Actually, you can obtain the full Alibre Design product for less than
$1,000. They do have Pro and Expert versions that include FEA, CAM,
motion simulation and so on, but these max out at $1,995 and you can
almost always find a better promotional deal. They also regularly
offer the flag****p Alibre Design product at under $500.
The free version Alibre Design Xpress is very functional provide part,
assembly modeling and associative 2D drawing creation. There are
limitations in each category, for instance you can only create
assemblies up to 10 unique parts with the free version and you don't
get advanced lofting, but you pretty much get everything else. Check
it out for yourself, it's free. And by registering for Xpress you
will be on a list for upcoming promotions and offers that will
invariably provide you a lower cost path to more functionality should
you need it.
You can check out Xpress at
http://www.alibre.com/xpress/software/alibre-design-xpress.asp.
There is also a matrix sahowing what features are in each version of
Alibre Design and the price at http://www.alibre.com/products/
features.asp.
-Sun
On Jan 14, 5:19 pm, "CW" <cmag...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> OK. You didn't specify a price point before. Extremely im****tant
> information. I have been a Turbocad user since version 6. I may be a
> Vectorworks user before to long. I do mechanical design. This is not a
full
> time thing for me. I run a machine shop. I use turbocad because it is
the
> most program you can get for the money. There are a few reasons I'm
> considering dumping it. Since version 6, three of the releases have been
> worthless. On each of these three, I went back to using the previous
> version. They always introduced patches for these lousy versions but
never
> did they really fix it nor did they try that hard. More of making a show
and
> then concentrating their efforts on bringing out a new version. It has
> always been very obvious that they never had a true draftsman on staff.
Many
> of their "improvements" in new versions have been aimed more at the
artist.
> More realistic rendering, more materials, ect while ignoring those
things
> that are essential for producing working prints. Several months ago, the
> parent company, IMSI, decided to get out of the software business. The
> company that is now known as IMSI Design is made up of former IMSI
employees
> and the actual owners are some investment group. Version 12 has been a
real
> flop. Bugs and constant instability have plagued it from the outset.
They
> have released three maintenance patches so far that have not fixed it.
In
> fact, the patches have actually broken things that previously worked.
Tech
> sup****t is nearly non existent. Very hard to get through to the company
and,
> when you do, their most common explanation for why the program isn't
working
> right is that you don't know what you are doing or your computer is
messed
> up. If you keep calling, they will often just quit taking your calls,
> relagating you to leaving pointless and never answered voicemails. They
also
> (company wide) have a long standing reputation of ignoring their user
base.
> This investment group acquired IMSI at the release of verson 12. It has
been
> such a failure that I'm wondering how long they will put up with such a
> looser before they cut their losses and run. At this point, I wouldn't
bet
> on the company being around for long. I have no personal experience with
> Alibre but, of what I've heard, it is quite capable and is along the
lines
> of Inventor or Solidworks. It is primarily a 3D design software. 2D
prints
> are generated directly off the 3D model. This works fine but, if it is
like
> Inventor, if you want to do any extensive 2D drafting, it's capabilities
in
> that are limited. Also, Of what I've heard, the price is a bit
deceptive.
> They sell you the base program and then, to get added features, they
will
> sell you ad ons. The last user that I talked to said that, to get the
> program up to a really useful level was several thousand dollars. There
is a
> company that was founded on selling training materials for Turbocad.
They
> have recently seen the writing on the wall and have switched their focus
to
> Vectorworks and Alibre. Many long time Turbocad users have been going to
> Vectorworks. The advantages, they tell me, are that it is more capable
than
> Turbocad,sup****ts both 3D and 2D work and the company really cares about
> what they are doing. I haven't tried it yet but plan to.
>
> "Scott Kelley" <sco...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:jbGdnZKh0990bDTYnZ2dnUVZ_qarnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
>
> > Of what I have seen so far, TurboCAD and Alibre are the only things
ones
> > that are affordable (up to $1,500).
>
> > What is it about TurboCAD that is not good? I didn'nt like the
interface
> > with v10, but v12 has some changes that should make it possible to set
up
> > the interface to work very much like what I consider the ideal. I
would
> > certainly like to know if there is something about the underlying
program
> > that would warrant my taking it off my list.
>
> > Any thoughts about Alibre?
>
> > > Intellicad is out. It's 3D capabilities are far short of your needs.
The
> > > version of Turbocad you have is one of the worst they have produced
> > > (though
> > > the newest one sucks pretty bad). If I were in your position, I
would
> look
> > > at Autodesk Inventor or Solidworks. Both do solids well, do sheet
metal
> > > unfolding and produced 2D prints from the 3D quite well.- Hide
quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
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