User Testimonials

Mike Hollingsworth

It's been a couple of years since I personally purchased Alibre Design 5.1 with the sheetmetal extension and I have to say that I did not pursue it (on my own time) in the way I had hoped. But the good news is that my company has invested in a seat of your software and I am back on the learning curve! I have already created a small library of sheetmetal parts and a basic assembly, and I've only put in about 8 hours of work total, in the course of as many days. Being able to flatten some of the sheetmetal parts with the click of a mouse is great, and I will begin setting up fabrication drawings for use in our manufacturing facility. After that, I plan to model a more complex assembly with moving parts and linkages in an effort to demonstrate the "virtual testing" aspect, where I hope to cut down on trial and error manufacturing of prototypes which consume time AND money (today's steel prices being what they are!) My company works very hard at being a leader in the field of bulk materials handling systems, and the people at the helm are recognizing the need to allow Engineering to explore cutting edge opportunities that will help us be more efficient and competitive, and one of those is parametric solid modeling. I sincerely believe that Alibre can and will become a vital tool as we look to both streamline current production and produce innovative new offerings. Thanks again for a stellar product!

Scott O'leary

The Alibre Design CAD product line is of great benefit to the entrepreneurial community, and I would enthusiastically advise any start-up to seek out your products and services. You made putting ideas into reality easy. Whether it is sales followup, product support, or training, you were there when it mattered most - when we needed a little direction, you, not the big guys, helped set us straight!

Erwin Heisler

Since new features were added in version 7 of Alibre Design, the work to modeling, to make drawing sheets and to execute FEA analysis of “Y” branch like this became easier and less time consuming.

Opinder Singh

Ease of learning, being very cost effective & able to accept files created years ago in 2D programs makes Alibre Design a real winner. In fact we are so satisfied with Alibre Design that we have never even considered to take a look at any other MCAD program. Keep up with the good work.

Brian Emanuel

Alibre Design is to 2D cad what CAD was to the drafting table, a quantum leap forward. And I have been around long enough to know. I have been using AutoCad software for twenty years and have never in twenty years been able to produce the type work that I am now producing using Alibre Design 8. Like 90% of the people that I know I struggled with the whole model space / paper space thing, and to this day still do struggle with it. Well, not any more thanks to Alibre I am doing in 15 minutes what took 4-5 hours, actually I’m doing a lot more in 15 minutes then I could ever do in AutoCad. Thanks to all your online and on demand training tools I was up and running in just a few hours, great job! Taking AutoCad off of my computer is going to be like having a mortgage burring party. Please keep up the great work.

Ford Jacobs

Alibre Design has quickly taken our company from the 2D design world into the 3D design world. This has facilitated a huge reduction in design time and greatly reduced design errors. It has also made a very big difference in our company’s image to our customers. With the ability to share our concepts and ideas with our customers using 3D images, our ability to understand and provide the customers exactly what they need has been very much improved. We are tapping into new market areas that we simply could not have competed in before we started using Alibre Design. I am very satisfied with Alibre Design.

John Graham

When I went looking for a solid modeler, money wasn't an object so I went for Pro-E because it would give me every tool I could imagine. But when I tried it out I realized it didn't fit the way I worked. My job requires me to do a lot more than solid modeling so when I saw how complex Pro-E is to work with; I realized I would never have the time to learn it well enough to use all its features. It's not that I couldn't handle the complexity; it's just that it didn't make any sense. I have lots to do already and I need tools that make my day more productive, not less. When I tried Alibre Design, I found the balance between features and convenience I was looking for. I found that what took me 6 hours to learn in Pro-E took me 45 minutes in Alibre Design. But I also found something else I wasn't expecting: unlike Pro-E, Alibre Design works so intuitively that I don't have to use it all the time just to remember how to use it.

Michael C. Barnes

NorhTec produces custom, standalone, embedded computers for a variety of industries. We have successfully used Alibre Design for many of our key projects. Our engineers have experience with AutoCAD and SolidWorks. We have no problems exchanging files with customers or between engineers. Alibre Design was the best of the reasonably priced 3D packages we could find.

Evelio Martinez

SIMCO S.R. LTDA was created in 1998 as an office furniture distributor for the Latin American Market. As part of our growing and enhancement strategy, we developed the Home & Carpenter lines. That's how CRITTERIO was created as a Trade Mark for these Markets. Originally based in Colombia, CRITTERIO is actually projecting into other countries. Technological update has made possible that SIMCO S.R. LTDA became a leader company in the Colombian Market with great potential towards the world Market. Located in the Heart of the Industrial quarters of Bogotá, with a 3000 square meters of production area and high skill personnel with a commitment for quality and on time performance. Design innovation and Quality materials are guarantee of products of excellent quality. We were searching for a 3D CAD Modeler for our design department. SolidWorks was our first option. Then we learn about Alibre Design. With similar options, good technical support, compatibility with AUTOCAD and a better price we can design fast better products to our customers. With Alibre PhotoRender we can create previews before the manufacturing process. Alibre Design is an excellent CAD software for our needs.

Tom McLarnon

We are just a small company but since purchasing Alibre Design last year we are now able to produce professional looking sales leaflets with 3D valve models on the front. These models make the operation of our valves so much easier to follow for our customers and help immensely when discussing problems over the telephone. The support from your headquarters has also been first class when I encountered a problem after upgrading my operating system. Keep up the good work!

Mark Seale

For some time I have been looking for an effective alternative to the Big Boy's in 3D Modeling. In the past 20 years I have rarely used many of the very high-end features the Big Boy's brag about. It is simple, easy to learn and just works, Alibre Design has been the most profitable purchase I have made in years. Alibre has given me a huge competitive edge over my competition.

