Deals on Alibre

[stanstocker]

Hi Folks,
Alibre is doing a black friday deal on their products, discounts from 25 to 50 percent.

Not a shill, I'm not an employee or dealer of Alibre stuff. Actually it sort of sucks that I could buy Alibre Pro outright for what they want to charge for the upgrade to Pro from Atom...

I hope this isn't a "bad" location for this, moderators feel free to move it somewhere more appropriate if you wish!

Best toall,
Stan

 

[Alibre]

Actually it sort of sucks that I could buy Alibre Pro outright for what they want to charge for the upgrade to Pro from Atom...

Hey Stan, we have deals on upgrades as well. We don't typically post upgrade pricing because it's more complex to buy it online than other things. Ping [email protected] or go to alibre.com and click the chat button, and they can give you some pricing. It will be cheaper than buying Pro at the current discount.

 

[stanstocker]

Thank you for the reply! I had talked with Matt in the past about upgrading so sent him an email.

Take care,
Stan

 

[mrehmus]

If you are a U.S. or Canadian vet, you can get SolidWorks for $20 a year. The entire package including their CAM.

 

[GreenTwin]

If you are a U.S. or Canadian vet, you can get SolidWorks for $20 a year. The entire package including their CAM.

WOW.
I think I am going to go into the military........
.

 

[Richard Hed]

If you are a U.S. or Canadian vet, you can get SolidWorks for $20 a year. The entire package including their CAM.

The Alibre is 100$ for a perpetural liscense. I thimpfk it is a much better deal. That is, if it is as powerful as Solidworks. I have used solidworks before, it is really easy to learn. I bought the Alibre, I have been having trouble learning it, but it's not because it is difficult--rather, it is so conceptually different from all the other CADs I know. I keep expectingt it to work like Inventor, but it is not Inventor and it doesn't work like that. With a little practice, Alibre is getting easier to use. I will draw up some parts, see how long it takes, what quality of end product, that is, how are the end, 3D pages. Will it have nice thread representations? Will it have quality "detail" representations? Will it have quality cross sections?

I'll find out in the next few days before Thanxgivving, as I have a few days off till Friday.

 

[mrehmus]

Alibre has not near the capability of SolidWorks and their 2D capability has problems in several areas and has had them since version 3 when I started with them. It has significant problems with 3D detail like fillets on complex surfaces—it just refuses to do some of them and the order in which you attempt them makes a difference. For straight forward modeling it is OK and up until recently, most 2D drawings were OK except it refused to dimension some features and one had to draw some invisible lines over them and dimension them to get them on the drawing.

 

[Richard Hed]

Alibre has not near the capability of SolidWorks and their 2D capability has problems in several areas and has had them since version 3 when I started with them. It has significant problems with 3D detail like fillets on complex surfaces—it just refuses to do some of them and the order in which you attempt them makes a difference. For straight forward modeling it is OK and up until recently, most 2D drawings were OK except it refused to dimension some features and one had to draw some invisible lines over them and dimension them to get them on the drawing.

Oh, yeah, it definitely has some drawbacks. Having to go back and forth between activate 2D sketch and model to extrude a part is very irritating. However, it is a LOT cheaper than Autocad which does NOT have a perpetual liscence. Some of the commands seem clumsy and the method of getting the 2D object located takes longer than Solidworks, AutoCAD or Inventor--even so, the bang for the buck still lies with Alibre (I thimpfk ). A few more daze and I will probably be kicking it. Howver, the 2D drawing (the one you will print) is far easier than Autocad. It is much like Inventor and Solidworks.

I thimpfk I will make a test to draw something jup in Autocad, then port it over to Alibre to do the 2D dwgs for printing. Anybody ever tried that before? Might work.

 

[L98fiero]

Alibre has not near the capability of SolidWorks and their 2D capability has problems in several areas and has had them since version 3 when I started with them. It has significant problems with 3D detail like fillets on complex surfaces—it just refuses to do some of them and the order in which you attempt them makes a difference. For straight forward modeling it is OK and up until recently, most 2D drawings were OK except it refused to dimension some features and one had to draw some invisible lines over them and dimension them to get them on the drawing.

I don't get into very complex modelling or huge assemblies in Alibre but it does everything I need.
If you go to the Alibre forum there is one member that does injection mold work and in his opinion, it's very good. Does it have issues, sure but as he points out after having used several different high end CAD programs, every one of them has issues, it's just a matter of what 'workaround' you need to get things done. I have used Solidworks but there was no way I could justify the price, for me, Alibre's 'the best bang for the buck'.

