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What is your 2D companion CAD to Alibre?

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leeave96

Senior Member
What is your 2D companion CAD to Alibre?

I recently made some revisions to a plan view drawing of the church I attend at their request. As I am always want to do - I NEVER use illegal software - soooo the only 2D CAD programs available to me are an occasional 30 day trial of what ever the latest AutoCAD and a program I downloaded about 6 months or a year ago - TurboCAD learning edition.

I have never been much good at ACAD and one can only load a trial version of ACAD once - so I had used-up that potential for editing the drawing. Well, I turned to the TurboCAD program (it is actually V4 - though they call it the learning addition) and I was amazed at how easy this program was to use. I have been thinking of buying ACAD LT or IntelliCAD for a companion to my Alibre to do such 2D chores as schematics or simple layouts - prior to the serious 3D stuff that I would tackle in Alibre. However, I have not been so impressed with ACAD or IntelliCAD - but this TurboCAD might be something to consider for my 2D stuff.

My question is - what CAD are you using for your 2D stuff and why? Has anyone used TurboCAD for this and what are your impressions of it?

Thanks in advance,
Bill
 
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W. Wagelaar

Member


For about a year I changed over from TurboCad to Alibre. Untill now I am very satisfied with it and about to continue my yearly maintenance. However, in 2D CAD I am still using the TurboCad V10.2 because it has a lot of functions which are easy to work with. Hope Alibre will improve 2D CAD in the near future.
 
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kdevoe

Senior Member


I have been using a 2d program called SmartSketch (previously Imagination). It is extremely easy to use and there are very few keyboard hits, most are numeric inputs. You can download a trial at smartsketch.com.
I too hope that AD improves the 2D psection of the program.

Kevin
 
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Anonymous

Guest


try cadopia's intellicad it is very similar to autocad. I find it easy to use. I prefer to stick with Autocad though because it is what everyone else in industry uses.
 
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peterepeat

Member


I also use TurboCAD. Recently I upgraded to the latest v 10, and I am fairly comfortable using it with 2D (I used to be ok with it in 3D until I started with Alibre - now I cant go back!). However I still find some use for it in 3D such as scene rendering of 3D step files generated in Alibre, or a combination.
 
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Cameraman

Senior Member


At work, we're using AutoCAD for 2D stuff.

At home, I have an old copy of LT, but Autodesk has gotten stupid with their pricing lately (luckily for Alibre!) so I could buy a copy of AD for about the same price as LT (although it would be a chore to do very much straight 2D stuff in AD, of course, which is the reason for this thread).

For basic 2D-only stuff, you can get AutoSketch for $90 or so -- one of our Designers at work has a copy of that and it seems to suit his needs just fine for layouts and such.

Regards,
Greg :D
 
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garethconner

Member


I have been using Vectorworks (previously MiniCAD) for the past 9 years, and really enjoy it's intuitive interface and 2d parametric objects. It also has good .dwg import/export.
 
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moyesboy

Alibre Super User


AutoCAD LT but only because we had it since 3.11 and upgraded to 2000i while it was cost effective. No way will we upgrade to newer versions at current crazy prices (three times what it was), plus you end up with the silly 2004 encripted file format and you'd find everyone you send data to would be asking for 2000 or r14 dxf anyway.
They lost the plot with autocad LT now I think!
 
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leeave96

Senior Member


Hey everybody!

Thanks much for the info - I decided to go with TurboCAD 10.5 professional edition. The learning edition was very easy to use and did what I needed - but it is still quite dated and so I felt the newer version would suit. Oh, I also like the idea of having a non-parametric modeler on hand, should I need to cut and hack a model like I use to in my old days of UG.

Thanks again,
Bill
 
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W. Wagelaar

Member


Bill,

though the 3D modeling of TurboCAD is not to compare with the quality of Alibre, please notice it has fantastic rendercapabilities. It's possible to import SAT and STEP files from Alibre.
 
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bferard

Member
TurboCAD is worth a try

I have been using TurboCAD for 3 years now, and I am evaluating Alibre for all the 3D job.
But after 2 days of traning with Alibre, I wonder if I will be able at the end to do the drafting part as fast as I could do with TurboCAD.

