Citique -- Has Alibre lost its way?

[gregmilliken]

No, if I understand the question. Team Design requires that you have at least two licenses running concurrently.

If you are asking about the Team Design Server being used to manage sharing repositories created with one license that is installed on multiple systems, technically I believe it would work. Of course, if this is just one license installed for convenience on multiple systems only one copy of the software could be running at a time.

We have not envisioned this use of the Team Design Server and since we charge for it it may not end up being as economical as purchasing more licenses. We are flexible in doing what we can to expand usage so discuss it with your sales rep and we'll see if there is a solution that makes sense.

 

[indesign]

Thanks Greg,

I understand. Since currently I only have the standard version I have no experience with the repository. I am the only one doing the designs for now but we have looked into a second seat. Having the use of Xpress for the viewing of a part designed has helped a great amount.

I am looking into the options available so I can try to convince the boss on upgrading to Pro. If there was a better option for VM then this may have been done already. The boss sometimes likes to bring up files in his office while talking to customers. Having a local shared repository would help keep mishaps from happening. I could better control who has the ability to change the file among the other things it offers.

 

[Gaspar]

Hello Greg,

During the past 4 months, we discovered the enormous advantage of placing our design files in the Alibre server so our 4 users can participate in different stages of the design work while keeping a unique single copy of the files.

This sped up our design response so dramatically that we were able to make very aggresive commitments with our clients (I could give details if you're interested).

Now, the downside has been that the server has been unavailable for at least 30% of the time freezing the Alibre application while the local client waits for a response from the Alibre server. This freezes happen for 20 minute periods several times a day. (See this post)

The freezes are simoultaneous in start and end for our 2 locations in two Mexican cities and for a third user in Texas. I am taking the time to write this lines while waiting for the Server repository to come back alive.

When the server is up, life is beautiful. Shop calls saying they found a mistake on a part, I open the part (200 kms away from the shop) correct and save it. The part drawing gets printed and sent down to the shop. 5 minute deal and physical distance is vanished from the equation. Also, DSL internet speed is more than enough to work comfortably and efficiently. But I have to say that those random freezes are killing all the advantage making files unavailable at random periods.

As always, support has been dealing with the problem but no solution or even explanation has been issued so far.

So, I'm very interested in using the new Team Design Server. I hit the link that should direct me to the sales rep and got an error. I would appreciate it if you direct me to the right person for inquiries.

As for the normal Alibre server capability, I would encourage you to keep looking into the problem. I can provide indepth description of the sympthoms and if needed, can also participate in tests and experiments. This is a superb functionality that is just not working.

Thanks for posting here !

 

[jwknecht]

Gaspar,

Exactly. The problems with the server at Alibre make the otherwise good thing unworkable. I am working with one client, who wanted to host his repository and make it accessible to myself and one other person doing mechanical design work for their company. When the Alibre server is working, it works (yes, slow at times). But, there have been so many server hiccups that it keeps the client's server offline (and I have to call them ... at home many times to have them reset it).

Finally, the client is getting Alibre server space until the problems can be worked out. At least with this solution, the repostory will be available after the Alibre server comes back up. But, if there continue to be server outages, this will not be perfect either.

I am wondering out loud and in public why a company that began with visions of using the net is not supporting that part of their business model with more support. I see Greg's response, and that gives me hope that the issues will be resolved. I really don't think we need to wait until version 10 for the server issues to be fixed though.

 

[jwknecht]

Sometime since my last post, I have noticed a very remarkable improvement in the stability of the Alibre servers.

Anyone else notice this too?

 

[martin kopplow]

Repository

I'm still quite new to Alibre design. We bought five seats a few weeks ago, and are still getting used to it. We've all been using other systems before, though.

I'd like to do a comment on the online repository:
Management here is not very keen to have our data stored on a server we cannot put our fingers in. It makes them fear things beyond description could happen to our data, and our customers would probably feel just the same. We also signed contracts, non-disclosure in different levels and so on.

For this reason, there is no way that we or other companies like us will ever use the Alibre servers for file storage.

We do, though, like to use an online repository on our own in house servers. That would be a great thing, add flexibility and speed up the design process, plus automatic backup could be feasible.

I heard this is not hard to implement, just copy one or two files to a location on the LAN and you're on you way.

Maybe 'Create LAN repository' should be made a built-in feature of Alibre?


Regards,

Martin

 

[Gaspar]

Re:

Sometime since my last post, I have noticed a very remarkable improvement in the stability of the Alibre servers.

Anyone else notice this too?

Same thing here John. The Alibre server seems a lot more stable.

 

[indesign]

Looks like Greg was good to his word then. I would say this had something to do with Alibre servers no longer working with Alibre 8.0 as well.

 

[jwknecht]

Re:

Sometime since my last post, I have noticed a very remarkable improvement in the stability of the Alibre servers.

Anyone else notice this too?

I hope tonight is an exception, but I feel that I have spoken too soon. Have gone down on designs 2 or 3 times tonight due to Alibre Server issues.

 

[swertel]

I've noticed that I can't change my status any longer. I really wish I could stay online and be busy, away, or show offline.

 

[jwknecht]

Re:

I've noticed that I can't change my status any longer. I really wish I could stay online and be busy, away, or show offline.

Scott,

I am sure that is because you are a Consultant. Because of that, you can change your consultant status while online, but not your username status. I would like to be able to control both too.

 

[swertel]

I haven't been home for a while because of the holiday. Prior to that, I could change my status. Now that I'm back, I can't. Seems to coincide with the "more stable" server.