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Value, power, ownership, ease-of-use, and flexibility. Just a few of the many reasons businesses love Alibre.

Verified 3rd Party Reviews

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Darrell H.

Owner / Mechanical Engineer
⧉ Full Review
"Value and cost effectiveness are unmatched in the industry. I would be less productive and less profitable with any other software. Alibre Design Expert allows me to make 3D models and 2D drawings for my mechanical design project that accurately communicates all the proper and relevant information to the many machine Shops that I work with. Also, allows me to make excellent Proposal and Informational PDF files (3D and 2D) for my Customers. I own the software. No Internet Connection Required to operate it. Can run it on more than one device. No Annual Subscription Fee. Very reasonable maintenance pricing. Outstanding capabilities."
Darrell also considered:
SolidWorks Premium, AutoCAD LT, Inventor and CATIA
Darrell's ratings:
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Martin H.

Owner / Engineering Consultant
⧉ Full Review
"The biggest selling point for me was this was quality 3D CAD software I could own. I have used Solidworks, Creo, OnShape, and AutoCAD all of these packages are subscription. To own and maintain Alibre Design Expert is a fraction of the cost of those rental packages. I use my Alibre Design Expert software daily, I have been able to successfully model everything I used to do with the more expensive rental CAD packages. For a small start up business, Solidworks, Creo, and AutoCad were completely out of my price range. I strongly considered OnShape, but it was a subscription. Alibre Design Expert allowed me to own this software."
Martin also considered:
Onshape
Martin's ratings:
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Joseph K.

Engineer
⧉ Full Review
"I was an avid SolidWorks user and the shift from SolidWorks to Alibre was a short learning curve. It has many of the same features as Solidworks at a competitive price. I like that the license is perpetual unlike the subscription base that other providers are moving to (please don't take that away). Assemblies and mating has come a long way since I first started using. Assemblies are now easy to accomplish. I like that there are frequent updates from Alibre that are always adding features and enhancements. I look forward to receiving the next update announcement."
Joseph switched from:
Solidworks Premium
Joseph's ratings:
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Eron S.

Designer - Maritime
⧉ Full Review
"The software works well for quickly trying out ideas and producing parts that can be manufactured. I use it for checking fitment of our product in different installation environments. Easy to learn and use yet has the depth of features needed for advanced/complicated models and plans. The part and assembly modeling tools are excellent. The drafting/drawing tool is also good and makes it easy to create exploded views and link BOMs. The option to purchase a permanent license made the software more affordable than the alternatives. The support subscription has been affordable and worthwhile because the developers are continuing to make improvements to the software. There is a good support community and user forum."
Eron also considered:
AutoCAD, SolidWorks Premium, Fusion 360 and AutoCAD LT
Eron's ratings:
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Benjamin B.

Engineer - Industrial Automation
⧉ Full Review
"We needed a modern 3D CAD solution for product design. Alibre Design has provided a robust 3D design platform with fully functional 2D CAD to produce drawings for fabrication. The customizable and sharable material and thread libraries have enabled rapid part and equipment design. The ability to move licenses as needed has been very convenient. Value for the cost of the software. Alibre Design is a fantastic product for the price."
Benjamin also considered:
SolidWorks
Benjamin's ratings:
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Anoop N.

Operations Manager
⧉ Full Review
"We had files and designs from a Contractor who used Alibre. The pricing was very attractive. Alibre Design has the all the basic features for someone doing basic product design and System integration design. I enjoy using Global Parameters, Scripting and Configurations. Makes my designs modular and configurable. And, it has great Value for money!!"
Anoop also considered:
SolidWorks Premium and Onshape
Anoop's ratings:
Overall Rating
Ease of Use
Customer Service
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Value for Money

Christopher P.

Owner
⧉ Full Review
"I bought Alibre in 2010 and found that it was easy to use and the cost was perfect for me at the time. I liked that at the time it came with many features. The new versions seem to be becoming more feature rich allowing me to do more things at an easier and fast rate. The price is wonderful and allowing for more progress through management is important. The integration of Keyshot is a wonderful addition."
Christopher also considered:
SolidWorks Premium
Anoop's ratings:
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Bradley B.

