V9 - What Is Your #1 Enhancement Request?

[p_hanson]

Re:

1) Working linear stop constraints for motion in Assembly. So a slide can be stopped instead of allowing to slide through an object on both ends.

YES

2) Spring motion in Assembly. A compression type motion to allow a helix(spring) to compress and expand in a moving assembly.

More than animation, I'd like to be able to define compressed length and extended length so I can avoid coil binding in a design. Maybe even by assembling the parts and allowing it to check and change the spring.

Come to think of it, how about a much better way to define springs?

3) Animate Assembly. Allow an animation based on moving rotary or linear movement with constraints.

Including surface relations so that cams and gears work properly.

4) Hole at angle. Would love to be able to place hole at angle on any surface instead of the long way. (I know it is not that easy but it is a wish list here.)

OH YES!

I second all his requests, and also have daydreaming problems of my own!

 

[Gaspar]

As Scott said, just read my signature file.

I would add something that seems very simple to implement and would really add productivity (in my view):

:arrow: "On the fly" rotation points.
:arrow: Cursor centered zoom.
:arrow: Do not store a view in memory unless its stable for a few seconds Try going to the previous view after you zoom in with your wheel. You get 1000 useless views.
:arrow: A few icons to recall "user configured views". The views should recall orientation and hidden objects.
:arrow: Icons for "show all" (unhide everything) and "isolate" (hide everything but selected objects)

Finally, I would certainly like to have a way to animate a model in order to simulate how it would work. I can't buy Visual Nastran from Alibre since I reside in Mexico. Any way, I wouldn't be surprised if Alibre offered this functionality soon :wink:

 

[moyesboy]

Re:

""On the fly" rotation points"
select an edge point or surface and hold shift or cntrl or something and it will define the rotation point. edge or cylinder and it will roate about that axis. Flat face and it will rotate about axis perpendicular to centre of that face, select corner and it will keep that corner anchored.

"Cursor centered zoom"
Make it so that it always zooms with the cursor at the centre. Why not?

"Do not store a view in memory unless its stable for a few seconds Try going to the previous view after you zoom in with your wheel. You get 1000 useless views"
Zooming is easy. Just save the orientation for the previous views. If you want a particular saved view then you can save it and that can include the zoom.

External Threads!
Lets have a way to depict external threads on a drawing according to engineering practise, like you can with internal threads. I don't mean depicting them cosmetically in the design view, I mean the major/minor lines and thread call out on the drawing that is a necessaity to define parts for manufacture!
This isn't the first cad system to provide threaded holes but not external threads! Why on earth are internal threads considered more important than external ones?

 

[Gaspar]

Hello Moyesboy,

:arrow: Rotation points on the fly. I just tried all key+click combinations I could think of and none works to make the selected surface, edge, etc become the rotation point. Please tell me how to do it (without the rotation icon selected, which prevents you from doing anything else). This will surely make my day.

:arrow: Saving only views that are stable for longer than one second. What I mean is that if you zoom with the wheel, and then you want to go back to your original view, you should be able to do it by hitting the "previous view" arrow. If you do so now, you go back view by view through all the intermediate views that happened during the zoom operation (those views are usually useless or otherwise, you would have stoped in one for more than a second :wink: ). NOTE: By "saving views" I mean the views that get automatically stored for the "previous" or "next" view arrows, not user saved views.

 

[caduser1]

#1 has got to be the 2D drawings!!!

I know I'm new to Alibre and have allot to learn
but it seems to me no matter how fancy the 3D
stuff is, if you can't produce clean and useful
2D drawings efficiently your parts are not going
to get made! :? I've just come over from AutoCAD
and it looks like I will be importing 2D into ACAD
until Alibre improves this.

Love the 3D though (especially for the price!) :wink:

 

[MilesH]

Re:

I know I'm new to Alibre and have allot to learn
but it seems to me no matter how fancy the 3D
stuff is, if you can't produce clean and useful
2D drawings efficiently your parts are not going
to get made! :?

Well, I guess this depends on the state of the art for specific processes, but it's certainly not a given. As John Knecht noted somewhere, what we also need is more 'intelligent' models (dimensions, hypertext notes etc.).

But you're right that we do still need a few more 2D tools, for now...

Welcome, caduser1!

Miles

 

[jwknecht]

Re:

I know I'm new to Alibre and have allot to learn
but it seems to me no matter how fancy the 3D
stuff is, if you can't produce clean and useful
2D drawings efficiently your parts are not going
to get made! :?

