than Autodesk or SolidWorks, and some bugs interrupting the work put me off a bit. However, as I was using it more and more, I started to feel more comfortable with IronCAD. That is true, it is a bit different than market-leading tools, but it is not worse. TriBall functionality is pretty amazing, saving a lot of time during model creation. Functionalities are pretty the same as in other CAD tools, with minor differences. Import of a lot of different file types with the possibility of modification is great and does not that often exist in competing tools. The huge advantage is customer support. They respond quickly and try their best to help with problems. Also, IronCAD is being constantly developed and it is noticeable in a positive way. All in all, it is not an AutoCAD, nor SolidWorks, but it is worth a try, especially for a significantly lower cost.
Pros:
Relatively cheap price. TriBall. Amount of functionalities. Customer support.
Cons:
Little bugs make work annoying. Minor problems with preview views blending togehter
Get IronCAD .It's valuable and worth
Comments: working with IronCAD is very pleasurable and useful. its very powerful
Pros:
very user friendly and easy-to-use and very good support.
Cons:
some times there are limitations for creating desire shapes and you need find more complex solution .
IronCAD Response
5 years ago
Thanks for the review of IronCAD! We are happy to see that you get real value from the product!
Pleasantly surprised!
Comments: It is a feature-rich, useful tool once you learn it! I found it to suit my needs, but warning: If you don't like the lack of a user manual, then maybe you should try another product. It's quite difficult sometimes to understand certain features, and you'll have to browse through some forum or watch a video because IronCAD doesn't do a good job of explaining much.
Pros:
In my research field, I've had to try various different CAD softwares and I was impressed by this one. IronCAD has a list of catalogs which was informative and quite simple to use. There aren't too many bugs with this application that I ran into, and besides the learning curve, it had a lot of features that were much more useful.
Cons:
There wasn't a user manual when I used this, which was a huge con for me. Additionally, the Help file feature isn't great either. A lot of the learning I did by myself and I watched videos on Youtube, but the actual software didn't do a great job of teaching me how to use it.
It is a tool designed for mechanical design, efficient and effective, easy to learn and good support
Comments: In the educational area I have used it to generate specific mechanical pieces in the design of corn thresher, mills, etc. This gives the students a wide range of options that contribute to enrich their training and selection of software for future designs.
Pros:
The software allows users to choose between a parametric, direct mode or a combination of both modalities in a single environment. This allows designers to freely explore design ideas and create models dynamically on the screen without having to pre-plan and plot the concept in advance.
Cons:
There is little information, which makes it difficult to understand how some program tools work more efficiently, this makes one take more time to design the elements or pieces.
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Thank you Jorge for the positive review of IronCAD for mechanical designers.
Disappointing for a Premium Price
Comments: I bought IronCAD because I didn't realize that Dassault offered a perpetual license for SolidWorks. I also know that S/W is unstable with models over a certain size (10,000 parts, I think) and was hoping that I/C was more able to handle large models. It crashed consistently with the large model I loaded, though. I've since discovered that I can buy a perpetual licenses of SolidWorks FOR THE SAME PRICE and am therefore standardizing on SolidWorks for my engineering firm. I was really looking forward to supporting an underdog and helping you displace SolidWorks with a superior product. Given that you're charging the same price as Dassault and mimicking their student license program, though, it seems that your Product Managers don't realize how far you have to go. I bought a student license and then bought a full license to do commercial work. This has turned into a very expensive test drive.
Pros:
The Triball is great. Drag-and-Drop concepting/design is great. The interface is far more intuitive than PTC Creo. Being able to reorder objects in the model tree without crashing the model. The complementary IronCAD Compose is fabulous. The student licensing program was fantastic before it was turned into a subscription-based model.
Cons:
It was quite expensive, considering the lack of maturity in the product. I started a bug list but then stopped because there were so many. The parametric architecture is fractured and disjointed. Dimensioning in the 2D drawing module is too erratic to be usable. Dimensions in the 3D module hide by default and it's hit-or-miss as to which object to activate to show a placed dimension. Not being able to export to sldasm or sldprt with the translator was an unexpected and stunning deficiency considering the price I paid for the Translator. Having the file format change right after I purchased the software and NOT BE BACKWARD-COMPATIBLE was almost a death blow to my continuation as an IronCAD user since it prevents me from adding seats without complications or extra expense of upgrading. It was a bit galling to see the heavily-discounted price offers right after I paid a higher price, and I now see that you tricked your new users into buying a soon-to-be-obsolete version. Being barred from having an account in the forum simply because I chose to purchase a perpetual license and no maintenance plan was quite a slap in the face. The single-project-file structure isn't particularly valuable (S/W has the Pack-and-Go feature). It actually complicates CAD library management. The Help file is terrible. Most entries simply describe the labels that are already readily-visible on a given dialogue box. Example: "LOAD Button: Click this button to load <the file, object, etc.>."