All the fully customizable single key shortcuts are terribly efficient.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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euphnut65

Senior Member
TurboCAD

I use TurboCAD for 2D work.

I, like others here have used TurboCAD for 3D, but quit updating after V9.2 (due to bad reviews). There were too many problems with versions even up to 9 that seemed to never get fixed in version updates. Errors in dimensioning was the biggest problem for me, snaps were never consistent for me either.

Since learning and using Alibre for 3D work, I would never go back. Even though you might be able to create something faster in TurboCAD, The ability to modify the model later and have the drawaings update automatically more than make up for the time up front in my opinion. Plus I like the BOM and exploded view features in Alibre a lot!

Oh I almost forgot, setting up the drawings in Alibre is much faster (and less tedious) that inserting viewports in TurboCAD.

TurboCAD V10.5 supposedly has constraint capablities, but I'm going to wait a few versions before considering upgrading I think.

Eric
 
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CGN

Senior Member


I was looking to the option of instead of upgrading Autocad, get a copy of Turbocad, but the sofwtare IMO is not reliable you can have a look in the forum of turbocad and is nothing but complaints, it is a great software lot's of good tools and features, but still buggy. i hope they can come up with a clean version.
 
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Brian Rasley

Member
My 2d cad

My 2d cad program of choice is ashlar vellum.
It was actually called "drawing board"
Extremely easy to use because of how logical it is.
Drawing board was then upgraded to Ashlar Vellum.
It's exactly the same as drawing board except that it's a 3d wireframe program.
I still use it instead of Alibre for the simple quick stuff, machining coordinates, and laying out an existing feature to find a reference or dimension.
The learning curve on this was about 4 hours. Due to it's patented feature of "drawing assistant" I can get alot done in a short time.
Hopefully some day Alibre will incorporate some of the drawing features in Ashlar Vellum. Who knows, since I don't have the latest version of Alibre, perhaps they already have.
Also, I'm sure that the Alibre training course would make things much easier too.
I am planning on upgrading to the latest version of Alibre soon.
Hope this helps,
Happy New Year,
Brian Rasley
Rasley Enterprises
"Precision Machining Specialists"
 
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makeitoak

New Member
Re:

fl7464 said:
The easiest to use 2D cad is DesignCad V15.
Click to expand...

Are you able to qualify that? ie compared to what?

I cannot compare to other programs, but do think that Turbocad is excellent for 2d work [and some 3d]
 
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KirkKelsey

Member
CMS IntelliCAD is my 2D software of choice

Since AutoCAD is the standard for drawing, I wanted something that was compatible with AutoCAD. And since I am familiar with AutoCAD, I wanted something I could configure to work the same way as AutoCAD.

The most important feature though is the ability to open and save, as well as convert those AutoCAD drawings that I receive from others. IntelliCAD is keeping up with being able to handle all versions of AutoCAD drawings even better than AutoCAD. (The Solidworks people have released and add-on for AutoCAD to allow it to handle older file versions).

CMS offers the most affordable version of IntelliCAD (http://www.intellicadms.com) which allows you to get going for about $50. I own the Premium Edition because I needed Raster Image capabilities as I often trace around scans of objects to determine their dimensions. Something that I can now do in Alibre, but somewhat still easier in IntelliCAD as it has more circle and arc options. I mainly use IntelliCAD as a layout scratchpad to determine lengths and section properties.

Upgrades are very affordable at about $50 every year or so to keep up with the Premium Edition, and even less for the LT edition. I upgraded again this year just to have the AutoCAD file conversion capabilities, and because IntelliCAD finally got tabbed windows like AutoCAD.

There is no need for the version with ACIS solids as Alibre is clearly the superior 3D tool. Yes, AutoCAD is better 2D, but is it worth the added cost and is not really necessary now that I have Alibre.

I recommend CMS IntelliCAD to new users interested getting started in CAD due to the AutoCAD compatibility and affordability. Mainly because the greatest expense with any software is that of training and becoming experienced and fluent in a piece of software. The greatest consideration needs to be given to how applicable your skills are to your future.

I recommend CMS IntelliCAD to Alibre and other users as it is cheaper than buying a viewer, it can convert received drawings, and is more useful than a viewer.

Kirk Kelsey
 
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