Well, I guess this depends on the state of the art for specific processes, but it's certainly not a given. As John Knecht noted somewhere, what we also need is more 'intelligent' models (dimensions, hypertext notes etc.).

But you're right that we do still need a few more 2D tools, for now...

Welcome, caduser1!

Miles

How effectively you will work in the 3D world depends greatly where you are in the process food chain. More than likely, a great proportion of Alibre users are working with small shops (this has been our experience, sadly). These small shops at this time are lucky if they even have updated 2D AutoCad. 3D, what is that? What I would like to do is to introduce Alibre to these shops so they have 3D capability. If they don't want to spend the money, show them XPress. Then, there is some hope they will be able to get the information that they need directly from the 3D models. Until then, the full benefits of using 3D CAD hits the 2D barrier at the point that you start talking 2D language. I would like to deal only with shops that can benefit from 3D language (but that will take some time to grow those that want to grow and find others that are already there).

I agree that we need both: Improvements to the 2D drawing package, and to the 3D model annotation.

 

[caduser1]

Miles and John,
I see your point. However, for my company anyway,
we farm out 90% of our fabrication to small shops. Many times they
have problems even opening our newer ACAD version drawings.
I have not cofirmed this, but I beleive most of these shops
would not know what to do with a 3D solid model part file.
When all shops are capable of taking a 3D model and producing
the parts directly life will certainly be much simpler.

But for now, I must provide accurate and readable 2D detail drawings.
I think for many small manufacturers this will be a necessity for some
time. Given the time that 2D has been around and the number of low
cost programs that frankly do a better job than Alibre, I was very
disheartened to see Alibre lacking so seriously. I beleive there
is another thread on this forum about which 2D programs folks
are using WITH Alibre. It just seems with alittle improvement this would
be unnecessary.

For now I look forward to the great benefits in proving design,
improving accuracy, producing assembly drawings, etc..
that Alibre will afford me. In this regard I am very optomistic.

 

[MikeHenry]

John,

I've only dealt with a few machine shops over the years, but I suspect that most job shops just want a drawing they can read that has the specs they need to meet. The situation might be a lot different for larger shops with design and CNC staff.

One of my first Alibre projects was for a plate that had a spiral face groove and the shop that made the part took a DWG or DXF file and used that for CNC-ing the groove. For simpler parts a standard drawing transmitted in PDF format was all they wanted.

Mike

 

[MilesH]

caduser1,

You're not alone! 2D improvements are probably the most requested enhancements on the forum.

V9, due in a few weeks, focuses on import/export and drawings, so we've been told.

Maybe you could interest some of the small shops by providing your Alibre model and a copy of AD Xpress on a CD, as well as your normal DWG? Just a thought....

Miles

 

[caduser1]

A good suggestion Miles...
I will certainly direct our vendors to Xpress.

BTW, where can we find information on what is coming in V9?
I looked around but couldn't find anything.
It would nice if Alibre posted it on their website.
Maybe there is a need for secrecy. In that case, how about
an email to paying customers (suggestion directed at Alibre).

Mike

 

[jwknecht]

Re:

John,

I've only dealt with a few machine shops over the years, but I suspect that most job shops just want a drawing they can read that has the specs they need to meet. The situation might be a lot different for larger shops with design and CNC staff.

One of my first Alibre projects was for a plate that had a spiral face groove and the shop that made the part took a DWG or DXF file and used that for CNC-ing the groove. For simpler parts a standard drawing transmitted in PDF format was all they wanted.

Mike

Exactly the point that I was making. It will be up to us to help them get past this barrier. See what happens, as Miles suggested, if next time you offer them an Alibre model that they can use Xpress to open along with your normal PDF or DWG 2D print.

 

[indesign]

Don't believe it just because of a few. While it is true that many componites are made entirely from 2D prints there are a large number of parts requiring solid models.

I work at a 'job shop' and we range from manual/cnc machining, manual/cnc grinding, and EDM. I have many mold and die inserts that need 3D to mill or sink (for electrode manufacturing). I often get files in iges or step format. I would say about 10% of our work (for now) needs (and some require) a 3D solid to load into our CADCAM software.

Job shops any more can handle work once thought only possible for highly specialized industries. So if you wish you can send us a file and we would be happy to quote it for you.

Alibre Design (not just express)

Tim

 

[Cameraman]

I will chime again for the easily sharable repositories located on local servers :idea: . We have been trying to make AD work here at our small company for the past 18 months, but we are continually hamstrung by this glaring lack of collaborative functionality, and we have therefore been unable to complete the transition to AD. Releases 7, 8, and 9 have all come along without addressing this issue, and we have been loathe to attempt Mibe's work-around (posted last December) for fear of having to reconstruct our structure frequently.