 

[Jasonb]

I've not found 2D drawings in Alibre a problem to produce and all the ones I have had published or made freely available have not had any complaints come back from those that Have built the designs.

Not sure if Atom gives thread representation in 3D but Pro does although it is really just eye candy and slows things down. Threads show up as they should on 2D drawings.

Agree with Mike that fillets can tie it in a knot but I often don't show them on designs for my own use for clarity and use the ball or bull ended tools and the CNC to add them or simply use F360 to put fillets in before using that to run the CAM.

 

[mrehmus]

Just to clarify, my position. I've used Alibre for the drawings in 38 of my 39 issues of Model Engine Builder and it has been much better than AutoCad for which I had a license before its first release. Alibre is 10 times faster to the 2D drawing than doing it in the original AutoCad.
I license Solidworks for my private use as I cannot use it for commercial applications. Nor can you use Atom I think for that purpose.
The problem with Alibre is that the 2D drawing capability of Alibre seems to have deteriorated over the past few releases. I do not appreciate having to delete hidden hole and extra center lines when I didn't ask for them. If the hole isn't visible, they should not put them in unless I ask for them.
As for the fillets. If you are trying to print a mold pattern, the lack of good filleting operations is nasty. And that problem has been around for almost 15 years now.
The bottom line is when I started with Alibre, it was the only affordable solution out there and I'd probably have dropped out of the magazine business after the first issue if I had to continue with AutoCad. So in a way, I owe those folks a great deal and I will continue to use Alibre until I stop publishing.

 

[Richard Hed]

Just to clarify, my position. I've used Alibre for the drawings in 38 of my 39 issues of Model Engine Builder and it has been much better than AutoCad for which I had a license before its first release. Alibre is 10 times faster to the 2D drawing than doing it in the original AutoCad.
I license Solidworks for my private use as I cannot use it for commercial applications. Nor can you use Atom I think for that purpose.
The problem with Alibre is that the 2D drawing capability of Alibre seems to have deteriorated over the past few releases. I do not appreciate having to delete hidden hole and extra center lines when I didn't ask for them. If the hole isn't visible, they should not put them in unless I ask for them.
As for the fillets. If you are trying to print a mold pattern, the lack of good filleting operations is nasty. And that problem has been around for almost 15 years now.
The bottom line is when I started with Alibre, it was the only affordable solution out there and I'd probably have dropped out of the magazine business after the first issue if I had to continue with AutoCad. So in a way, I owe those folks a great deal and I will continue to use Alibre until I stop publishing.

Thanx for letting us know that. I have only been trying to learn Alibre for a few days now. One thing for absolute sure is their "tutorial" is absolute sh*t! All other CADs that I have used, it is easy to place a feature, but so far, I find Alibre's method to be a bit "odd" at the least. Maybe it is simply because I am missing something or have not had enough practice. Even so, bang for the buck? Alibre. I'm sure, if Alibre was the only CAD available, I would be totally happy with it--well almost.

 

[Jasonb]

Mike, you can you not tick or untick to include hidden detail and ctr lines when creating the drawing? Last image shows the same part with options on or off

I'm not sure why you can't use Alibre for your commercial unless you have some deal that gets you current releases for free.

Yes I can see the fillet issue being a problem if you are printing etc

 

[petertha]

Solidworks is rolling out a reduced price 'for makers' offering. If the fine print & caveats meet your requirements, could be another way to go. I thought I read somewhere that the low cost deal for EAA members might be nixed soon & integrated into this model. But maybe that was hearsay or conjecture, I cant recall.
https://discover.solidworks.com/makers

 

[Richard Hed]

Solidworks is rolling out a reduced price 'for makers' offering. If the fine print & caveats meet your requirements, could be another way to go. I thought I read somewhere that the low cost deal for EAA members might be nixed soon & integrated into this model. But maybe that was hearsay or conjecture, I cant recall.
https://discover.solidworks.com/makers

I am willing to pay 100$ for a perpetual liscence, maybe even for 5 years, but not hardly for yearly fee. I have several CADs, I just want the easiest to use that does as I order.

 

[kuhncw]

I've used Alibre since it was first released. I like it.

Chuck

 

[Doug Burkart]

I have been using Alibre since 2008. I like that you own your seat for life regardless if you are up to date on the maintenance or not. I have let the maintenance lapse on my seat a few times because I wasn't using it very much and then renewed it when I was.

