I read a lot of information about salome as a pre processor and post processor. Basically you can make a geometry create a mesh and then view results.

The GUI is quite simple at start.

Salome 8 Menu and Toolbar

As we start diving into this program we start to see it’s complexity. If we make a new project and open the geometry pane we see myrad of tools.

Salome 8 Geometry

Although the way we manipulate sketches and solids is way easyier in spaceclaim or RS Mechanical 2 Salome is good enough to make parts. I also think FreeCad isn’t the perfect environment since it also has it’s gaps, however between one and the other I am starting to prefer Salome for its interface looks more clean. A good plus in Salome is that I can define veriables and use them when I create features. Then if I want to change anything it’s plain simple, however if I don’t create the variable and link it there is no other way to change it. This point for me could be improved in the future. Since if we need to change something after it’s done its not that friendly to do it with the GUI.

Salome 8_2 Geometry Table

All in all it is a solid CAD modeler that is very usefull and in my opinion far better then design modeler from Ansys and on par with FreeCAD but way behind payed CAD packages like Unigraphics, Solidworks, Creo, Spaceclaim, … Although not as good as these professional packages I think that there is no shame on using it since it is sufficiently powerfull to build and anlyse models and I also question if it is necessary all the power of those heavy weight tools. Maybe if I was allowed to ask something I would ask for more natural part building and part manipulation and selection.