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OrjanB

OrjanB

Senior Member
Max:
All the improvements mentioned are welcome, especially the new constraints and handling of these.
Alibre clearly want to compete with the big guys like Inventor and SW.
What I miss in this effort is the work with the basic response when working with the program.

Examples:
When I work with sketches, i.e. lines, circles and constraints, I VERY often have to try several times in order to get functions behave the way I want and expect. The same happens when constraining in assemblies, but sketches are worst. This is very annoying and prevent me from working fluent and effectively when drawing and constraining. I miss better snapping when trying to connect elements.

I have been using Inventor in my work, on daily basis for decades, and here I do not experience these problems, indicating that Alibre could do a better job.

Then you ask: Why do not stick to Inventor?
Answer: Price. As recently retired mechanical engineer I still want to do 3D-modelling and Alibre seems to be an OK alternative.
I use Alibre Expert - a program ment for industrial use.
I have a computer equipped with i7 and SSD so the power should be sufficient.

You can object that Inventor and SW are far more expensive and sophistcated.
Nevertheless, in my opinion Alibre should focus on being better when coming to the basics.

I have been following Alibre for years.
The stability has improved during these years and there is a lot of potential in the program if Alibre team put its effort in the right way.

Regards
Orjan B
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
OrjanB said:
..........
.
I use Alibre Expert - a program ment for industrial use.
........
Nevertheless, in my opinion Alibre should focus on being better when coming to the basics.

I have been following Alibre for years.
The stability has improved during these years and there is a lot of potential in the program if Alibre team put its effort in the right way.

Regards
Orjan B
Click to expand...

I like the promised features, and generally agree with you, but there has been a setback in stability recently, as things have been more radically changed, new HOOPS, etc. Testing is probably not as thorough.

And I am not sure that the "Alibre team" (or perhaps many forum members), really sees Alibre as more than a somewhat advanced "hobby" program. The resistance to a real part library, and the resistance to making file renaming easy, those features seem to be dismissed as "hobbyists don't need those".

As to testing:

I have NOT participated in any of the Beta testing, although I was willing and even anxious to do so. Not this time either.

The reason is that it is a problem to do. I would have to take the current version right off the computer, and install the beta instead. And, then, I should not do any testing work on anything that I ever want to look at again.

The second part can be handled by making packages and transferring to a special directory.

But the part about having to delete everything and load the new, THAT is a big stumbling block. I tend to find lots of odd issues, so I am a natural for testing, but this issue about the Beta versions is a problem.
 
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simonb65

simonb65

Alibre Super User
JST said:
And I am not sure that the "Alibre team" (or perhaps many forum members), really sees Alibre as more than a somewhat advanced "hobby" program.
Click to expand...
Would be interested to see a poll of forum users as to their end-use for Alibre (i.e. hobby, general interest, small business, large corporation). I suspect the customer base reaches far and wide, yet most of the example CAD designs on the website and in the promotional material (plus YT tutorials) seems to be more hobby focused than serious business. I could be wrong though ... I'd like to think I am!

I think if you have a mindset that your product only reaches out to a specific market, you tend to only develop for that market and I can see features that have been suggested in the past which are very business/team orientated that have not been progressed (for whatever reason!).

I personally would like to see more features on a par with other 'professional' packages (even the free ones seem to be more feature rich and evolve at a faster pace), but I guess that is down to the guys at Alibre and their road map of where they want to take the product as a business opportunity. Would be nice as a long term business investor in the product (both financially from annual maintenance and embedding it in my business as a core tool) as to where the product is going and which features are on the road map to keep it competitive with the other 'professional' main players and emerging free CAD offerings.
 
OrjanB

OrjanB

Senior Member
simonb65:
even the free ones seem to be more feature rich and evolve at a faster pace

Do you have examples of such programs? Have you tested any?
Could be interesting to investigate
 
simonb65

simonb65

Alibre Super User
OrjanB said:
Do you have examples of such programs? Have you tested any?
Could be interesting to investigate
Click to expand...
Not tried any, but for hobby type work, Sketch-up, DesignSpark Mechanical, FreeCAD are all free to name a few and they all have easier and better ability to create 3D object fast and with much more edit and push/pull (many with mirror and multiple face/edge/feature selection) options that Alibre. DesignSpark and FreeCAD have both been developed since Alibre was first released and now have features that Alibre does not. If I wasn't running a business using Alibre, I would have personally switched to one of these by now!
 