Doug

 

[stanstocker]

Solidworks is rolling out a reduced price 'for makers' offering. If the fine print & caveats meet your requirements, could be another way to go. I thought I read somewhere that the low cost deal for EAA members might be nixed soon & integrated into this model. But maybe that was hearsay or conjecture, I cant recall.
https://discover.solidworks.com/makers

The EAA access to the real deal big gun solidworks is no more. New deal is a 50% off annual subscription to 3D Experience Solidworks for Makers (about $50/yr versus $100/yr). This was not something EAA initiated.

I didn't find much on the product other than a vapid bit of fluff about how exciting it is. It's cloud! It's exciting! It's for makers! The "maker" crap always makes me think of bobbleheads putting glitter, a jewelry pin, and self blinking LEDs on a Popsicle stick and being very impressed with themselves while frantically signalling their virtue.

Last thing I want is my CAD or motion control stuff being "exciting", when machine tools get exciting bad things are usually happening says Mr. Grumpy.

Add in that it's for hobby folks / makers only, limited to use on projects making under 2000/yr., and it appears it watermarks all 3D formats.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-building/builderresources
If I only needed limited 2.5/3 axis CAM and file formats Fusion360 Hobby for free is probably the go to if lowest cost is the most critical aspect. If they had never done the entire package for free and then pulled the rug out, and instead and had released the current version as a community / hey kid first ones free version it would probably be very well received. For me, the problem is Autodesk has a very bad history of making free not free or no longer available. Anyone remember 123D? Notice how many of their products are now annual subscription rather than buy it and own it? Just like Adobe and Microsoft Office.

If I didn't care about parametric and wanted just a simple 2D drawing program with integrated reasonable CAM with some useful features like fillets and OK dimensioning Vectric Cut2D would look pretty good. Add in Librecad if you want better 2D cad and have fun. I've done a lot of clock parts using VCarve with some open source packages like inkscape and librecad.

After looking at that and fooling with Freecad I bought Alibre Atom Workshop. I had decided I really wanted 3D CAD capabilities, not just excellent drawing/creation like Blender, but real CAD. Meshcam Pro (formerly Art), which is usually $500 from the original maker, plus 2 seats for Atom all for $400. $300 at the moment. Nice as I have two shop buildings and my eyes get tired quickly using a laptops small screen. I'd always liked meshcam when in fool with it / demo version mode, and the chance to buy it at a good discount and get two seats of Atom for free was a deal too good to skip.

I really don't want my software calling home every minute, and having everything on a cloud server just sits wrong with me. I like having local files that I can back up. Some prefer to let others deal with such things in a cloud, and as long the others get it right that's fine.

I was looking at upgrading to Pro obviously, but as I looked further I realized the pro maintenance is $350 a year, versus $50/yr for Atom. As Atom does all this simple guy has needed so far (actually most of my needs can be met by VCarve Pro) it looks like I'll continue on with Atom. Mike has pointed out some issues, but for 3D parametric CAD it's about the only product that works for me in the area between free and $1000+ per seat, or on a $495/yr subscription like fusion360.

The hobby price range 3D CAD / CAM world is tough for the developers, figure they want to get people using their products and want to upsell a certain percent of users to a flagship level product. At the same time, they can't leave too many of the flagship features in the hobby version without killing off the upsell / upgrade revenue stream.

The hobby price range 3D CAD / CAM world is tough for us too. We have to balance financial impact versus how many quirks / irritations / weird work arounds we are willing to deal with. Sometimes you just want stuff that works, sometimes just works has a price tag.

I'm retired, no investments in or employment by Vectric or Alibre, just have been happy with these two companies.

Cheers,
Stan

 

[Richard Hed]

The EAA access to the real deal big gun solidworks is no more. New deal is a 50% off annual subscription to 3D Experience Solidworks for Makers (about $50/yr versus $100/yr). This was not something EAA initiated.

I didn't find much on the product other than a vapid bit of fluff about how exciting it is. It's cloud! It's exciting! It's for makers! The "maker" crap always makes me think of bobbleheads putting glitter, a jewelry pin, and self blinking LEDs on a Popsicle stick and being very impressed with themselves while frantically signalling their virtue.

Last thing I want is my CAD or motion control stuff being "exciting", when machine tools get exciting bad things are usually happening says Mr. Grumpy.

Add in that it's for hobby folks / makers only, limited to use on projects making under 2000/yr., and it appears it watermarks all 3D formats.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-building/builderresources
If I only needed limited 2.5/3 axis CAM and file formats Fusion360 Hobby for free is probably the go to if lowest cost is the most critical aspect. If they had never done the entire package for free and then pulled the rug out, and instead and had released the current version as a community / hey kid first ones free version it would probably be very well received. For me, the problem is Autodesk has a very bad history of making free not free or no longer available. Anyone remember 123D? Notice how many of their products are now annual subscription rather than buy it and own it? Just like Adobe and Microsoft Office.