Rick Stephens Jr

We had no diagrams, drawing, or other technical specifications to build our trailers from. We searched for a CAD package and (luckily) found Alibre Design. It was priced well and performed excellently. Alibre has met and exceeded my expectations, not only as a product, but as a company. We now have 3D models of all of the standard Utility Trailers that we manufacture and should complete the technical drawings within another week. That is 5 unique trailer designs completed. When the drawings are completed, we will be able to hand a set of them to a newly hired welder and virtually walk away. In the past, we have had to use the time of an existing employee to train new welders in the intricacies of how we build trailers. Having these drawings available will increase productivity and save the loss of manpower while "training" a new employee. Thanks Alibre! Building a trailer isn't rocket science, but our trailers are overbuilt to withstand a significant amount of abuse. Many of our trailers are sold to rental companies and they must be able to withstand rough use time and time again for the rental company to receive value. Others are sold to commercial lawn and landscape companies. We have all seen what those trailers go through simply by driving through any suburban neighborhood or business district. I am not a degreed engineer. I started using Alibre Design as a computer consultant simply trying to learn a new "software package". The sales team was outstanding in their level of assistance during the trial period and the support team has not let that reputation down even a little bit. I have never had to wait for more than a couple of hours for a response to any problem I have had, and 98% of the problems that I have had have been of my own creation. The support staff has proven to be highly knowledgeable about the product. They have also shown great patience with a non-engineer and have worked with me to understand engineering terminology and techniques that most users of this product would already have. I cannot give this product and the Alibre staff enough compliments to express my deep gratitude and happiness with them and the product.

Mat Johnson

Dear Alibre, I needed to get into 3D quickly, so I got Hull University (England) to do me a search. Having used Solid Works I was amazed to find the search came up with a package called Alibre Design. I had a quick go; then I bought it. Alibre Design Professional - easy to use - saved me thousands - up and running in hours with very little 3D experience (a bit of midnight oil burnt on the tutorials helped no end) -- brilliant service -- I’m hooked -- what more can I say. Thanks, Mat

Patrick Mullarky

Normally I use Alibre Design for PCB assembly drawings and chassis designs. But, my avocation is model engineering. Alibre Design let me design the engine from various part drawings and see if the parts would fit. There were quite a few adjustments necessary to get a "working model" from the various drawings. The inner cylinders and pistons will rotate to show clearances. (Rotation is very jerky and imprecise...but nevertheless helpful.) I am currently machining the parts from the derived 2D drawings, and everything fits as designed so far!

William.F.Vanderberg Jr

I formally was an Aerospace Employee, for 20 years. And utilized "Catia V4.2" and had approximately 11:000 of Catia Design Time. This system took me approximately 4 years to feel comfortable with. And all of the Improvement rolls at times got to be very time consuming, taking precious productive Design time away from a work day -- actually producing a Capital Loss, by production time loss. Alibre Design has been extremely user friendly and has an Incredible support staff that can accomplish two tasks at once.1. By keeping your Design Moving forward during the Learning curve. But, also sort of an OJT training process at the same time. It’s really a great process and Design system. A Big HATS OFF to Alibre and its support and entire staff. Congratulations ALIBRE!! William f. Vanderberg Jr (Bill) A special Note for Mr. Matt Milliken “who has worked with me .I have enjoyed his professionalism and great attitude! It has made my beginning Alibre experience even more enjoyable! Thanks Matt!

Stephen Fitzgerald

As a former SolidWorks user, I could not believe that Alibre Design could do what it claimed for so little money. After using the demo I was convinced, so I bought the professional version. A few months later I purchased the Algor Mechanical Events Simulation package, and was very pleasantly surprised to see that Alibre Design was integral to that FEA software as well. “That's great,” I thought, “now I do my modeling and analysis in an integrated environment.” Recently, I was visiting a customer who manufactures graphite sporting goods (can't say exactly what, but you have heard of their brands) and suggested that they move from 2D to 3D. Their engineer was skeptical -- thought it would be too hard and too expensive. I showed them the site and they are going to get Alibre Design because of its ease of learning and its low cost. Now we will have round-trip integration from myself to the customer, through analysis and into production drawings. All of the software to do this cost less than one copy of SolidWorks!

Gerhard G. Antony

I used a number of other CAD systems such as AutoDesk-systems, PTC Pro/E and others. Not using the system every day it is important that the system is user friendly and logical so you do not start after 2 weeks all over again. The Alibre Design Video Training CDs are a great learning tool; one can become a "little expert" in no time. We use the system to create custom designs from scratch, for standard product modifications and even to crate marketing material such as posters using the rendering software. We save time during design and modifications and can supply to our customers full 3D models of our products. Here some highlights / advantages of Alibre Design from our experience : Easy to learn, steep learning curve Very straightforward logical approach Excellent parametric design, easy to make design modifications Easy 2D manufacturing drawing generation from the 3D model Great 3D design and 2D drafting, dimensioning features And of course the value Absolutely exceptional user VALUE !!! Keep it up guys I know you will increase the price soon but stay reasonable keep it still a great VALUE.

Eric Scherer

We've been using a high end 2D/3D CAD program for 15 years developing new parts and assemblies for our resin dispensing equipment. The 2/D aspect of our software was good but we had stumbled around with errors and file corruptions with our modeling program long enough. I was finally given the "go ahead" to find a better option. After pricing your competitors I tried Alibre Design and haven't looked back since. Outstanding support and a very intuitive program. Seems more like fun than work! I encourage anyone looking for a modeling program to just give it a try. You won't be sorry. Keep up the good work!

Lucio Oliveira

With the money you pay for Pro/E, SolidWorks, Inventor, etc. you can buy Alibre Design Professional for about 5 designers and, even more amazing, you have your projects complete in a fraction of the time you would if you used these expensive products. You are just wasting money and time if you don't use Alibre Design. I would not have finished my projects on time using other software than Alibre Design Professional. I am sure Alibre Design has far the best cost / benefit ratio when compared to any other modeling software.

James Newman

I was looking for a low cost solid modeler for side jobs ever since I started using a true modeler instead of the old AutoCAD 3Dface and 3Dlines. In 1996 I started using ProE and to me it was a difficult system to learn and not friendly at all. I happen to see an article of a low price modeler that was called the "ProE Killer" for $500 it was called TriSpectives Pro. I demoed it for a couple of weeks then bought it with it's "IntelliShape" technology. The company poured R&D dollars into the modeler and it advanced quickly changing its name to IronCAD. I even became a beta tester. VDS sold the company to Alventive; that’s when all went bad. For 18 months IronCAD release schedule slipped, Alventive pulled development resources off IronCAD and put them on 'Design to Order' web collaboration software. Also the price changed; it went from $500 to $3995 [in 2000] and the maintenance changed from $500 to $1300 and it didn't matter even if you had been with them from the beginning and supported them thru the early years and hard times with no major product improvements coming for 18 month at version 4.2. I ended my relationship with Ironcad. In July of 2002 I ran into another offer for a low cost system, Alibre Design, and was given a money back offer if I didn't like it. I was blown away by the ease of use and the power, just like Ironcad had in its early days, and the tech support is second to none. I've used Alibre Design to help a start up company with the design and patent (pending) of their product. The Glove Keeper, as it's called, has been in this year’s SuperShow 2004 which is the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association yearly forum for SGMA members to bring their products to the retail market. It was very easy to go from the customer sketches to a 3D model, make revisions and create detail views for the production prototype. I'm looking forward to seeing further enhancements in the area of pattern, mirror, emboss & engrave text. Great Job Alibre Staff!!!!

