Press Release

Alibre and Instructables Fuel DIY Community with Free 3D CAD

Richardson, Texas -- August 14, 2006 -- Alibre, Inc. announced today they are working with Instructables to provide free 3D CAD software along with step-by-step tutorials to the large and growing Do-It-Yourself community. The companies are working together to put the same class of technology used by large manufacturing enterprises and government agencies like NASA into the hands of "do-it-yourselfers."

Instructables is the creation of the partners at SQUID Labs, a group of engineers and inventors from MIT who built the system because they needed a convenient, collaborative system for documenting their how-to projects. The result was www.instructables.com, a step-by-step collaboration system that enables anyone to record and share projects with a mixture of images, text, ingredient lists, CAD files, and more. The goal is to show others how to do things like operate a machine, build a bike, construct a kayak, or basically just show the world how to make cool stuff. Instructables also hosts the Projects section of the MAKE web site (www.makezine.com). In addition to the web site, MAKE is a quarterly publication from O'Reilly and the first do-it-yourself magazine dedicated to the technology enthusiast in all of us.

"3D parametric CAD is really going to enable people to enrich their projects on Instructables," said Eric Wilhelm, Instructables Manager at SQUID Labs. "It's amazing to see what do-it-yourselfers are capable of producing from almost nothing, so imagine what is possible with the same class of software used by large aerospace and automotive manufacturers. Once you get a tool like Alibre Design into the hands of smart, creative people great things happen, and we can't wait to see the impact of widely available 3D."

The new CAD section of the Instructables site enables members to get easy access to free 3D CAD software to enrich their Instructables projects with precise 3D designs and associated 2D engineering drawings. For those new to CAD Alibre will provide step-by-step tutorials and projects on learning the fundamentals of 3D parametric CAD. Alibre will also work with "Makers" submitting actual projects to help them use CAD to improve their projects by including precise 3D designs suitable for manufacturing. With a 3D model created in a system such as Alibre Design, anyone looking at a project can zoom, rotate, measure and manipulate the 3D model and associated 2D drawings to get an in-depth understanding of the project. They will also be able to modify and adapt designs to their specific needs and available parts. All models can also be exported or saved in industry standard formats like STEP so they can be used with any CAD System.

"Free access to professional 3D CAD software and an ongoing source of learning tools is a fantastic opportunity for Makers everywhere," said Phil Torrone, Senior Editor at MAKE. "Alibre and Instructables have made it incredibly easy for anyone to take advantage of this technology to dramatically increase their capabilities and productivity, and the huge turnout at our first Maker Faire earlier this year showed us that a growing segment of Makers are interested in doing just that."

While many projects on Instructables are simple, yet creative, uses for leftover materials or scrap people find in their garage or around the house, a significant percentage of the DIY community are serious hobbyists, inventors, woodworkers and so on, doing real design, engineering and manufacturing. Alibre sees this as a huge, untapped source of innovation and productivity, and the objective is to help foster and grow this creative group by equipping it with state-of-the-art 3D CAD software.

"Our vision is to make 3D CAD accessible to anyone who wants it by making it easy to use, easy to buy, easy to get support, easy everything," said Greg Milliken CEO of Alibre. "As such we've attracted a large number of customers who are also part of the do-it-yourself community, folks who can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on 3D CAD but who are still doing serious work. We've found these people to be extremely resourceful, creating amazing things with very little. Their energy is infectious, so this is fun."

About Alibre

For a free trial of Alibre Design visit www.alibre.com.

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