Originally Posted by cjdavis618  Alibre, I was able to get parts done and procedures down in a short time frame and at a great price. The tutorials that come with the program are a great way to start and you can work in 2d if you choose. Pick a plane and draw. That is why there are 2d tools and 3d tools on the menus. |
Well, I will have to take another look at it then. I ran through it about a year ago, and while I really liked the capabilities, it seemed like the workflow to just do a simple 2D projection was a bit much. Going from a simple idea (e.g. 4" square with 2" circular hole in center) to a DXF required a lot of "yak shaving" or at least that's how it appeared to me.
Generating the DXF in particular seemed to require a moderately long series of steps as the only way I found to do it was by creating a projection from a 3D model. This got annoying quickly as I often wanted to go back from the CAM to tweak a dimension in the original DXF.
I kept looking for a 2D-only mode and couldn't find it. I will say that the full 3D parametric modeling aspect seemed pretty well done. I haven't worked with SolidEdge or anything on that level so I can't compare it to much, but having worked with Autocad R/10 long ago, the whole idea of parametric modeling was a revelation, like going from arithmetic to algebra. It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing to introduce the students to if that was the idea.