Nicola Pecere

I find Alibre Design really useful. I easily draw complex mechanical solid models that I import in ALGOR Fempro for finite element analysis.

Wim Wagelaar

OmniTek was basically started in 1979 as a company which produced and developed glass instruments for laboratories and chemical industries. Because of a declining market we decided about 2 years ago to make a switch to developing and engineering complete automated measuring equipment for petrochemical and plastic industries. We had already started with a low cost CAD software but it lacked the parametric and sheet metal functions. After a test period last September 2003 we decided to purchase Alibre Design Professional. The learning period was very short and the interface is pretty nice to work with. We immediately started to completely redesign our automated viscosity equipment (see picture) in Alibre Design. This is an instrument with which the oil and lubricant manufacturers/suppliers can determine the oil viscosity very accurately and quick. We were astonished about the functionality of Alibre Design and it gives us the opportunity to do our developing and engineering without investing $10,000- $20,000 or even more. Very much appreciated is also the good data management. In short, we are happy with Alibre Design. Keep the good work going!

Douglas Stone

I use Alibre Design for my own personal projects. I am now learning how to use this 3 D CAD package to help develop a machine that can cut bamboo for fly rods of different tapers. Right now I am learning how to develop parts in 3D for the machine. This machine will be fundamental in making rod blank sections that can be assembled with out a lot of handwork. Most bamboo rods are made in a hex format; 6 sections bonded together make a blank section. This process was developed years ago. A low cost and more efficient machine with higher cutting precision is needed to meet the quality requirements of today's bamboo rod. I selected Alibre Design for my project, since it is a precision, 3D, cost effective tool that has the capabilities to get the project completed.

Mel Dashner

Solid modeling liberated our company. In the past we did all our design in 2D and it imposed significant limitations on our ability to innovate. Now with Alibre Design we can cost-effectively design complex products. Before purchasing Alibre Design, I evaluated several of the traditional solid modelers and found Alibre Design to be much easier to use. We are a small company and as such I will be heavily involved in design for several months and then be involved in other aspects of the business for several months. What I think will be the most valuable aspect of Alibre Design is I can sit down and pickup where I left off several months ago and be up to speed in a matter of hours. I find the intuitive user interface to be very important. Using Alibre Design, I designed a small electro-optical sensor. I was concerned about how all the pieces would fit together and therefore modeled almost all of the parts from key electronic and optical components all the way to the machined and plastic components of the enclosure. I even modeled the Lexan graphic overlays and their adhesive since I had to provide drawings to our vendor. When the parts came back from our vendors, everything fit, just like the model. I'm not sure if our vendors or Alibre Design is more impressive, but I couldn't be happier.

Frank Anderson

I was looking for a tool that could help me design parts for slot machines. I used AutoCAD and SolidWorks briefly; because I didn’t have the time to put into it to learn it efficiently I put it aside. Alibre Design has helped me tremendously in designing bracketry and light box assemblies. By exporting the parts to my vendor I can turn around a SLA in a week for review. Thanks Alibre team for your help and support.

Trygve Holmsen

When choosing a CAD platform for your business you make a decision you will have to live with for years to come. Our company chose Alibre Design Professional after a 30 days trial period. Our main reason for choosing Alibre was the quality feeling of the program itself, being functional, compact and structured. These qualities combined with a reasonable price and excellent end user support made our choice (honestly) quiet easy. When evaluating our investment in Alibre Design after 9 months I feel we have made the right decision for the years to come, providing us with the armament we need.

Pete Burns

I am a one man Engineering Department. Our budget is low and we can not afford fancy priced software. Alibre Design is an answer to a list of wishes. I spent a fair amount of time getting up to speed on AutoCAD LT. But with Alibre Design I, in short amount of time, am modeling 3D parts and assemblies. The drawings are easy once the model is complete. I even did a FEA on a Hook in ALGOR. I am designing some storage racks now. Alibre Design is great stuff!

Lucio Oliveira

I downloaded the trial version of Alibre Design 5.0 about a year ago and the ease of use was so fantastic that I end up buying two licenses: one for personal use at home and another for use at work. I have tried SolidWorks and Solid Edge but it takes so long to learn how to create models with them that by the time I was able to start using them I would have the model done with Alibre Design. Controlling the model with the mouse in Alibre Design -- rotating it anyway I want, zooming in and out, panning -- is so amazing that it cannot be compared with SolidWorks and Solid Edge. Alibre Design is great software, has a great customer and technical supports and great price. If the "others" want to stay in the market, they will have to work very hard and reduce their prices quite a bit. Otherwise in a very short time their names will be forgotten.

John Kubesh

My background is in the development of low emissions engines, particularly those operated on alternative fuels. I was employed at Southwest Research Institute for 12 years, and my design needs there were handled either by hand-drawn sketches for the technicians and machinists, or by members of the engine design group who used Pro/Engineer. In 2003, I left to join a colleague in his small engineering consulting firm that specialized in development of electronic engine control systems. As part of this work, I had to design components for various fuel injection systems and other control actuators. I knew that I should use some form of solid modeling software to design these parts, but I was familiar enough with Pro/E to know it was very expensive and not that easy to master, so I began looking for alternatives. My first try was to use the free Pro/Desktop software from PTC, but it took me a while just to get through the tutorial, and then it was still not that intuitive for me. I next found Alibre Design on a CD on the back of NASA Tech Briefs magazine, and I gave it a try. Within one day I was using it and felt very comfortable with it, so I purchased it. I have used it for many different purposes, such as designing fuel injection hardware, valves, laying out placement of sensors, etc. It is very powerful and easy to use, and the realized value of this software, in terms of product out versus initial investment of cost and training time, is extremely high. Unfortunately, most of my work is for commercial clients and is proprietary in nature, so I am unable to post any images at this time.

