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Differences between Alibre and other CAD, Fusion etc?

bigseb

bigseb

Alibre Super User
I looked into Fusion some time ago (maybe a year or so) and it looked pretty interesting. Price was good too. But I still feel that a system that cheap won't be able to keep up in a manufacturing environment. That just seems too incredible. Again, the offer stands to anyone fluent in Fusion to test one of my files. Who knows... it may surprise us all...

But after all that is said Fusion is still an Autodesk product. And when I hear Autodesk I leave. Not a company I would like to support tbh.
 
Alexander

Alexander

Senior Member
bigseb said:
But after all that is said Fusion is still an Autodesk product. And when I hear Autodesk I leave. Not a company I would like to support tbh.
Click to expand...

Well said !
My experiences with Autodesk have been costly, they are a company in trouble and have no interest in their customers. See the following link and other posts by Steve Johnson:
https://www.cadnauseam.com/2017/05/19/a ... of-losses/
Also check out this forum for disgruntled customers (me being one of them):
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/moving-t ... /bd-p/2017

I purchased the product design suite which includes Inventor 4 years ago (£5500) due to pressure from clients and I thought they were the industry leading CAD software vendors. How I was wrong and at the time I was perfectly happy with Alibre.
Yearly maintenance was £1200 with which you got minimal updates/features with many bugs and unstable software. They are now committed to the rental model and do not want perpetual owners, so much so they are increasing perpetual maintenance by 30% over the next 3 years!

For Fusion they have been developing extensively for a few years and believe me they will change the pricing and/or usage rules which will sting the users whilst having a firm grip of your chuckies, if you get what i mean.....
I stopped paying my maintenance this April and have the latest 2018 suite which I have replaced with, Alibre, Bricscad, Rhino 3D and Vray. I refuse to use my Awfuldesk software unless specifically requested by a client.

Rant over.....
 
bigseb

bigseb

Alibre Super User
Alexander said:
Also check out this forum for disgruntled customers (me being one of them):
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/moving-t ... /bd-p/2017
Click to expand...
This made for interesting reading. This one comment stood out (directed at Autodesk Support):

So when will the changes stop? You can clearly see this is a one sided business relationship. It reads like this, "Put all your intellectual property in our files and have no guarantee what the price will be next year to access them" You are well aware of the fact once files are in a subscription plan you have even more leverage over the customer. Is that a proposition you could make to any other customer in another industry?
Click to expand...

I hope all the Fusionites here are paying very close attention!
 
nvanlaar

nvanlaar

Senior Member
bigseb said:
I looked into Fusion some time ago (maybe a year or so) and it looked pretty interesting. Price was good too. But I still feel that a system that cheap won't be able to keep up in a manufacturing environment. That just seems too incredible. Again, the offer stands to anyone fluent in Fusion to test one of my files. Who knows... it may surprise us all...

But after all that is said Fusion is still an Autodesk product. And when I hear Autodesk I leave. Not a company I would like to support tbh.
Click to expand...

Meh... We get it. Some people don't like Autodesk, Just like some don't like SW/Dassault. Whatever. But it is still quality software. Give me a file and tell me what you want. It will probably be more of a test of my skill than the software's limits/abilities.
 
bigseb

bigseb

Alibre Super User
nvanlaar said:
bigseb said:
I looked into Fusion some time ago (maybe a year or so) and it looked pretty interesting. Price was good too. But I still feel that a system that cheap won't be able to keep up in a manufacturing environment. That just seems too incredible. Again, the offer stands to anyone fluent in Fusion to test one of my files. Who knows... it may surprise us all...

But after all that is said Fusion is still an Autodesk product. And when I hear Autodesk I leave. Not a company I would like to support tbh.
Click to expand...

Meh... We get it. Some people don't like Autodesk, Just like some don't like SW/Dassault. Whatever. But it is still quality software. Give me a file and tell me what you want. It will probably be more of a test of my skill than the software's limits/abilities.
Click to expand...
Sure. PM me your email address.
 
U

Uman

Senior Member
Why do you suppose Autodesk prevents local file storage and requires cloud storage on their servers?
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
Uman said:
Why do you suppose Autodesk prevents local file storage and requires cloud storage on their servers?
Click to expand...

It has been pointed out that your statement is not completely true...... They even supposedly recommend local backups, which they could hardly do if it was only cloud storage.
 
nvanlaar

nvanlaar

Senior Member
Uman said:
Why do you suppose Autodesk prevents local file storage and requires cloud storage on their servers?
Click to expand...

There is no prevention of local storage. Individual files can be flagged for local storage and there is a setting for how long files are kept in the offline cache.

That being said, there is no 'offline only' ability. I think this is due to the way Fusion does some of the processing (anything intensive is done in the cloud) and also as part of the marketed feature set (files are always available from anywhere and can be easily shared during a live review session).
 
U

Uman

Senior Member
JST said:
Uman said:
Why do you suppose Autodesk prevents local file storage and requires cloud storage on their servers?
Click to expand...

It has been pointed out that your statement is not completely true...... They even supposedly recommend local backups, which they could hardly do if it was only cloud storage.
Click to expand...

Okay, interesting info. So F360 now allows uses to permanently retain and control copies of their F360 files on private drives? If so, then my statement is not true and thanks for pointing that out for the record.
My earlier experience with F360 did not allow this.
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
Uman said:
......

Okay, interesting info. So F360 now allows uses to permanently retain and control copies of their F360 files on private drives? If so, then my statement is not true and thanks for pointing that out for the record.
My earlier experience with F360 did not allow this.
Click to expand...


nvanlaar said:
...

There is no prevention of local storage. Individual files can be flagged for local storage and there is a setting for how long files are kept in the offline cache.