Innovative Magnetic Technologies Review
Comments:
To date i am fairly happy with Ironcad. We had to purchase the ironpro mechanical to really make the program beneficial to us. There are many tools with Ironpro that we use daily which have made our job of creating products more efficient.
Unfortunately i do not have any other 3D modelling program experience to reference against Ironcad.
Pros:
The decision to move to 3d was made because Ironcad was a relatively low cost alternative to the higher cost competitors. I also was drawn to the intuitive drag and drop design philosophy and the flexibility to create assembly down type designs in one model. Also the Caxa integration was very welcome as our company used Autocadd for all its drawings and having Caxa gave us the ability to continue to utilize our existing drawing library along side the new 3d drawings. Without the Caxa portion of the program I doubt we would have used the program for long, and gone back to manual 2d for our products.
Cons:
In the beginning we had a lot of issues with creating drawings which were equivalent in look and feel with that which we had been able to create in 2d Autocadd. The #1 biggest issue was the lack of any CAXA instructional data. The amount of information provided by the company in the form of a user guide is laughable at best. If I did not already have years of experience with Autocadd and CAXA's similarity to Autocadd I doubt i would have been able to get the program to make any sense at all. The only thing that makes Caxa usable is the forums where questions can be asked.
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Thank you for the review Peter. As you pointed out, we focus more on the 3D learning side since CAXA is similar to the AutoCAD use model. However we do see the growth in this area and will invest into more training in that area.
Alternatives Considered:
Almost Perfect
Comments: I design mechanical engineering items for serval customers and I can sit with an engineer and create their new design in real time.
Pros:
Most of the features work really well and are intuitive. The speed of being able to create a new design is impressive. The triball is the best tool ever and saves hours of work when positioning parts. Generally it is a solid piece of software and very rarely crashes.
Cons:
It does not work at all well with a high resolution display(3840 x 2160) some of the menu items are so small you cannot read them and in other areas the items overlap. After every new release there are some errors and these are not always fixed before the next version is released. Some of the less used features are feeling a bit dated like the visualization mode.
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Thank you Graham for the positive review of the speed of IronCAD. The latest versions of the product should have better support of High Res Monitors. If you are still seeing issues, feel free to contact support.
Alternatives Considered:
IronCAD - Powerful easy to Use CAD
Comments: Easy to use CAD
Pros:
IronCAD has proven to be an essential tool in our company for the last 15years. Unlike similar software, its free design approach allows you to get on with the business of producing designs rather than worrying about model integrity. It has become significantly more powerful as the years go by.
Cons:
There are many basic features lacking, (select by colour, divide a line in equal segments, solve a structural part on dimension or area, mechanism mode trace a 2d path, intersection of 3d parts with your current cross section, decent configuration control date created user etc). Confusion about which 2d drawing environment to choose, i.e. ICD or CAXA Smartmarkup features are an odd addition.
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Thank you Nick for the positive review and suggestions for improvements. Thank you for being a longtime use of IronCAD.
The most flexible product in its class
Comments:
I have been a user since 1995 when IronCAD was known as Trispectives. It has helped me successfully design and create designs for feature films, theme parks, race cars, yachts and more.
Despite its deficiencies I still think its the most flexible and powerful 3D design tool in its class.
Pros:
I work in the feature film industry where everything is extremely time constrained, fast changing and teams are often geographically dispersed. IronCAD dual kernel and translator add-on allow me to import and work with data from a wide array of sources from CG artists through to civil engineers. IronCADs workflow is much less constrained than other products which makes it easier and faster to develop design ideas and concepts. When it comes time to build, I use add-ons like IC Mechanical to speed up the design of my steel structures and output 2D files for CNC etc.
