How did you start using Alibre?

[joshua.white]

Just a quick question for all the Alibre fans out there: how did you start using Alibre? Did you use other 3D CAD prior to Alibre? Was the switch your choice, forced, or did you just stumble upon it?

I personally just switched jobs, and went from a mix of Autodesk Inventor and Pro/E Wildfire 5 to Alibre 2012. I like parts of it, but I mostly find it lacking. I really miss the sketch and drawing modes from Inventor, it was so much more polished. I spent the summer automating an entire product line using iLogic, and from what I can tell, the things I did with Inventor wouldn't be possible with Alibre, or if they were, would involve a bunch of excel sheets. I only have the Alibre Professional version, so I'm not sure how the "configurations" thing works, but I imagine it's better than Inventor's iParts and iAssemblies. This is where I think the Pro/E family tables really shine. Though editing them could be a bit cumbersome, it was incredibly powerful, and as long as you kept track of what you were doing, it was incredibly stable.

 

[MikeHenry]

I started with Alibre 6 about 10 years ago when Visio (the MS drawing program) proved too limiting. I'd watched a co-worker use Inventor and desperately wanted that sort of capability but could afford the $5k software cost. I'd previously tried to learn IntelliCAD, variosu versions of DesignCAD, and AutoSketch without any real success. Alibre just clicked with me and I was far more productive after 20-40 hours with tutorials than after years of fiddling with the other software I'd tried.

CAD is quite incidental to my primary job responsibilities, though, so I'm probably not a typical user.

 

[DavidJ]

I needed a 3D modelling capability in my new consulting business. Couldn't afford SW, looked around the internet for ages before chancing upon Alibre (I had tried Sketchup, which was OK but lacked some key capabilities I needed).

I find that generally if I can't model something, I am the problem - often need to turn the design requirement round and look at it another way.

There are more time/effort saving add-ons available for longer established packages (in some cases bought up and incorprated into the product).

Alibre is one of the best at being able to import a wide variety of other formats.

 

[Ray C]

Hi... First post here...

FWIW: I work in the computer, electrical and system engineering field, my hobby/passion is machineshop work (mills, lathes, grinders etc) but, I never learned to use a CAD program. For the past couple years, I've dowloaded (or purchased) the demos and tutorials of Autocad, Turbocad, Solidworks, progeCad...-and probably a dozen other programs and never produced a single substantative thing from any of them. The big flaw seems to be poor tutorials because I'm sure all of those programs are good at what they do. -But they just didn't make sense to me even though I was trying very hard to learn some kind of a CAD program.

I was determined to find and learn a CAD program because my little garage shop enterprise needs it. Two days ago, I found Alibre by way of mention on a machineshop web forum. It was casually mentioned as seemingly easy to learn and probably adequate for personal use or small to medium sized toolroom shops. I spent about 1 hour watching the online product descriptions and demos, followed by downloading the program. Within two hours, I did what I was never able to do before and modeled a hub-like device with internal tapered bores, back plates with grooves, keyway slots etc. Finally, CAD software I can use!

The trick was in a couple key concepts and techniques presented in the online videos. I don't mean to be critical but, I could easily suggest a few improvements to those online videos that would put icing on the cake. In any event, I knew within moments that Alibre had the right mix of user simplicity and prouct capability that would satisfy my immediate needs -and probably meet my future needs.

... Really look forward to learning the ins/outs of this program but more important, I want it as a tool to help my home-based metalshop mature into a business.

Ray C

 

[cclark440]

We started using Alibre in December of '02. I had been using SolidEdge Origin for a couple of years, but it was very limited in what it could do. When they decided to stop offering the Origin package I had to look else where because we couldn't afford to shell out $8000- $10000 for the full package at the time. I honestly don't remember how I came upon Alibre. I do remember way back then that Alibre was geared more towards a collaboration software. I really liked that feature. There was a little pane on the left hand side of the home screen with the users that were online at the time, and you could share your work space with them.
I know that Alibre has it's shortcomings, but for the money and what I need to do it is more than enough.
I ended up buying a personal version for consulting work after hours. One of the first projects that I worked was this http://www.technopower.com/index.html engine. That picture was taken directly from Alibre workspace.
Now that motion 2.0 was the ability to simulate cam collision I am going to open this old part up and try to simulate the entire thing.

Anyway, I know the bigger packages have more features, but like I said Alibre is the best bang for the buck.