I'm soooo hugely impressed with the ability of DS Mechanical and have become quite an expert CAD developer. I worked together with industrial designers on quite large projects and DS Mechanical always stud its ground against the might of the "mainstream design software" that most industrial developers use. Yes it lacks some futures (which is included in the full package) but as-is it is definitely without a shadow of a doubt the best package for quick 3D modelling for the "small guy" currently available....
However ....
WHY is RS not offering the .STEP extensions package anymore? This is the one shortcoming of the software. Its like they (Spaceclaim) are trying to stop us from using the package since it so good that they probably struggle to sell the full package. Why ruin a good thing? Who can afford the full package? My company certainly cannot. Now, I cannot compete against the big firms with their big budgets even though I sometimes feel I have better skills and have better ideas as well.
Isn’t the whole idea of this drive to do just that… Give everyone a way to share our ideas? Without the .STEP or .IGES ability how do we share our ideas?