What is your 2D companion CAD to Alibre?
- Thread starter leeave96
- Start date
Jim,
I use Bricscad. It's a bit more expensive than the rest, but if you want the Pro version it's on special offer until the end of the month (30% off). Before that I used the original '98 version from Visio. Progesoft do a free version. Progesoft seem hyperactive in terms of adding extras; Autodsys seem good at this, as well
I chose Bricscad because they were/are doing a lot of the de-bugging, so fixes appeared in Bricscad before they were fed back into the core coding. To give an instance - trimming of splines was recently added to the Bricscad version, this one was really important to me.
3D in all of them is pretty flakey i.m.o. but I don't suppose that's a priority for you...
Hope this helps,
Miles
I was only running autocadlt2000 for 2D but recently started receiving autocad2006 dsxf/dwg exports from a SW user who dodn't want to send me the solid.
Interestingly a contact of mine running the latest SW couldn't open those files with sw dwg editor even though they were created by solidworks!
I recently realised they issued an upgrade to progcadLT2005.
Progcadlt2006 that will open these latest dwg/dxf files for free
http://www.progecad.com/
I use TurboCad, just upgraded from V8 to V11.
V11 has some parametric and BOM capabilities, though I'm not sure how good or easy they are to use.
The rendering is pretty awesome.
V11 has overcome most of the V9/10 issues.
Though I mainly use it for eletrical schematics, I often use it for quick and dirty drawings for CNC cutouts.
Also for size calculations as the construction lines are soo easy to use.
Then I draw it AD.
I also hope for better 2D drawing in AD.
I had high hopes for the Alibre API for automation, but it is just too difficult, time consuming and frustating. Hopefully a macro language will follow.
Cheers
Kim
jhiker
Alibre Super User
I'm trialling this at the moment. Completely free for the LT version and pretty good drafting capabilities.
If you are familiar with ACAD LT you should like it.
http://www.progecad.com/
Previously, I used AutoCAD LT 2000. I've recently switched to IntelliCAD, though, when I couldn't find my ACAD disk.
It's only $52 for a comparable license (the Standard Edition), so I can afford multiple licenses. I haven't used it extensively, however, in the 10-20 hours I have spent on it, I can't really tell the difference between it and ACAD LT. It's opened a dozen or more dwg files flawlessly.
http://www.intellicadms.com/
TurboCad 11.2
:lol:
Hi
I have been using TurboCad for many years keeping updated all the time, currently I have V11.2. I have done extensive modeling and 2D drafting in TurboCad. Now I just bought Alibre Design Professional to speed up my modeling with full parametrics. As far as 2D drafting, Non-parametric modeling and some special items, including rendering, Turbocad is very hard to beat for the price and ease of use.
:lol:
Hi
I have been using TurboCad for many years keeping updated all the time, currently I have V11.2. I have done extensive modeling and 2D drafting in TurboCad. Now I just bought Alibre Design Professional to speed up my modeling with full parametrics. As far as 2D drafting, Non-parametric modeling and some special items, including rendering, Turbocad is very hard to beat for the price and ease of use.
SW has free addons to older autocad programs to allow the importing of newer autocad files. (I did say Solidworks)
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/infofor/DWGseries2.html
The addons I believe are to keep people froim purchasing the new autocad programs. So if you have AC 14 / AC200-2004 get these addons for opening newer AC files in your old software.
Also the link has an editor for Solidworks owners to edit DWG files.
Sorry for the earlier text but to clarify---A quote from the Solidworks web sight>
What are the requirements for installing DWGgateway?
You must have a valid license of AutoCAD® on your computer. AutoCAD LT® is currently not supported.
Which AutoCAD versions are supported by DWGgateway?
AutoCAD : R14, R2000, R2000i, R2002, R2004, R2005.
[Mechanical and MDT variants - support Open only ]. AutoCAD LT is currently not supported.
So far nobody mentioned the most widespread 2D design package in use today:
Windows Paint
Yes, millions of people out there will draw a quick picture of something they want made using windows paint because it was already on their PC!
:lol:
I actually just received an amazing design drawing created in excel! It can even be regarded as parametric because several of the dimensions are driving or driven using formulae, and it was all overlaid on a bitmap picture of the real machine. A work of art it is indeed!
:shock:
Last night, I just realized I had a pretty interesting and useful product called Serif DrawPlus (I bought a $15 bundle of the Serif CD's and now just dusted this one off). It is kind of like Adobe Illustrator (without the price) and accepts and outputs several raster and vector formats. I use the Serif WebPlus for my webpage. Their software is easy to use (and free to almost free).