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Free CAD program - Alibre Design?

Not sure - the file names end with .AD_PRT and .AD_ASM for parts and assemblies. I think you can export to other file types. I really don't know anything about any of the packages available today (I haven't done any drawing since 1993 :o ). I was just looking for something to help me draw out what I wanted to build.
 
Email me one of the drawings you have done and I'll see if I can import them into some of my cad proggies
 
Mark emailed me 2 file types of the same drawing. One was a prt and the other was an igs. IGS files worked in all of my different cad/cam programs that I work with. Its a pretty universal cad/cam file type. As for the prt one, I believe it is program specific as I could not get it to work on anything.
 
Muddytazz said:
Mark emailed me 2 file types of the same drawing. One was a prt and the other was an igs. IGS files worked in all of my different cad/cam programs that I work with. Its a pretty universal cad/cam file type. As for the prt one, I believe it is program specific as I could not get it to work on anything.
Click to expand...

cool as soon as my computer gets working again i think i am going to have to try this software out
 
I have been an AutoCAD user for years. I did the 30 free trial and I had it mastered in about a week. I personally think that it is the best bang for the buck of any 3D modeling program out there.

If you can scrape the $2K together, it is a great design solution for parts and even large assemblies. I found that the support was really good too.

As for importing into other programs. I exported a bunch of patterns and emailed them to a friend who had a CNC burn table and he made me a bunch of parts from the .dxf file.

Let me know if you decide to buy it.
 
It'll be a long time before I can justify spending that on a CAD program. For now I'll just be satisfied with the free (hobbled) version. It has way more functionality than I expected - and the price is right :)
 
Dang, I come home to a phone message from Alibre wanting to chat with me about this software etc etc etc etc. :doah: :doah:

Serves me right for filling in the phone number field...:crazy:

Rene
 
Yeah - I just checked my phone mail - same thing. I was really tempted to use my standby internet information - but I decided to use my actual number - oops.
 
Fubeca said:
Hi - I just started playing with this - it seems pretty nice for a free version!

Anyone have any experience with it?

http://www.alibre.com/products/

Here's a screenshot of a drawing I made from their tutorial last night.
Click to expand...

I'm impressed - do you have a background in CAD, or were you able to put together that headache rack just from going through their tutorial?

I'm an old CAD-skinner since AutoCAD 2.18, just before they went pseudo 3D with R9, so I fully appreciate the learning curve pretty much all of the Autodesk products require. I've seen the ads Alibris has put out, hoping to get folks to try their product, but I haven't been too keen to spend the time learning something new. But I'd love to get something that useful for free! I've got a copy of Acad2005 from work, but I don't see spending 2K+ to buy my own.

Have you tried designing anything else? Show us more of your screenshots! Are there any other limitations you have run across that would make it worth upgrading to the pay version?
 
I don't have a CAD background. I do have a technology background and play with different computer apps a lot. I was able to model that rack after going through the 30 minute tutorial to draw the enclosure above. I don't have any idea how similar this product is to others out there.

I made plenty of mistakes drawing the rack :) - but I had fun with it. I don't have anything else - yet.
 
Muddytazz said:
Mark emailed me 2 file types of the same drawing. One was a prt and the other was an igs. IGS files worked in all of my different cad/cam programs that I work with. Its a pretty universal cad/cam file type. As for the prt one, I believe it is program specific as I could not get it to work on anything.
Click to expand...


.prt is usually a Pro-E part.

Email me the part and I'll see if I can do anything with it.

-Ben

fb1email-ck5 at yahoo dot com
 
BTW, I just talked to the sales guy (he called back). He was pretty cool, just wanted to know what I was using the product for. I told him it was just for small one-off stuff. He said it was free - and told me the price of their cheapest package (~500 - I think, wasn't paying attention :) ). It wasn't too painful. Now I just need to figure out how to use it. :crazy:
 
Here's a couple of an end table I'm building. I'm learning how to make measured drawings now too. I'm pretty stoked!

Assembled Table.jpg

New Drawing (5) - Alibre Design Xpress(1).jpg
 
Hey guys, sorry about the delay.

I tried to pull the parts up in Pro-E and didn't have any luck. Unfortunately Pro uses the .prt files and these are the .AD_PRT....... they don't want to talk to each other.

The good news is that the .igs file imported fine!
(.igs is a pretty universal solid model format)

-Ben
 
so it says you need like 516 ram or whatever - is it possible to run it, tho slowly, on 256?
 
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