Owner
⧉ Full Review
"I have used Alibre Design in its most capable version since the very early 2000's and find it quite adequate for my needs. I have a limited budget and although the scripts/automation of some operations found in more up scale products are useful and convenient they are also expensive. I would rather spend the extra time to manually do these things than spend the money for automation. Similarly some of the more advanced functionality would be nice but I rarely have need of those sorts of things and can usually find a work-around. FYI- I am a machine design engineer with decades of experience and in the past I have used both Solid Works and Solid Edge in the most capable version available at the time and each for a period of years. During the periods where I used different design software I also used Alibre Design concurrently for personal projects."
Bradley also considered:
SolidWorks Premium
Anoop's ratings:
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Julian K.

Engineer - Automotive
⧉ Full Review
"Communication with both suppliers and end users of our products has improved immensely. Alibre Design is a whiz for producing 3D printer files quickly and for making big and small changes to designs very rapidly. Excellent on-line tutorials a great help when starting out. Moving over from an antiquated 2D draughting package was nowhere near as painful as anticipated. I love the way I can insert 3D shaded views into manufacturing drawings. I do not get any calls from suppliers unable to interpret our drawings. It is so quick to use I will produce workshop sketches in Alibre rather than use a notepad and pencil. I'm proud of the drawings I present to customers. Although I do keep the software updated yearly, it is very comforting to know that if I'm forced to stop paying, Alibre Design will not stop working, thus your licensing model works very well and is fair."
Julian also considered:
SketchUp and SOLIDWORKS
Julian's ratings:
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Steve S.

President
⧉ Full Review
"Alibre had 95% of the same functionality for much less money, and communication with the company is much better. We also found that, once we got used to the new product, Alibre was a bit faster. Alibre is a reasonably full featured 3D modelling system that equals most of the functionality of much more expensive and well known modellers at a much more approachable price, particularly for small and medium businesses or private individuals. Note that I said it equals MOST of the functionality--Alibre does not have CFD or FEA packages as many of the Cadillac systems do. On the occasions wherein we need those operations, Alibre does a fine job of exporting common CAD file formats that will import into CFD or FEA software without issue. With that said, Alibre covers all of the other bases for parametric modeling in a reasonably easy to learn environment that is fairly efficient and has a good workflow."
Steve's ratings:
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Abhijit S.

Independent Contractor
⧉ Full Review
"As a solo young Independent Industrial Design, Design Engineering & CGI Contractor, working with many softwares in their pipeline including Mechanical CAD, Simulation, 2D Raster/Vector/Publishing, Mesh CAD DCCs, Animation and Visualisation tools, the costs can ramp up very quickly. To add to that, very few today offer perpetual licenses which is better as with Saas the data, software and access is controlled by company whose pricing, policies can change anytime. Alibre Design for me was a Professional MCAD software with amazing feature sets, very generous pricing and very flexible and pocket friendly upgrade options. Using Alibre, I am no more anxious about missing maintenance and paying huge costs or upfront overpriced licensing fee which is not solo contractor friendly. The modelling tools are great, the features match upto competitor mid-tier MCAD with 3x the price. The best part is the Company, their philosophy, being customer centric and the amazing community around this amazing tool. I could not have wished for anything else and I am very positive my relationship with Alibre Design is going to be very long term."
Steve's ratings:
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Michel M.

Industrial Designer
⧉ Full Review
"For the last 16 years, I produced hundreds of parts that have been fabricated in many shops for many customers. I sent hundreds of STEP files for laser cutting, bending, moulding, extrusion and I never had a supplier complain about the quality of the part files. Alibre really gave me the performance I was expecting. When I first decided to learn 3D after 20 years of 2D on Autocad, I decided to buy Alibre in 2006. The purchase price and the maintenance cost were my main motivations when I compared with a big alternate software. I have been a serious user for the last 16 years and I have no regret about my decision."
Steve's ratings:
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