Success Story

Maximizing ROI and Launching a New Business with Alibre Design Software

As someone who likes to keep up with developments in the MCAD software industry, Carr subscribes to several trade publications and scans them for tech trend articles as well as new product announcements. On one such occasion a few years ago, a Desktop Engineering ad for Alibre Design software caught his eye, and he placed an order for a free tryout online. "It was a false start," notes Carr. "Because we got really busy at the shop, I didn't follow through with the trial."

Affordable Solution for New Business

Carr didn't give the lost opportunity much attention at the time. The firm he was working for had a hefty IT budget and a fair number of Pro/ENGINEER and CATIA seats and plenty of projects to keep him occupied. But just over a year ago when he decided to launch Carr Information Services, his own mechanical design consulting firm, he decided to give Alibre's free trial a more serious look.

"I was also considering AutoCAD and TurboCAD," he says," but since I wanted to concentrate on conveyor machinery, I knew I was going to need a good parametric solid modeling tool."

From Trial to Full-Time Use

During his free trial of Alibre Design, Carr was able to complete his first project as a consulting designer. It's clear that part of the reason he was able to reach production-level output so quickly with Alibre Design derived from his broad background of skills and experience with 3D modeling software. Even so, much of the credit, notes Carr, goes to Alibre's clean interface and ease-of-use.

Most engineers, even those with experience with 3D modeling, will go through a period of learning-to-productivity with new software that can stretch out from weeks to months, he says. "I've been through training in Pro/ENGINEER and CATIA that took several weeks. Then once the basics are learned, it might take up to six months to become productive. That wasn't the case with Alibre Design."

The Alibre Design software comes with built-in tutorials that will have designers up-to-speed in short order. Carr also took advantage of Alibre's free online and phone support, noting that he was often speaking directly with Alibre's top brass and product developers. "That kind of one-on-one customer support from the top is unheard of with any other company," he says.

Carr admits that the software's low price at first gave him pause. That was one of the primary reasons he hadn't followed through on his first free trial with the software. But as he used the software in actual production projects, he was amazed at the ROI he was enjoying with Alibre Design in his consulting business.

Fast Return on Investment Critical

"From my experience in the field," he says, "a lot of applications with all the modules attached will run a company up to $20,000 and more per seat. But few of the engineers will utilize more than 10 to 15 percent of the software's features. I could have spent from 5 to 20 times what it cost to use Alibre Design and still ended up using the same features that come with Alibre Design, and are all first-rate."

For his material handling design work, Carr needs to work with sheet metal design, mechanical assemblies, basic component design, and basic shapes. "Alibre Design is strong in all of these areas," he says.

There are areas that Alibre Design is not as strong in, notes Carr, such as surface modeling. But these are not areas that Carr utilizes in his work, and when they do come up, he says, he can do a workaround that satisfies his design needs. Carr notes, "The addition of 3D sketching, 3D B-spline, and improved lofting functionality in Alibre Design 8.0 increased the software's capabilities immensely, making many of those workarounds unnecessary."

Another strong point in favor of Alibre Design, notes Carr, is its native file format. Alibre Design saves files to STEP, so they are exportable to clients no matter what their software of choice. And when he needs 2D plots, in addition to using the integrated 2D detailing in Alibre Design, Carr can export files to DXF for import into other systems like AutoCAD.

One final aspect of Alibre Design might not be one that engineers are accustomed to in design software, says Carr. "It's just plain fun to use." So much so that Carr is putting together a training program using Alibre Design that will be a general introduction to 3D and solid modeling for novice users. Carr is convinced he can develop a program with Alibre Design that will make entering the world of 3D modeling much easier for users -- a matter of days as opposed to the weeks and months required for many other software programs.