There is a reason for it: The manufacturing industry is really conservative when it comes to software. Solidworks has been the industry standard for a long time and that prompts adoption the same way Adobe products have been the standard for the visual creative industry.
Solidworks is whitout a doubt the most powerful suite of CAD tools available if money is of no concern. With licenses for the full suite totaling near $100k. They were also the first to seamlessly integrate injection moulding simulation simulation workflows for designing plastic parts.
All of this is hardly relevant for the hobbyist or maker comunities, but it does explain why so many people in the industry tend to touch Solidworks at some point in time.
Whole lots of wrong information there.
I absolutely love Solidworks, but it is hardly the most powerful program if money is no concern. Not even close. It’s bigger brother, CATIA is far more powerful but costs way the fuck more and is a mess in terms of interface and usability.
And I have no idea where you got $100k out of, but that’s ridiculously off. There are a ton of modules to pick from and yearly licensing fees, but a base package starts at roughly $3k and goes up to around $15k.