Ren Tubergen, Ph.D., P.E.

I used Alibre Design in a pinch to create sound 3D models of a complex roto-molded tank. The tank was to be portable and have the pumping equipment in a cavity in the back of the part. Alibre Design allowed me to design the complex part so that it had a simple open and close mold which reduced mold and part cost. The software allowed for standard IGES output files which the model shop was able to use further reducing mold cost. The project worked out great and created a happy customer for me and another happy customer for Alibre.

Tony Thorne

Our company had utilized Pro-E 2000I for the last few years and it has become apparent that Pro-E - (although a powerful program) is not a casual user program. If models are created to produce a product, we have expectations to utilize that material in presentations, cut sheets, or other marketing / sales materials, but the mechanical engineers would have to extract those materials at a cost of their time. What the company needed was a program that provided a powerful cad package - yet allowed a casual user interface for program managers and application engineers to exploit the work already expended by the engineering department. After several months of reviewing SolidWorks, Pro-E Wild fire, and Inventor 6.0 (now 8.0), we chose Autodesk Inventor because of the built in interface to our existing MRP system and an intuitive user interface. Although some of us were biased towards SolidWorks (past life experience), the corporate decision was made based on performance, cost, and how we move forward with quality systems and MRP. Most important is an intuitive interface for casual users. Unfortunately, those of us with lap tops that travel, provide presentations to customers, etc., would be burdened with a very large chunk of our hard drive dedicated to the modeling program. Only a few weeks after we installed our new Inventor 7.0 package, I learned of Alibre Design and immediately purchased a personal copy for my laptop. As a manger of engineering, I can now import models created from Inventor (via IGES file format) and utilize the expended man-hours of mechanical engineering for other media materials - thereby increasing the value of the R&D process. But as a power electronics engineer with 15 years in the electronics industry, I was extremely impressed with Alibre Design's menu structure, help menus, and especially the network support. After only 30 days, I personally have modeled several parts and now using them in presentations of new product ideas, without expending valuable mech engineering resources on marketing / sales tools. Looking at the power of Alibre Design and the casual user interface, I find Alibre Design a more powerful tool and wished I discovered it a month before our purchase of Inventor. Although the parts I've modeled are still proprietary and cannot post them, I am excited about installing the upgrade with Alibre PhotoRender to maximize the presentation materials for MS Power Point and may share those pictures in the future. Company: Index Sensors has 27 years experience in the design and development of temperature & pressure sensors, and OEM electronic controls that are utilized in off-road and heavy truck industry.

Mike Samorodny

We design passenger BiLevel commuter rail cars at Bombardier. Recently we needed to reinforce a connection between the corner post and roof rail of our car body structure. With Alibre Design, I was able to import the profiles of the complicated extruded aluminum sections from AutoCAD and turn them into 3D models in no time flat. From there it was possible to design the reinforcing tube and the riveted connections and account for all potential interferences before we tried it in production. I was able to build the model in just a few hours whereas finding enough surplus material to assemble a small mock-up took over two weeks. Alibre Design is allowing us to experiment with the power of solid modeling and break out of our 2D confinement at last.

Neil Phipps

I am a sales engineer for a custom injection molder in the Midwest. I use Alibre Design to develop design concepts for my customers. It helps me to sell in a very competitive market. I really like Alibre Design because it is very user friendly. I spend more time designing and less time thinking about what I am going to do next. The learning curve is short and the results are great.

Ed Janssens

I was very impressed with how easy Alibre Design was to learn and use immediately. I tried it out at my workplace and liked it so much that I purchased it for myself and started my own consulting company. Today I use Alibre Design to design products for inventors and designers who are assisted by Federal Funding Programs to get their products to the marketplace. The Alibre Design/ALGOR [Alibre Design Professional] package has allowed me to take a major role in this.

Bob Hunka

In our first project using Alibre Design, it is important to design a circuit board and an enclosure that is of minimum size and is accepted by marketing to be usable and aesthetically pleasing for the customer. Alibre Design allows us to evaluate design variations to fulfill the above requirements and also allows us to create flexibility to add other features in the future. Becoming proficient with new software is never easy but support at Alibre has been helpful and patient. This is an important factor in our success.

Scott Wertel

With the commoditizing of the engineer in the US and the perceived problem with offshoring, today's engineer is ever challenged to find alternate ways to provide for himself and his family. For most engineers, that means doing consulting on-the-side. As I looked into building the financial safety net for my family, I began looking at purchasing the tools necessary to perform my job function. I covered all the well known mainstream CAD packages and came across a little known newbie, Alibre Design, by some young upstart company that thought they could produce a full-featured CAD package at 1/10 the cost of their competitors. Putting on my pessimist hat, I tried the Alibre challenge and failed. Needless to say, I bought Alibre Design and continue challenging it today; and it still passes with flying colors. But starting a consulting business is not as easy as buying the right tools for the job, you also need to network and market your skills. Alibre built those functions into its product. Alibre Design also has real-time support and built in collaboration tools so I can interface with my customers in other parts of the country. From the beginning, my consulting business can be national, not just local. I could not have started my own business without Alibre Design. With Alibre Design, I'm happily enjoying a positive ROI. With the limited time I spend doing consulting, I would barely be able to pay for the software maintenance of other CAD packages and I definitely would not have grown my company as quickly without the networking and marketing tools of Alibre. To elaborate on the challenges I put Alibre Design through, let me first describe what I do. I design tooling, gaging, and assembly fixturing, as well as other mechanical designs and analysis, and have experience with in the aerospace and government/defense industries. As with all industries, safety and lost-time accidents are very serious concerns. The safety of the production line is crucial so my attention to detail must also be. As shown by the attached image, something seemingly as frivolous as illustrating how to tie a lanyard in a specific knot around a cotter pin must be defined.

Teguh P. Soetikno

CAD/CAM/CAE are our specialization at Innovative Design Engineering. Our services: Drafting, 2D to 3D conversion, 3D models for advertising & presentations, mechanical detail design & engineering, prototyping Some of our projects: industrial equipment, steel constructions, marine structures incl. several CALM buoys, automotive part & tooling, furniture, medical & health equipment, chain conveyors, plastic parts & toys, household product to jewelry design Picture submitted (all developed with Alibre Design Professional): Pipe Line End Manifold (PLEM) with 16" pipe, piling anchored to seabed for offshore transferring oil into 35.000 DWT tanker moored to a CALM buoy. Full scale Jet turbine engine model, specifically carried out to test our Alibre Design software!, it can be done and it just looks ... (well, you are the judge ...) Benefit using of Alibre Design Professional for us? You get most of what you need for your project at a very reasonable price. After doing 1 or 2 projects you've paid for the software and still have a handsome profit.

