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Alibre no more:

S

szimmer

Senior Member
Alibre no more:

This forum has been wonderful but our company got Inventor 2008 PRO and unfortunately there is no way I could go back to Alibre. It was a great program but Inventor is at definitely at another level. Of course so is the price! ouch!

Anyway, if anyone knows of a great Inventor forum like this one, please let me know.

Thanks for everyone's help in the past. It was appreciated.

Take care,

Simon
 
Mibe

Mibe

Alibre Super User


I'm curious about the "another level" that Inventor is at. Please inform us and perhaps some of the stuff can be part of Alibre V12 ;)
 
M

mattslay

Member


Dude - I'm going with you... I too gave Alibre a long chance at becoming our modelling tool, but the 2D stuff if so weak I could not bear it.

I have an AutoCAD 2006/Inventor 10 license from years ago, but never really used the Inventor part since I was using Alibre, so I went back to my reseller to get an Inventor 2008 trial, and with 30 minutes I was hooked. There are too many awesome things that it has for 2D drawings that Alibre does not offer, and will not offer for several years, if ever.

Now everyone, don't ask "Oh please tell us how IV is better" and expect me to take the time to argue with you, and listen to you try to tell me how Alibre can do the same things. IT CANNOT!!! You do this... Call a resller, get your own copy of IV 2008 trial (2009 will be out by the end of April), install, play, fall in love with Inventor, get out your checkbook and write a $5,000 check to get a permanent license. It WILL be the best investment you can make, if you are a power user banging out tons of models and 2D drawings weekly!

I promise you, I am writing a $7,500 check to my reseller (AlaCAD in Birmingham, AL) to upgrade my (2) AutoCAD 2006/IV 10 licenses to Inventor 2008 Suite.

I'm sorry Alibre. I tried you for a long time, but in the end, its clear to me what is best FOR US.

Now, for the money ($995 Alibre) is worth that, and for certain disciplines and users it may well suit them, but FOR MY TASTES, IV is worth it to me to spend an extra $4,000 PER LICENSE for that last 10%-15% of 2D power that I want. That's just me, and I'm fortunate to be the decision maker in our company, and fortunate and thankful that we are financially in a position to be so liberal with our money. Not everyone is in that position, and I realize that.

Also, I have one real reason to believe that Inventor will have an LT version for $1,000 when 2009 is released. Might be worth checking out.
 
Mibe

Mibe

Alibre Super User


But it would be nice to hear a couple of things that Alibre can't and Inventor can. That could help Alibre getting better in the future! :)
 
M

MilesH

Alibre Super User
Re:

Mibe said:
But it would be nice to hear a couple of things that Alibre can't and Inventor can. That could help Alibre getting better in the future! :)
Click to expand...

I can think of more than a couple, but I won't be signing up to Megalodesk for them...
 
OTE_TheMissile

OTE_TheMissile

Alibre Super User


Well, it all keeps going back to money vs. capability. Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire doesn't cost that much just because PTI wants it to, it's because they put a TON of hours into giving it enough tools to make it the most powerful CAD program on the market. Alibre is a very budget-minded program, but yeah, it's gonna lack some features because of it. Somehow Google figures they can give away SketchUp for free, but try modeling a new jetfighter to the Army and Lockheed Martin using it.
 
S

szimmer

Senior Member
hehe!

I can only talk about Inventor 2008 Pro and Alibre. I have no experience in any other 3d program.

I guess the big difference that I noticed is how smooth, easy and well thought out everything is in Inventor.

Biggest example would be that i created an assembly in Alibre with about 50 parts or so. Alibre and its memory issues would not allow me to complete the assembly because it kept crashing. It was just too much for Alibre. I was with lots of praying able to export it to a step file and import it in to Inventor. Inventor (on the same computer) handled the assembly without any problems and I could finish the assembly with tubing and cables.

That leads me to the other major advantage that I have noticed in Inventor is the ability to create wiring, tubing and pipes. It just does not get easier than in Inventor. 3d sketch capability is much simpler. It is actually fun. ;)

If you want to look at a specific part in 3d, a cube comes up and you pick which side and it will rotate to that plane.

Fillets work by clicking on the corner and not having to select two lines.

The rendering capabilities are much quicker and quite simple to create an image as large as you want. Exploded assemblies and 2d drawings are clean and easy.

Importing Autocad files work flawlessly. (of course it should since it is Autodesk!)

You can change the color of a feature. Threads are done in about two clicks of the mouse.

In the end Inventor is a MUCH MORE stable, user friendly program. I realize it is SUPER EXPENSIVE but that would be the only negative I see.

I do appreciate the valuable experience that Alibre has given me because when I started out I could not afford Inventor. But now via our company, we have Inventor and I could not be happier.

I highly recommend people try out the latest version and see for themselves.

Simon
 
Mibe

Mibe

Alibre Super User


Hm... maybe this thread should be deleted or at least locked, since it's not a Pro-Autodesk forum ;)

About the stabilty etc., i've actually heard it's the other way around. Inventor is crashing very often and is hard to use. I guess it's a matter of opionion and how well your computer is set up for the task?
 
S

szimmer

Senior Member
hehe!

Yeah, this thread is not very pro-alibre.

Who started it anyway? He should be arrested and sent to Cuba.

:)

Stable? My laptop is average and Inventor 2008 Pro is VERY VERY STABLE.

As for the previous versions, I can not talk about them.

Simon
p.s.
Get a trial version and try it out for 30 days. It will take you 1 week to get good at it then you will not go back to Alibre. I bet you that!

After that last comment, I definitely will be arrested now.

:)
 
S

szimmer

Senior Member
Inventor hard to use?

I ready your message again and thought - hard to use?

If you know Alibre, it is SUPER EASY! Really - just one week!

Simon
 
A

Adam_N

Member


(opinion following)

You know, I own IV 10 but will not install it due to the draconian license agreement Meglodesk has on their stuff now. Not to mention I frankly just don't see as the IV interface as being that much better than AD.

While I agree that AD needs improving, I keep hoping that Alibre will continue to improve the product and soon will have a cost effective package that competes with the mid-range packages. There has been great improvement, but it needs some more tweaking.

Meanwhile, I will continue to use an older package I have until pushed to change or AD comes up to what I hope it will and can become.
 
S

szimmer

Senior Member


The interface is very similar.

As one Inventor rep told me - alibre - oh they did a great job of copying us.

hehe!

I will agree Autodesk is EXPENSIVE and the nickname "Meglodesk" probably has some truth to it but at the end of the day I highly recommend their product to get the job done.

Simon
 
Ralf

Ralf

Alibre Super User


Such discussion are nonsense and very unobjective.
Comparisons are nonsense.

I was 12 years with Autodesk applications tortured.
Never again!
 
Mibe

Mibe

Alibre Super User
Re:

szimmer said:
The interface is very similar.

As one Inventor rep told me - alibre - oh they did a great job of copying us.

hehe!
Click to expand...

Interesting comment from the - obviously - not so well educated reseller. I know they "invented" 2D-CAD for personal computers, but that's it. The rest is copying and acquiring companies like Maya and 3D Studio.

We all now that SolidWorks started the current trend and AutoDesk tried to follow, but it took many years until they finally got there...

Both Alibre and Inventor followed the path of SolidWorks and SolidWorks, kind of, copied Pro/E etc. etc. etc. Why change a winning concept?

Finally, ff you have the money to spend on Inventor, why not go for Catia or UG? It sounds pretty amazing, not to go all the way? 8)
 
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