What’s the state of mechanical engineering Software tooling / infrastructure On Linux and UNIX-like operating systems? I know Solidworks and AutoCAD are primarily Windows-based software, with proprietary data formats like .SLDPRT/.SLDASM (Solidworks Assembly) and high vendor lock-in. Why haven’t we seen greater adoption of scriptable, composable utilities (like a finite element analysis simulation) that might enable better horizontal scaling and commoditization of complements? Is it because hardware and mechengr is capital intensive already and high capex on software is justifiable? Seems to me like a first principle (software is free to copy) just waiting to be executed on.
Might make entry into otherwise moaty markets like aerospace a bit easier.
Aerospace was the earliest adopter of standard CAD data formats (ISO 10303 [1]) and the current development is mainly funded by Boeing and Airbus. You could build something on top of Open Cascade Technology [2] if you want an open source solution, BRL-CAD supports STEP too.
FreeCAD is not bad and used pretty extensively by the 3D printing hobbyists. It's nicely script-able with Python.
However, from my experience, it's still nowhere near the level of polish that e.g. Solidworks has, so professional work is still primarily done with non-Free tools.
I have no direct information, but I'd imagine the big aerospace companies have significant proprietary internal tooling, specialized to their own work flows and IP.
Might make entry into otherwise moaty markets like aerospace a bit easier.