Mika Salmi

With Alibre Design software we were able to cut lead time in half when designing and making products from scratch. Before we did need to build prototype parts and mock ups to be sure everything fits in place. Now we are able start machining parts before we have even receive standard parts from suppliers and in the end all fits in place without any extra work. This image is of our first water cutting machine gearbox we made with Alibre Design. Actually this gearbox was completely designed during the evaluation period of the software. The parts designed during the evaluation period actually paid for the software, this really convinced us to purchase Alibre Design. Thank you!

Frank Rosselli

Frank Rosselli is the Managing Director of Rosselli Engineering Group (www.rengineering.com), a consulting business that specializes in analysis and design for structures assembled with metals, engineered plastics and fiber-reinforced composites. Rosselli Engineeirng serves the transportation, civil infrastructure and various specialty application industries. During the first quarter of 2002, Rosselli established the part-time home based engineering consulting business by incorporating his extensive experience in structural design, analysis and fiber-composites fabrication. The first engineering software purchased was for finite element analysis. Rosselli's familiarity with MSC/NASTRAN made it a simple choice. As Rosselli obtained various contracts during 2002, it became clear that a 3D solid modeling package was a necessary tool for the business. In many cases, Rosselli Engineering needed to interface with client STEP and IGES files. FEMAP (NASTRAN pre- and post-processor) was able to accept these formats; however, it was difficult to modify, and in some cases, simplify various 3D files. The search for a 3D solid parametric modeler was on. The majority of the CAD programs used by my clients were Solid Works or Pro/E, which were beyond my start-up budget. Since Rosselli Engineering applied a majority of its start-up expenses on purchasing NASTRAN, it was only possible to purchase a 3D CAD package that was under $1,000. TurboCAD 3D was the first option that met the budget; however, I came across an advertisement on Alibre Design in the NASA Tech Briefs. While visiting the Alibre website, I read a summary comparing Alibre Design with SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor Series and Pro/ENGINEER. That summary convinced me to download the 30-day demo. I knew right away that Alibre Design would be the perfect match to interface with Rosselli Engineering's clients' solid models and vice versa. Having used AutoCAD (2D wire-frame) in the past, I found the Alibre Design tutorials easy to follow, and was impressed with the graphics and part assembly capabilities. I could not believe how quickly I was able to generate a 3D model! In addition, from creating 3D parts and assemblies, 2D CAD wire-frame drawings were simply created by transferring each view into the 2D environment. Having generated a 3D model of a part, a 2D CAD drawing was only a few clicks away. The following day I purchased Alibre Design and have been very satisfied since. Rosselli Engineering now generates all structural designs in Alibre Design. If a finite element analysis is necessary, the model is seamlessly imported into FEMAP where a finite element mesh is generated. Alibre has made it possible for Rosselli Engineering to afford a powerful 3D solid modeler that interfaces with its clients' more expensive solid modeling packages.

Bruce Boston

Phoenix Scientific Inc. specializes in high accuracy Laser Scanning Measurement Systems, and has a contract to develop a non-scanning "Macrotexture Laser Measurement" System with a sub-millimeter beam diameter to profile the texture of highway surfaces. The measurements will be used to characterize the pavement surface for vehicle tire breaking action and road noise. The primary design objectives are for the system to be low cost, provide high measurement precision, and operate at a data rate of at least 64,000 samples per second. In addition to highway surface measurements, the sensor will have industrial and manufacturing applications where a high data rate non-contact sensor can improve quality control or inspection processes. Previous design work was done on a MAC CAD package that did not provide the necessary capabilities to rapidly design a Brassboard Test Assembly to verify the analysis that was being done by the Optical Design Engineer. Alibre Design was selected as the CAD package to rapidly design a Brassboard Test Assembly and also generate a drawing package of the parts for machine shop fabrication. In addition, the Alibre Design graphics capabilities provided an easy way to exchange mechanical design ideas with the Optical Engineers, and also output graphic inputs to include with Progress Reports. The Brassboard testing is going well, and has verified the Optical Design approach. Alibre Design is now being used to reconfigure the optical components into a compact prototype package in preparation for introducing the system into the market. The attached .JPG graphic shows the Brassboard test assembly with an aluminum plate breadboard, a laser electronics and diode sub-assembly (gold), output and receiver lens sub-assemblies (grey), and receiver electronics sub-assembly (olive green). 80 TPI adjustors (grey in blue mounting bases) were used to provide 6 degree of freedom alignment of the lens sub-assemblies as an alternate to purchasing translation stages for the test.

Mark Will

Alibre Design has provided us a way to add a second seat of a solid modeler within a very tight budget (we were previously using Pro/Engineer). It has been the basis for the design of a new product line -- a set of small, low-cost linear stages. The use of the Repository greatly simplified the process of creating the series of similar parts necessary for different table lengths.

Steve Allen

With traditional 2D MCAD, electronic packaging design is time consuming. Largely it's a drafting task instead of design. With our, so far, limited Alibre Design experience, I can concentrate on the design rather than drafting. Design changes can be made quickly so it makes it possible to evaluate a number of different scenarios.

Jacek Januszko

In the company we work with SolidWorks. I've bought Alibre Design for my private use. Soon I recognized that actually we don't have anything that can not be designed in Alibre Design. The software is definitely the best for its price.

Mike Socha

Automation & Control Technologies, and it's sister company New Century Tool Group design and build special assembly, test, and inspection machines, work holding fixtures, gages, and compression molds. The markets we serve include automotive suppliers, plastic molders, and general manufacturing. Like many other 2D CAD users, I was looking for an affordable 3D CAD package. As a small business owner trying to keep things going in this slow economy, I could not afford the cost of the other 3D software packages that were available. Then I received a demo CD from Alibre. After installing the program and registering for the free trial, I was amazed at how easy it was to get started and produce 3D drawings. The interface is very straight forward and easy to navigate. I was surprised at how easy and painless the transition from 2D to 3D CAD was. With all the new features being added, and the excellent customer service you provide, I know I made the right decision purchasing Alibre Design. Thanks for a great product.

William Carpender

What sold me on Alibre Design was price and support. I was considering purchasing SolidWorks, but after reviewing Alibre Design, I decided that Alibre Design was much more affordable and it allowed me to do basically anything I needed to do. I think with time, Alibre Design will improve to the point that other software manufacturers will realize that they have lost a lot of potential customers (particularly small businesses) because of pricing. I believe the people at Alibre recognize what a real value their software provides and will continue on this course.

Davide Gastaldi

I started my professional career in an important automotive company using Catia 2D, then I used Catia 3D for one year. I know Ansys, Pro/E, and Solid Edge. In 2002 I left the company and, in agreement with other partners, I started to develop a new product on my own. The first step was the choice of a Cad software. On the Internet I found the Alibre site and I downloaded the Alibre Design 30-day trial offer. A pleasant surprise when I launched Alibre Design on my pc -- a solid modeler with excellent performance and low price. I've rapidly appreciated the assembly environment with the constraint utilities. Now, after filing a patent, we are planning to start the production. Thanks Alibre.

Steven McClain

I use Alibre Design while designing large battery chargers and inverters. The exact physical layout of the components has a dramatic impact on quality of the final product. Mechanical, Electrical, Thermal as well as any packaging or other constraints must be considered for each component in the design. Alibre Design allows me to visualize the exact physical topology of a new product. This lets me examine many potential layouts to select the one to build. After choosing a candidate build I then fill in more detail until I can create a set of drawings for the parts that need to be fabricated. Alibre Design then generates all of the drawings needed semi-automatically. Alibre Design is the first program of its kind that I have ever used. I have some 3D CAD experience and I found the learning curve fairly quick. I was creating parts in a few hours and after 6 months there are now over 300 parts in the repository.

Richard Walborn

Before getting Alibre Design and PhotoRender, I did all my designs using 2D CADD. My previous employer had a designer using Pro/E so I was a least familiar with 3D CADD. However, since starting my own business there was no way I could afford Pro/E or SolidWorks. I tried the free demo and at once thought the price was right. It was worth every dollar I spent. Now I use Alibre Design for all my design needs. I use Alibre Design with Alibre PhotoRender to develop concepts that I can share with my partners, clients, and vendors and get their feedback. I use the 2D CADD output, to send detailed drawings to our vender in China. The image is one of our speakers systems.

Ean Schiller

When first reading the ads for Alibre Design I was skeptical...but curious. At the time I was pricing other CAD packages and didn't see how Alibre Design could possibly compete on that level for 1/10 the price. So, I tried the demo, was impressed and ended up purchasing Alibre Design. As for support, although I've only used the online assistant once, my question was answered very quickly. Free live support is a great idea! When asked about Alibre Design my answer is always, "See for yourself - try the demo." Alibre is an innovator in the industry and I hope they keep up the good work.

John Mascarenhas

Two weeks into Alibre, (and not having received the training disks), I was able to model this centrifugal fan in less than three hours and produced the shop drawings with a minimum of effort. Please keep the improvements coming. When can we expect to see more advanced features - such as mirrored assemblies, shell/rip/unfold/fold and fold/unfold of sheet metal ducting transitions? Also, is there any way to filter a BOM to show only the 1st, layer of an assembly (without all the parts of sub-assemblies being listed or ballooned)?

Kevin Carpenter

Optics tend to be simple parts, and similar parts are designed again and again. The parametric method of design and drawing generation, where a new part can be specified by changing a few dimensions on an old part, is a stupendous labor saver. I can archive highly generalized parts; like a biconvex lens, achromat, or spacer ring, each with its associated drawing; then produce a specific part in a few minutes. I can spend the client's dollar in high-value raytracing rather than low-value document generation. And Alibre Design gives me all the bang I need for the minimum buck.

Tore Kvande-Pettersen

I am still rather new to Alibre Design. I do some knife related work. Main products are knife sheaths and holsters made of thermoplastics (Kydex). I do also make custom order modifications of knifes. This work includes making new handles. I use Alibre Design to make a model (part) of the customer's knife blade. Based on this model I make different suggestions on handle design based on the customers input and what is possible to fit on the blade. Send this as a PDF file to the customer, receive feedback and within a few emails I have the handle design ready. The drawing from the model is then used to make the jigs that I use for routing the handles. The advantage of using Alibre Design is that it is so fast to use for this work, the customer gets a good impression of the finished product, and the drawings speeds up the process with actually making the handle. I expect to use Alibre Design to other more complex projects; anyway it has already proven very useful.

Lawrence Henry Berg

I had a local (across the street) world class semi-retired injection mold making guru quote making our next mold. I was surprised that he quoted me $800 to make the drawings for my approval, and $10,000 to make the mold. I had already deposited $5,000 with him thinking the mold would cost about that much so was surprised that he wanted double what I was thinking. So I did some searching on Google and discovered a shop in California (which I assumed would be way more being in the big city and us being located out in the woods of southern Oregon) and was flabbergasted to learn that it could be done for only $5,000 but more importantly the man said that if I would provide him with "solid" drawings that he could do it for half that price! Wow, you see the drawings done by our local world class mold maker were simple 2D AutoCAD drawings. So I asked the guy in California where I can get a "solids" program, he said look for SolidWorks or Alibre Design. I found Alibre Design on-line and was once again flabbergasted to learn I could download it, and run it for 30 days on trial, and own it for only a few hundred dollars. I was so happy and amazed I just Paypaled the full amount to them (or was it via ??) but basically, it pays for itself the first time it's used. In 1986 I paid $3,000 for AutoCAD version 2.5 and upgraded it for years at many $hundreds per upgrade, but when I semi-retired for a few years and then decided to go back into my one man business, and wanted to upgrade my AutoCAD that I spent half a lifetime learning, because the version I had would not even load into today's machines, ha, what did they say to me? NO UPGRADE PATH! Ha! I'll go to my grave remembering those words. It's the end of the upgrade path for me, so I'll try my best to see that it's also the end of the upgrade path for AutoCAD the company! I'm betting on Alibre to take me the rest of the way, even though my path is small and slow, when I invest my life in learning to use a tool, I want the tool to be there when I need it. With Alibre's solution we will be able someday to tap our engineering guru resources all over the world for mold design help. Right now our Pfranc in Israel is designing our next mold. The last mold we had made in mainland China for $1500. Yeah, the same one that the guy across the street quoted $10,000 to make! No kidding. If Alibre can charge customers based on actual usage somehow someday, and convince people they are investing in something that will support them even when they are old like me, ... they will own the CAD/CAM world and we can kiss the ACAD guys goodbye. When we set out to learn a new powerful tool we are investing in the future. Investing our lives in the future that we don't know what it will be. Will we be successful and have 50,000 employees or just 1 or none. Regardless, no matter which outcome - we will still need the tools we learned to use! To be left with NO UPGRADE PATH is the end of the road for an old engineer. I think people will come to realize (sooner or later) that the ACAD path (and others like them) could be the short path to a grand canyon.

Gaspar Acevedo

At Magove, we build custom designed production machinery, welding cells and quality check devices mainly for the automotive industry. We may be building a bagging machine for dog food, a machine tool for a lubrication groove on a crank bearing and a robotic welding cell for exhaust tubes all at the same time. In this ever changing environment, it’s easy to see that we are never experts on our client’s particular production process because we change processes from one job to the next. This situation makes project reviews and client involvement a critical part of our business success. We used to design using 2D Cad software and it was almost impossible to make our clients review us during the design stage. Reviews happened mostly during early construction and commissioning stages with very high associated costs. We thought about using 3D software a number of times, but the high cost of a license + training, and the time needed to get productive with the new tool kept us from taking this step. A year ago, we contacted a CAD consultant, who is proficient in all the major CAD packages. He studied our case and spoke to us about Alibre Design suggesting it as a great entry level tool. Today, we own 3 Alibre Design seats and will be buying one or two additional seats next year. We are now pretty much involved in 3D modeling and I can definitely say that the consultant was wrong, Alibre Design is not just an entry level tool, it may well be all you'll ever need. We didn't only improve client involvement with Alibre Design, but we also improved involvement from our internal design team in reviewing and brainstorming projects in which not everyone was fully involved. At first, we thought we'd use Alibre Design just for projects where 3D was mandatory, but it didn't take us long to realize that we could drop 2D for good. Getting started was extremely quick (and fun) thanks to the professional and friendly attitude of the support staff. Last, it’s impressive how many new features have been added to the software in one year. We started using V5.0 and, of course, had a wish list for enhancements we would like to see. Today with V7.0, that wish list is mostly obsolete. Updating is totally straight forward. I would surely recommend Alibre Design to any one in my field.

Vaughn Power

Alibre Design has allowed me to reproduce a full 3D assembly model of our lubrication system. I had already completed a similar design using Mechanical Desktop but was surprised to find that I could complete an entire new design in about half the time using Alibre Design. I have had some growing pains while learning Alibre Design but the technical service has been outstanding. They never seem to give up on any problem I throw at them (service techs). I definitely would like to make a short wish list for the next release but overall my experience has been very good.

Erwin Heisler

I was encouraged to use Alibre Design (3D tool) because of its low price with support (on-line help). And the support works fine. The process to learn Alibre Design was very easy. Much easier than I thought [it would be]. The time to make a design and a drawing sheet was drastically reduced comparing to a 2D tool, with the advantage to work in an integrated environment which simplifies corrections and changes on the design. I'm using Alibre Design to design hydro mechanical equipment. I have two main goals to achieve with Alibre Design: 1) Design parts and sub-parts of components of gates, trash racks, penstocks and other equipment. 2) Design complex parts of gates, penstocks and quickly export the design to analyze his mechanical behaviors with FEA software.

Wes Kelly

For about three decades I've worked in trajectory analysis, flight control systems and propulsion for aerospace vehicles. In aerospace, engineers face the choice: become more specialized -- or more of a generalist. Working on preliminary design in small groups or on my own, especially with Triton Systems, the choice is made for me by the need to integrate my work with colleagues in other disciplines into an overall design concept. In doing a trajectory analysis, an engineer can [estimate] how large a launch vehicle a space mission might need, but there is still the matter of laying out the propellant tanks, wings and control systems. When it comes to placing electronic boxes on a flight deck or wheels in a wheel well, there is no alternative, but to make a concept drawing so that the use of space is evident to all. What's more, almost every issue about a vehicle's build up is subject to a trade. It is not simply a matter of building one part; it is also a matter of trading them out in the overall design (or should I say "assembly"), and study the effect. This could be mass properties, structural or thermal loads, moment balance or cost. Currently, with much interest in small, commercial space projects (e.g., X-prize vehicles or successors cheap access to space, "space tourism") small groups of engineers are scurrying to find inexpensive means to do Computer Aided Design. My conclusion: Alibre Design is the way to go. Prior to working with Alibre Design, my previous drawing efforts evolved from hand sketches, "cut and paste", to two dimensional drawing products such as "Canvas"; but when it came to 3-dimensional drawings, I was stymied either by the cost of genuine CAD packages or the ineffectiveness of basic products available on commercial shelves. With Alibre Design, I discovered a product that addressed my concerns. 1. It was within my budget to get started. 2. I could teach myself to use the product to a large extent and 3. When I got stuck, there were several means to communicate with help desks or user groups. 4. Coming from a non-drafting or CAD background I was able to make immediate headway. 5. The part, subassembly and assembly structure was a valuable tool in conducting trades or doing variations on basic designs. 6. The potential to do direct finite element analysis on resulting designs is great and I look forward to tapping it. 7. The Alibre team is listening to my customer feedback. As a result of using Alibre Design, I have a means to showcase a reusable launch vehicle concept for interested parties as well as an analysis tool that rounds out the development effort.

Roland Cozzolino

Prior to Alibre Design I was continuously using 2D CAD in an attempt to visualize detailed furniture design. It would become increasingly difficult to modify my designs when dimensions needed to be changed. While I recognized a need for parametric CAD, all other applications were much too costly for me. Alibre gave me the opportunity to use an affordable, powerful and professional parametric CAD application. Not only has it saved me design time but it drastically reduced mistakes and offered my clients the opportunity to see the finished product before a single piece of wood was cut.

Bryan J Dinteman

In the past year DDC has been branching out of high technology products into the agricultural equipment market. This added a new requirement for a reasonably efficient mechanical modeling package that is capable of file sharing with fabrication houses, particularly in the area of cutting and bending metal plate components. The tools from Alibre proved to be exactly the right combination of price, portability and functionality. Our initial entry in the farm implement market is quickly approaching production status as related intellectual properties are being placed under suitable protection. During the prototype debug stage, switching to Alibre Design reduced prototype error and improved turn around times by allowing us to better communicate with the extended network of contractors employed by DDC, sharing conceptual efforts and efficiently reducing them to practice. In addition, some top-end instrumentation projects have benefited by our improved ability to quickly model suggested structures and pass the files to thermal and materials design contractors.

Kevin Nelson

I started a new position with this company and the job content involves customer support and manufacturing engineering. We have an electric motor assembly line and the techs use common alligator clips to attach the power leads to the motors. This is a hazardous electrical voltage condition. As a new employee with this company, I was directed to develop a corrective action. The challenge was to achieve a workable design for all motor size variations, which amounted to (4 motor sizes) X (2 terminal block sizes) of different combinations, not to mention all of the "secret" variations & limitations told to me by the line technicians. A review of the market offered no good solutions, so I decided to design a common plug with a series of adapters. My CAD experience evolved along the path of AutoCAD, AutoDesk Mechanical Desktop, AutoDesk Inventor, then finally to SolidWorks. This background convinced me that a tremendous time saving would be achieved if I had a solid modeling CAD program for this project. The company's needs for customer support to this point had only required the use of AutoCAD. Upgrading to a mainstream solid modeling CAD package would be a difficult economic, logistical, and political challenge without suitable justification. I decided to use the trial Alibre Design to design the family of connectors. The picture shows the connector concept. I was able to immediately transfer the modeling techniques from my Inventor & SolidWorks background to Alibre Design. During the course of the project, I only consulted the Help files about a dozen times or so. I found Alibre Design to be quite intuitive and easy to use. Alibre Design does not have the massive user-customization capabilities that come with SolidWorks (e.g., customizing pallet color schemes). But I found this to be an advantage in that it made for a package that was simple to use. I especially appreciated the built in power and ease-of-use when it comes to dimensioning drawings. My design did not use any kind of sophisticated lofty-swoopy curved surfaces, so I cannot attest to that functionality. But for straight-up, run-of-the-mill machine component design I think Alibre Design is an excellent tool. During the course of my project I was doing outside work at home on SolidWorks and I kept wishing that SolidWorks was as easy as Alibre Design. Along with a trend of customers to more frequently request solid models of our products, my internal job requirements clearly dictate a need for an effective solid modeling CAD tool. My experience with Alibre Design is exceptional and I have proposed to management that we purchase Alibre Design.

Carl Breathat

We at TECSAR use Alibre Design mainly for creating solid models to import into ALGOR for finite element analysis. We recently completed an analysis for a complex casting of a wye fitting. Previously, before we had Alibre Design, we would not have been able to model and analyze this component and would have had to perform a destructive burst test on an actual fitting to satisfy regulatory requirements. Our ability to model this item saved our client more than ten thousand dollars and has lead to more similar projects for us.

Dennis Furlow

We have been able to create nicer drawings with ease than with our previous cad system.

Jeff Mitchell

I switched to Alibre Design Professional from an ACIS based CAD system 3 months ago. There were several reasons that made this product attractive but initially I was interested in higher reliability for exporting my designs to FEA programs. During a phone conversation with an ALGOR representative he recommended Alibre Design, so I downloaded the trial. I found the interface very intuitive and the learning curve short. I have since become enamored with the collaborative design features and hope that this product might help me leap some of the language hurdles present with our overseas manufacturers. I anxiously await the alternate language versions of Alibre Design. This solid modeler fits my needs and it's a super value.

Daniel Wisehart

The mechanical design for our digital camera for astronomy was several weeks behind schedule. Working in SolidWorks the design was crawling forward. We needed to add another seat to redouble our efforts, but the price of SolidWorks was prohibitive. Fortunately, one of our engineers subscribes to the NASA Tech Briefs e-mail newsletter. In one of those issues was a short story about Alibre Design including its low price. In short order the engineer downloaded a copy of Alibre Design, imported the work that had been done in SolidWorks and finished the design by himself in less than two weeks. Not only did the work proceed more rapidly in Alibre Design, the software is inexpensive enough that we can afford to buy multiple copies.

Mike Nash

I think that Alibre Design is the most user friendly software I have ever had the pleasure to use. We have gone from drawing all our parts in 2D and moved into the world of 3D with absolutely no training because of how simple Alibre makes it. This is a picture of a platform assembly that I drew in Alibre Design the second day I had the software. Thank you Alibre for the Great product and the Excellent Customer service.

Thomas Ulrich

We started using Alibre Design about 5 months ago to model our aluminum framework for remote site solar power systems. In the past we utilized various 2D cad systems including AutoCAD LT. Once we started using Alibre Design we found interface issues with various components allowing us to correct them before manufacture. We also can provide illustrations for our manual and advertising pieces from any desired perspective. Not having any experience or proficiency in 3D CAD or design was not a problem as the Alibre support, through the "Assistant" or through the tech support lines when needed, has been outstanding.

John Wheat

I am a one man consulting business and had been evaluating another product but the cost was just too prohibitive for my budget. When I found out about Alibre I could not believe the price. I downloaded the 30 day trial and within 10 days I was convinced it was a great deal and purchased Alibre Design Professional. Within one week of use, I was confident enough to commit a new design project to use Alibre Design. I continue to be amazed at the service I have received. Being from the Dallas area, I have had the opportunity to meet most of the people at Alibre and I am very encouraged by their professional attitude and dedication. I can, without hesitation, recommend Alibre Design to anyone.

Bob Grobolsek

Being a custom metal fabricator, we have to have the flexibility to design and build products on the fly. Using Alibre, we are able to get our concepts to our customers faster, update that concept with any changes, and then build, in a much shorter amount of time.

Chris Herkey

I have been using a 2D/3D CAD package for the past few years but I had reached the limit as to what I could do with it. I generally do sheet metal design and the CAD tool didn't seem to be heading in a direction with mechanical design in mind. I was having problems communicating with customers and vendors because of file format mismatch and drawing clarification. I felt it was taking 2 - 3 times longer than it should to design and modify a design. All of this changed when I finally made the switch to a so