Cons:
In my long term opinion IronCAD's 2D drawing utilities have always been lack lustre. I have tried both IC's native drawing and CAXA (yes IronCAD has 2 drafting systems!), but neither are fully implemented, efficient or bug free. The good news is that IC does a good job exporting 2D views of your designs so you can draft them elsewhere.
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Thanks Mitch for the review! Great work and a very interesting use of IronCAD!
Consider Both Sides Of The Product
Comments: Overall I am more productive within the IronCAD model environment due to the Tri-Ball and the fewer limitations on creating parts and assemblies. I am disappointed in the documentation environment but have been told that the development team is continually enhancing the software.
Pros:
Building and working within the model. The Tri-Ball is at the top of the list. This adds a very flexible method for navigation and positioning in the model. The ability to work with fewer constraints or even none. The flexibility within the history tree is awesome. The catalogs are a nice touch. Ability to use both parasoilid and/or ACIS. Support is top notch. Compared to past experiences. My support contact is quick to respond and exhibits the drive and ability to get a resolution. This is enhanced due to the fact that my contact actually uses the product in his company.
Cons:
Documenting in the drawing environment. The documentation environment needs to be more mature and current. Navigating in the sheets is cumbersome and clunky. Text and symbol features, placement and manipulation are inconsistent and lacking. Tools for adding additional line work on the sheets are cumbersome to add, manipulate and edit. Navigating with a 3D mouse control is sporadic.
3d Printing and Prototyping with Ironcad
Comments: As an inventor and president of an inventor group, I find that Ironcad is indispensable. I have designed things for members and made prototypes for them. I also build models and really can not live without the ability to design and print many parts.
Pros:
I have been a user before it was called Ironcad. It was called Tryspectives then. Many years ago. I have upgraded twice since then. When given the opportunity to show others how easy it is to use, they seem to be quite impressed. Especially over parametric software. Ironcad does this also but I do not use it much. I do 3D printing of prototypes and Ironcad is great at producing solid models and easy to modify models if needed. Everything I think up is modeled in Ironcad to empty my head for the next project. I currently use release 2015.
Cons:
The thing I wish it did better is free form modeling. Mechanical stuff is great. Free form is more difficult. Also the ability to work with .stl ( Triangulated mesh ) files. It will import them but with no ability to modify. I would be using 2020 if the cost were lower but as a one person company, revenue is down. That OK as 2015 does most of everything that I need.
simplicity and speed
Comments:
I have very good experience with ironcad
Has worked for many years with ironcad (started with version 2)
Since most of what I do is about automation, usually one machine, ironcad fits perfectly,
compared to colleagues working in other systems (Solidworks,
AutoCad 3D)
Pros:
Very efficient way of working. Can be worked from sketch to finished production drawings, without leaving IronCad. Completely independent of constrains (simple and forgiving way of working). Simple drawing rules (compared to Solidworks) Has worked as a consultant for major Swedish companies that have design departments Has drawn in front of large audiences who are amazed at the simplicity of ironcad Which has been a strong selling point for getting a job for my company
Cons:
Surface modeling tools are not really good Sometimes you would like to have better tools Solidwork has better tools for the plastics industry Works a lot with molds for plastic, cutting tools for sheet metal etc. Measurement has improved, but there is still room for improvement I have contact with other designers who use ironcad They complain about the 2D tools (?)
Iron Clad and IronCAD
Comments: For my needs, I was looking for a simple tool to import geometry to provide design assessment and to review assemblies for functional GD&T proposals. I didn't need a drawing (2D) capability at the time. So this tool has exceeded my expectations. It has allowed me to provide alternative concepts on designs I'm reviewing. I'm so happy I made this choice and may be looking to upgrade to try more advanced capabilities.
Pros:
It was fairly simple to learn. My previous trained and professional experience had been CATIA V4 and V5. Ideas, SolidWorks and NX, and was able to pick up on the methodology very quickly. It is intuitive and fairly straight forward. A wide variety of import and export options come standard. It opens large assemblies quick and efficiently. The ability to manipulate imported (non-native) geometry is really great and time-saving. I love the ability to drag and drop basic and advanced geometry into the design.
Cons:
Occasionally It will crash and close down but most of the time when I asked it to do something extraordinarily difficult. Rarely for no reason, but it does occasionally. I wish I could create Datum Planes to use for section cutting and mirroring geometry. I know I can achieve without them, but to me, it would be more intuitive.
IronCAD Response
6 years ago
Thank you for the review Brian!
I can not understand
Comments: We have been using Ironcad since 1998 or 1999. We are designing our own machineries using Ironcad, but we are also working as consultants designing machineries for some of our customers using both Solidworks and Inventor, so we have a good experience of the differences.
Pros:
It is very easy to design a new machinery in the 3D-scene. It is a great benefit that you can design a hole assy and afterwards select how you like to have your sumassy´s and details.
Cons:
The 2D-interface and funconality making an ICD-file is a totalt disaster. It is depending on the grafic´s, time for update of scene´s is too long, sections is really bad, for example you have to fill in data for welding symbols each time you activate the function instead of getting last data as default, and so on. We have since 1998 reported a lot of ideas´s how to make it better, but unfortunatly we can not see aallmost no improvement
unparalleled ease of use for concept generation
Comments: Ironcad allows me to take on jobs with much less time available than I previously have done because it's productivity is unrivalled.
Pros:
The ability to make models without a feature history or parent-child relationships makes it's very easy for concept generation and development without the need to completely remodel once a design has been established. the tribal makes locating imported models and other component unbelievably easy compared to industry leading software
Cons:
Database design and look feels dated and the rendering I find it difficult to use.The drafting element is not its strongest point but it is sufficient
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Thank you for the review Richard! It's great to read that IronCAD is helping improve your productivity in jobs.
The only CAD I'll ever use
Comments: I purchased IronCAD Innovate as a package with my Tormach PCNC1100 CNC Mill 7-yrs ago. Prior to this, I was given a copy of Solid Works to try and was completely lost as to where to start. So technically, my first experience with creating a CAD model was with IronCAD. Innovate has allowed me to do everything I could imagine for rendering designs to do CNC work as well as making a newly patented product. In the 7-yrs of use, I saw online CNC bloggers advertise other CAD software, some of which are free, and the most popular one being we based. I looked at them out of curiosity and did not think they compared to versatility of solid modeling and none of them had the Tri-Ball. I was also working on a product that was patent pending so trusting them with my designs was not an option. The other great thing about IronCAD is the tech support. As a self taught machinist and inventor, putting thoughts to paper was easy but my experience with CAD got me stumped a few times. I could always rely on [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] to patiently walk me through things I just couldn't figure out on my own. I'm still a one-man shop and am too busy to even consider what else is out there. As far as I'm concerned, IronCAD is the only CAD software that will be installed on my computers. Both the tech support and software have never failed me so IronCAD is stuck with me as customer.
Pros:
Ease of use, tech support, functionality.
Cons:
There's nothing I dislike about IronCAD Innovate.
Easy to use need some social aspects
Comments: Design showrooms, booth, furniture, displays
Pros:
With IronCad you can create quick and easy your design. The Tribal is een important tool to work with. Also the connection between 3d and drawings works very well
Cons:
Making a video like walking in a room or showroom. Also the integration with VR is very important. The rendering tool is not easy in use. I don't like keyshot. It is still a lot of work to make a hr rendering. Import from files from other brands gives often problems. Sketch up grows very fast. I don't want to change. IronCad please do your best.
IronCAD Response
4 years ago
Hi Jos, Thank you for the review on the speed to creation of IronCAD. We would be interested in your needs for the rendering and VR side. Feel free to contact me with more information on your needs, dislikes of KeyShot and product you typically use today for this area.
IronCAD DCS review
Comments:
Used in a very varied environment, ranging from small detail parts to very large (yachts).
For studies, preparing final geometry and for preparing simulation models.
Pros:
Very straightforward to use and allows freedom of design from the start of a project, without getting tied down in setting up the model. Can be significantly faster than other software. Great especially for one off projects where a traditional parametric modelling tool can become cumbersome. Viewing, alignment tools are without equal in other software. Good linking with 2d / drawing package.
Cons:
There are some inconsistencies with some of the features where it is not always simple or straightforward to edit items later. The graphics can be a little slower to display than some competing software.
Ironcad as bases of design
Comments: We are a company that uses ironcad every day with 3 users and we build a lot of custum machines. ironcad is a very fast program and easy to learn for this kind of work
Pros:
We are have ironcad for over 17 years now and also tried other software for 3D design but the best part of ironcad is that you can start a design very easy without using constrains and build up a drawing very fast
Cons:
At the 2D end ironcad can improve in compare to other software like solidworks