That being said, there is no 'offline only' ability. I think this is due to the way Fusion does some of the processing (anything intensive is done in the cloud) and also as part of the marketed feature set (files are always available from anywhere and can be easily shared during a live review session).
Click to expand...

The color highlighted areas may give some hints.... maybe you can't be sure they will stay offline, and making them offline may be a pain. Plus the thing about no "offline ONLY" means that whether they are copied local or not, they WILL be in the cloud.
 
nvanlaar

nvanlaar

Senior Member
JST said:
nvanlaar said:
...

There is no prevention of local storage. Individual files can be flagged for local storage and there is a setting for how long files are kept in the offline cache.

That being said, there is no 'offline only' ability. I think this is due to the way Fusion does some of the processing (anything intensive is done in the cloud) and also as part of the marketed feature set (files are always available from anywhere and can be easily shared during a live review session).
Click to expand...

The color highlighted areas may give some hints.... maybe you can't be sure they will stay offline, and making them offline may be a pain. Plus the thing about no "offline ONLY" means that whether they are copied local or not, they WILL be in the cloud.
Click to expand...

Just clarifying here. Flagged files are stored offline until such time as the user un-flags them. The offline cache contains all recently accessed files within the set time limit up to 360 days (subject to change depending on user request/demand and/or whims of Autodesk).
 
B

beefy

Senior Member
The word free is being thrown around out there quite a lot but let's look at this bit:

You may use the service if You are (i) a company generating less than $100,000 (or equivalent in other currency) per year working on a project or product that is not yet commercially available, (ii) an individual working on a project or product that is not yet commercially available and is generating less than $100,000 (or equivalent in other currency) per year, or (iii) an individual using the service on a personal basis that is not for commercial, professional or for-profit use.
Click to expand...

Let's hone in on these words:

working on a project or product that is not yet commercially available
Click to expand...

That says it all to me :evil: Forget that a business makes less than $100,000. If you make a $2 (cost to make) item in Fusion $360 and sell it (i.e. commercially available) for $3 giving a huge profit of $1, you need to pay for Fusion 360.

So forget the $100,000 income. Seems to me like if you make ANY money at all, even 10 cents, through the use of Fusion 360 you legally must pay for it. True ??? If that's the case then it is not free at all unless it's only for learning or playing with or hobby use.

Saying that I really do like Fusion 360, plus I can use it on all my under-powered computers, without disabling/enabling licenses between them.

I'll probably get Alibre maintenance this year and see what I get for my money with the new team.

Keith.
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
Just out of curiosity, I picked up an older never-opened copy of Turbocad 3D, for a couple bucks from a tag sale with thousands of pieces of new in sealed box programs. Version 20, from 2013 or so.

I'll probably play around with it shortly, if the licensing works OK still. Supposedly has 2D, 3D and photorealistic rendering. We'll see. IIRC, it is a lower end CAD that would be a competitor to Alibre.

Wasn't looking for it, (I was hoping for some NIB copies of Win 7, which I did not find), but I'll give it a whirl. Also got a Ubuntu for a buck, we'll see, I have not fooled around with any Linux versions yet.
 
dwc

dwc

Alibre Super User
JST said:
Just out of curiosity, I picked up an older never-opened copy of Turbocad 3D
IIRC, it is a lower end CAD that would be a competitor to Alibre.
Click to expand...

I used TurboCAD before moving to AD. I don't know how it has evolved in the mean time but what I had was only parametric in name. It was, make your drawing right the first time because any meaningful modification meant starting over.

I have never looked back.
Don
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
You can download, yes.

This had a bunch of other related stuff packaged with it. I have no problem with the buck for the package, it was more than the plain download, with printed material, etc so I don't have to go find it. Worth a buck to just have it on disk and not need to go get it

Not a problem, and with the pile of other items I got for a few bucks, that ubuntu package could easily be considered as between free and being paid to take it away.

it's hard to complain when you pick up about $800 of software for 10 bucks, in unopened boxes with all registration etc valid and unused. Store closure liquidation.
 
Y

ynnek

Member
JST said:
Just out of curiosity, I picked up an older never-opened copy of Turbocad 3D, for a couple bucks from a tag sale with thousands of pieces of new in sealed box programs. Version 20, from 2013 or so.

I'll probably play around with it shortly, if the licensing works OK still. Supposedly has 2D, 3D and photorealistic rendering. We'll see. IIRC, it is a lower end CAD that would be a competitor to Alibre.

Wasn't looking for it, (I was hoping for some NIB copies of Win 7, which I did not find), but I'll give it a whirl. Also got a Ubuntu for a buck, we'll see, I have not fooled around with any Linux versions yet.
Click to expand...

I have been a TurboCAD user since 1994. I am a member of the beta testing group. TC is a fine program with it's own idiosyncrasies, as are all CAD programs. It does offer 2D constraints, but the 3D is not parametric. I use the CAM plugin almost daily, 2.5D. For the money, it is a powerful program. Let me know how you like it.
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
As was mentioned, Turbocad is NOT parametric.

That is a non-starter for me.... I'm much too used to parametric CAD. Cannot think of a reason why anyone would want a 3D CAD system that was NOT parametric these days. It just makes way too much sense.

My limited messing with it also made me think it seemed clumsy to use. Obviously not a competitor, and probably doomed to be abandoned by all but the most dedicated users.

maybe the 2D drafting is usable. I have been using Autocad for that, but I can switch, I don't really like the newest Autocad that I have. ( Alibre is not very useful as a 2D, it's just not FOR that.) Don't have the CAM package, and my shop is not CNC yet anyway.

Also have a copy of DesignCad 3D, it may also not be parametric, but I'll check it out next.
 
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