There are many things that we would love to see in the product, but this one certainly tops the list for us. And (as I have said before) in my humble opinion, this single issue will prevent Alibre Design from becoming more than just a good 3D tool for individuals and very small companies.

Regards,
Greg

p.s., yes, we have even considered the idea of buying an extra seat of AD which would be always logged in as the repository administrator, but there is something really inappropriate about having to spend $1500 plus the $445 annual maintenance fee to obtain that functionality, and I just cannot bring myself to do it . . .

 

[indesign]

Are you sure you need the repository in your company? If the object/file is for only your company and there is no need to limit access then save it as a normal file. Basically make your own repository but without permissions. You can still have permissions if you setup the directory on a file server. You can set permissions using windows, not Alibre.

You could even setup a windows script to merge files from several network directories or simply to update multiple directories on a regular interval. We are a small company and can not justify purchasing several seats so they can be used online. We have a windows 2000 system setup to be a file and print server. All our databases are saved to this one location for everyone to get to if they have permission.

 

[moyesboy]

Indesign
I'm presuming you mean using the WFS when you say "normal file". One problem then is there is no file locking.
Two users can open the same file and edit it (Alibre loads a local copy).
whoever saves last overwrites the original file.
That is one good reason for using a repository.
I too see the repository system as one of alibre's biggest drawbacks, when it should be a plus it is mostly, for me, a minus because you must rely on an external internet connection.
The WFS needs development to be a viable alternative because there is functionality missing there - file locking, preview, versions.
Neither system gives full functionality, and that is pretty hard to explain when trying to justify purchase of Alibre. The repository seems extremely peculiar compared to how all other cad systems work and difficult to make work along side legacy data produced in another system!

 

[indesign]

Re:

There are no previews or versions in the FS but if a file is named in a good manner there is little need of it. As for locking a file that is not a problem on a file server.

I understand the desire to change what is lacking and a request by many most likely would get Alibre's attention. But from the looks of the posts there are very few who have requested the repository change.

BTW...where did you get version 9? As far as I can tell it is not released as of 12/21/05.

Releases 7, 8, and 9 have all come along without addressing this issue, and we have been loathe to attempt Mibe's work-around (posted last December) for fear of having to reconstruct our structure frequently.

 

[moyesboy]

" As for locking a file that is not a problem on a file server."

Let me clarify, in WFS:
If user A opens part X, either on its own or within an assembly he will receive no warning that user B is already editing part X.
When user A saves the edits to part X there will be no warning that user B is also editing it.
when user B saves part X user A's edits will be lost.

This is surely a problem.
Even word won't let two users open the same file at the same time.

I can't see a way to stop this using windows via the server, unless the two users have different privilages and user A can never edit part x becuase it belongs to user B - which is not what I want to do because users A and B have equal status in the project and are working together.
They can work together using a repository but to get the data they have to wait for it to travel at internet speed.

My info from Alibre is that there are many requests for local sharing of repositories, as per Gaspar's signature. I too was offered the solution of an extra license that owns the repositories, but you still must wait for the data to travel over external internet and rely on your ISP, and the alibre server to be online (even if the data doesn't actually travel through it), for internal company work.

However I am still hopeful that Alibre will come up with a viable solution to this!

 

[indesign]

All clear now!
I did think you were refereing to locking the file from being edited as the opening and saving from 2 locations was mentioned sepperately. I do understand your need and I to think it would improve the software but being one of those small companies I just have not found the need.

 

[rbrian]

Re: Motion with stops

Not sure I am clear on what I was wanting but the animate I want is to set constraints and have it move on it's own by clicking a button. The swing would be like a kids swing in that it would go to a constraint on 2 sides then reverse direction. The same with the linear movement. If you can do this now then please let me know a little more about it because I can not find anything like this myself.

Is the Nastran Motion an addon? Is this how it is done?

Sorry to extend this a bit further - Stops - can be created using for example a slider in a slot - and setting up the constraint 'mate' offset - driving/editing the offset from '0' (right at the stop) to 'X' the distance of the slot - (or X minus the slider length), and returning it back to '0' - would get the job done slowly - but - If we could get the basics of collision detection - that is what you are actually asking for with this - and with cams, etc. then it would be easier - especially with a dialog box to set it up. Robert

PS - MSC.visualNastran Motion - wile it is available as an add on for AD - included actually with the Expert Version - I remember - MSC offers a Trial you can regiser for from them.