If I didn't care about parametric and wanted just a simple 2D drawing program with integrated reasonable CAM with some useful features like fillets and OK dimensioning Vectric Cut2D would look pretty good. Add in Librecad if you want better 2D cad and have fun. I've done a lot of clock parts using VCarve with some open source packages like inkscape and librecad.

After looking at that and fooling with Freecad I bought Alibre Atom Workshop. I had decided I really wanted 3D CAD capabilities, not just excellent drawing/creation like Blender, but real CAD. Meshcam Pro (formerly Art), which is usually $500 from the original maker, plus 2 seats for Atom all for $400. $300 at the moment. Nice as I have two shop buildings and my eyes get tired quickly using a laptops small screen. I'd always liked meshcam when in fool with it / demo version mode, and the chance to buy it at a good discount and get two seats of Atom for free was a deal too good to skip.

I really don't want my software calling home every minute, and having everything on a cloud server just sits wrong with me. I like having local files that I can back up. Some prefer to let others deal with such things in a cloud, and as long the others get it right that's fine.

I was looking at upgrading to Pro obviously, but as I looked further I realized the pro maintenance is $350 a year, versus $50/yr for Atom. As Atom does all this simply guy has needed so far (actually most of my needs can be met by VCarve Pro) it looks like I'll continue on with Atom. Mike has pointed out some issues, but for 3D parametric CAD it's about the only product that works for me in the area between free and $1000+ per seat, or on a $495/yr subscription like fusion360.

The hobby price range 3D CAD / CAM world is tough for the developers, figure they want to get people using their products and want to upsell a certain percent of users to a flagship level product. At the same time, they can't leave too many of the flagship features in the hobby version without killing off the upsell / upgrade revenue stream.

The hobby price range 3D CAD / CAM world is tough for us too. We have to balance financial impact versus how many quirks / irritations / weird work arounds we are willing to deal with. Sometimes you just want stuff that works, sometimes just works has a price tag.

I'm retired, no investments in or employment by Vectric or Alibre, just have been happy with these two companies.

Cheers,
Stan

I just purchased a lifetime liscense of Alibre for 100$. I too would never use the screwy cloud business, but it's not becuase of the reason you cited. Rather it is because, I KNOW they will be hackt and someone WOULD steal my stuff. Oh, I know they claim they are unhackable, but evrything made so far has been hackt. Military, banks, governmnet corporations. It's just a matter of time and what is valuable to steal. I have my proprietary stuff backt up on 3-4 different hard drives.

 

[MrMetric]

Stan... I *completely* agree with you on AutoDesk. I simply don't trust them to not repeat the bait and switch routine over and over again. F360 is a good product, but the pricing on it is *far* above what I want to pay. Most of us work on shoestring budgets that compete with many different things. To put the lion's share (or possibly even exceed our budgets entirely) towards renting software from AutoDesk is just not going to fly. And, frankly, I don't really trust SolidWorks not to do the same thing. I'm an EAA guy but I purposely didn't do much with the SW license because I figured it would go away. If I were a veteran, I'd also assume the same.

Something I can afford to buy once is about the only thing I really want to deal with. I can quantify that expense and either accept it or reject it.... Pure and simple. Plus, the big problem I have is that I acquired an old, but still very capable, obsolete machining center for my garage. I fixed the servo amp, etc, etc and now it works great. But getting CAM is a troublesome thing to do. Alibre and MeshCAM seem like they could be a good pairing, and NOT a rental. Check! People assume that commercial grade stuff is used for commercial purposes. That is patently untrue in many cases. I know LOTS of people who never have made a dime with their industrial grade machinery.

For simple CAM, you can also use PowerStation from MicroCIMM (they will discount significantly, I believe, if you ask). It will do most of what you want in 2.5D space. I plan to pair that with IntelliCAD CMS. They frequently have 50% off deals on their products. You can license IntelliCAD in a multitude of different ways, but I got a perpetual licensed, web validated (but local version), perpetual upgradeable version for $150 last year. It is close enough to AutoCAD that I can whip along with 2D drawings. I've not tried to port it over to PowerStation for CAM yet though. That is coming.

In the meantime, I do want to find a decent 3D modeling package. I'm not sure I'm sold on Alibre, but the fact that it has a perpetual license is probably going to sway me soon. It is a bit more than I want to spend for CAM, but I'm feeling kind of bullish on the idea.

Alan