OrjanB

OrjanB

Senior Member
Thank you for suggestions. I have tried SketcUp, but found it to be too different compared to the way of working I am used to.
You say that if possible you would swap to another program, but as a professional user running a business this is difficult.
I find this statement very interesting and think that this should worry Alibre very much!
Today I made a production-drawing containing dimensions and sections. Making sections works well, but dimensioning is a hell due to bad snapping to endpoints. The same occurs when putting dimensions to sketches.
As I said in my first post: Alibre should look more into the basics.
 
simonb65

simonb65

Alibre Super User
OrjanB said:
Making sections works well, but dimensioning is a hell due to bad snapping to endpoints.
Click to expand...
The biggest feature of these other CAD programs is that the UI is easier and basic operations are more predictable. I've used Sketchup. I use MOI 3D for most of my 3D sketching (electrical cables and RF rigid coax modelling). Working in a 3D space with sketches and splines in Alibre is just non-intuative and as you say, most of the issues seen by users of Alibre is open sketches ... caused by sketch elements not 'snapping' to existing nodes and edges and so leaving micro 'gaps'. MOI 3D does this exceptionally well and intuitively. Alibre for me covers the 3 main areas I need (3D, 2D Drawings, Sheet Metal). It does them all in, at best, a clunky way (compared to other CAD and Graphical editing packages I use). Other CAD packages don't do all those areas, but what they do, they do very well. There have been many suggestions from professional users on this forum (some spanning over many years), yet they still don't get added. Instead we have sideways swapping of internal core engines that don't immediately provide any productivity tools, but they do provide the enablers to do that (HOOPS is used by some of the bigger boys in the playground, so it's got the capabilities!). Most development though does seem to be spent on fixing issues that are introduced every time something changes. Still wouldn't change though ... Free packages that are better in usability don't offer the complete suite of tools I need. The big boys that have more powerful, stable applications are just a huge factor of cost outside my business reach (I cannot justify the costs involved for my return!).
OrjanB said:
Alibre should look more into the basics.
Click to expand...
I agree ... the basics need to be easier to use, more robust and 100% stable. That will give Alibre the time to concentrate and build new features on a class leading foundation. Until then ... we just use it the best we can ... and wait ... and wait!
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
It is better now than the "lost years" when it was under 3DSystems....!

But I must agree with the need to "improve the game"...... Limiting to one market of hobby users by such choices of features, is very short sighted.

A few basic business features would get more potential business users. And spinoffs from them, as folks who would not get Solidworks etc for home would be more likely to get Alibre if they know it from work.

I think a "real" parts library would be one of the first desirable features. And it would not be a lot of work.... it would likely involve very little in the way of changes, compared to other features.
 
M

MikeHenry

Alibre Super User
OrjanB said:
Do you have examples of such programs? Have you tested any?
Could be interesting to investigate
Click to expand...

I've used both Fusion 360 and Onshape and each has free versions for the hobbyist, though that may change (or has changed) with F360.

I really don't like F360 but am really liking Onshape. Onshape is fully in the cloud, both in terms of the program, which runs in a browser, as well as the CAD data, though you export CAD-neutral versions of your files in STEP and other formats. The problem with their free version is that all of your files are publicly view able, though there are so many user files that it would be hard to find one in particular. That may not be a problem for a hobbyist but it certainly would be for a consultant or someone else doing paid work. Onshape has some nice features compared to Alibre and generally works the same way. They release upgrades every 3 to 4 weeks, which is a welcome change from the way upgrades usually work. Upgrades are driven by user requests and they have a nice feature for requesting and voting on the suggestions. They have a paid version that runs $1,500 per year and up with higher-priced tiers focused on corporate users and their needs.
 
JST

JST

Alibre Super User
Another +1.
I am coming up on renewal, and while I likely will renew, I AM really waiting to see how this turns out before I do.

I admit that I am a little worried about the development process. We seem to have some issues that suggest certain things to me, and I am...... "a little worried", and I'll just leave it right there.
 
Max

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Probably within about 10 days. The Covid stuff isn't helping and we may do a slight intentional delay due to it, primarily because many customers simply are not at the office and many people simply won't even realize it's been released. But we are not talking months, more like days or perhaps a week or two, if we do that.
 
kev h

kev h

Senior Member
Hi Max

Just had a quick look at the new v21 feature vids and Wow they look great !!

Only use Alibre a couple times a year on average so can't warrant the Expert fee but any regular users must be chomping at the bit for release !!! :D

Good luck with release and stay safe in front of your screens !! :cool:

Cheers Kev :cool:
 
Lew_Merrick

Lew_Merrick

Guest
Mika said:
Is it going to be named as Alibre Design 2020 already?
Click to expand...
Hi Mike -- I am guessing that we are returning to Revision Identities rather than Revision Years as, in thuth, a Revision is needed to fix buts, make improvements, or polish features in a way "disconnected" from the calendar. -- Lew
 
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