Alibre Trial

[aepeszel]

Hello

I am trying out Alibre on the trial.
How does it compare to Inventor or Solidworks?
Anything I should watch out for?

Adam

 

[swertel]

Alibre is what Solidworks was to Pro/E when Solidworks first came out.

Alibre Design (AD) is a much less expensive software, but has fewer features than the other two you mentioned. The good news is that the features it doesn't have typically aren't used by MOST users. Granted, power users and certain industries require those additional features, like advanced surfacing for example, but a product line of mostly machined components, AD works just fine.

Best of all, it runs on "gamer" computers which means you can save a ton of money not only on the cost of the application, but on the system it runs on. Plus, you can play World of Warcraft on the same "workstation" you use for design. Pretty sweet deal!

If you really want to know what CAD system is the best fit for you, you need to tell us what it is you do. You can contact me offline if you don't want to publicly disclose any sensitive information but the conversation should remain on eng-tips as much as possible to benefit the entire community.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[aepeszel]

Scott,

I work mostly in mechanical with castings,
plastics and sheet metal. This is more of an
"I'm curious" prospect.

Besides, I feel the more CAD programs I am familiar
with, the more opportunitites there are when I am
looking for a job (God Forbid I need to do that again).

Adam

 

[swertel]

You'll need to look into AD Pro in order to get the sheet metal module. It's not bad, but is hasn't seen the development it really deserves. Alibre, Inc. recently partnered with Adama (I think that's the name). Users were hoping to see more real world manufacturing procedures implemented as features, but that hasn't happened (yet). Instead, you can more easily port your flat pattern to an Adama machine. Solid Edge is currently the best MCAD product with regards to sheet metal design.

Castings and platics - I'm assuming injection molding and consumer products? Consumer products have taken the turn towards nice curvy features that look pretty. AD doesn't have surfacing tools but does have lofting and sweeping to handle MOST consumer products. You can check out Alibre's gallery for some of the free-form shapes made by a non-free-form-shape modeler. But you will inevitably come up with some work-arounds to deal with the missing functionality.

Alibre does have good partnerships with Rhino and FreeDimension to handle free-form design for a total cost that is less than competing mid-range modelers. The problem is dealing with separate software packages, their learning curves, their separate development cycles and thus integration cycles, and other annoyances and inefficiencies of having to use 2 tools instead of one.

If you get the AD trial, or already have it, I am an Alibre Consultant. You can also add me to your contacts list (swertel). Let me know the typical times you are online and maybe we can meet up for a little peer-to-peer review.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[aepeszel]

Scott,

I will drop a line, if anything comes up and
give you my impression of the program. I am
already advanced in regards to SW and Inventor.
Adam

 

[aepeszel]

Scott

I noticed two things and was wondering if it
was just that my AD was a trial issue. Can you
use existing geometry to locate sketch objects?
I.E. dimension off of an existing edge to locate a hole.

Can you initiate a sketch on a face without using
a new work plane?

Adam

 

[swertel]

Yes, you can use existing geometry. It has to be solid geometry - you can't yet link one sketch to another sketch. GRRRRR! You need to "Project to Sketch" first. It would be really nice, and a huge time saver, to be able to skip this step and have the software do it automatically, but sadly that's not the case.

On the second one, not exactly as I think you're thinking. You always need to create a sketch plane - a real plane object. You can select a face and then AD automatically creates a plane on that object. If that is not working for you, it's possible you have a bug.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[aepeszel]

Scott

I'm thinking it might be that it is a demo.
Some items are grayed out and cannot be used
like shell. But I have not gone thru everything
yet.

I think Inventor would let you use sketch geometry
on a second sketch.

Adam

 

[swertel]

Most other MCAD packages allow you to use existing sketch geometry in another sketch. Thus a shortfall of Alibre and a real efficiency killer for me, but I word around it.

Do you have the trial, or do you have an Alibre Express license? The trial should not be feature limited. Alibre Express is. If you need to use some of those features for an accurate trial, get in touch with AD Support to get a 30-day trial license.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro