Alibre -- how transferrable are skills?

[LessPaul]

Hello,

I am about to buy Alibre based on great reviews and the (almost) unbelievable price. I'm rather new to the world of CAD/CAM, but I've heard lots of claims that Alibre is sort of a "Solidworks Lite." I don't know if this is true, but the question I have is if ever I were to move to Solidworks, how many, if any, of the software skills I would have gained using Alibre translate to Solidworks?

It is frustrating that so much effort goes into learning a software package, but those skills are rarely transferable. I had very little adjustment moving from a claw hammer to a ball-peen hammer, but software...

[canadamaxxer]

I learned Solidworks first and found the transition to Alibre to be very painless. I can't help but think that going the opposite direction would still be relatively easy. You're still using the same basic concepts with either program. The hardest part for me initially was panning and rotating views in Alibre...

[ger21]

Most parametric modelers are very similar. Once you learn how one works, switching to another isn't that difficult. Mostly just finding where everything is.

[foxsquirrel]

Hi, I purchased a seat of Alibre and found it to be a waist of money. Solidworks 2010 is the only way to go if you are doing this for a living.

[canadamaxxer]

A waste of money? Really? I forced the issue and got my company to purchase solid modeling software....Alibre was the best I could get for the budget I was given....and for what I conceive of, design, print as a drawing, or input into SheetCAM as a DXF and then cut on our plasma table, it's basically ideal. I have not as of yet done any assemblies, but for us, 99.99% of the time, it's brackets, braces, and gussets.....so Alibre is very capable of doing what we need....

The support has been good, and they seem eager to add or modify features......

[ger21]

Hi, I purchased a seat of Alibre and found it to be a waist of money.

The Standard version costs less than 10% of what Solidworks does. So if it does half as much as Solidworks, then you're getting 5 times as much for your money.

[foxsquirrel]

The Standard version costs less than 10% of what Solidworks does. So if it does half as much as Solidworks, then you're getting 5 times as much for your money.

You are right about the value, it is very good hobby grade software for the money. I have the patience and attention span of a 2 year old child so that means my level of tolerance for quirky and the obtuse is very low..

[scudzuki]

You are right about the value, it is very good hobby grade software for the money. I have the patience and attention span of a 2 year old child so that means my level of tolerance for quirky and the obtuse is very low..

There are a lot of users running successful businesses with Alibre Design. You should check out the user forums over there. There's a lot of talent and experience there, and they can do some impressive work with it.

In my limited experience with Solidworks and a bit more with Alibre I do feel that Solidworks is a better product. I don't think it is worth 50 times what Alibre is worth, though.

Hello,

I am about to buy Alibre based on great reviews and the (almost) unbelievable price. I'm rather new to the world of CAD/CAM, but I've heard lots of claims that Alibre is sort of a "Solidworks Lite." I don't know if this is true, but the question I have is if ever I were to move to Solidworks, how many, if any, of the software skills I would have gained using Alibre translate to Solidworks?

It is frustrating that so much effort goes into learning a software package, but those skills are rarely transferable. I had very little adjustment moving from a claw hammer to a ball-peen hammer, but software...

If you're not sure about investing $5000 plus in solid modeling software, investing $97 in Alibre Design and exploring the advantages of a parametric modeler could be a good move. I found the transition from Solidworks to Alibre extremely easy, so a move in the other direction should be no problem.

Joe

[LessPaul]

I appreciate all the great feedback. I guess a second version of the question would be "what software, other than Alibre, can teach me basic (portable) parametric modeling skills with an investment under $100?"

Clearly there is a reason that Solidworks and other high-end packages command the prices they do. I simply can't afford them.

[foxsquirrel]

I appreciate all the great feedback. I guess a second version of the question would be "what software, other than Alibre, can teach me basic (portable) parametric modeling skills with an investment under $100?"

Clearly there is a reason that Solidworks and other high-end packages command the prices they do. I simply can't afford them.

I'd go for the $97 package, you cannot loose anything considering I just spent around $100 on a couple SW books that I did not need. They do have some similarities so if you do upgrade sometime in the future to SW it will be pretty easy since both are parametric based. I learned in the old days when you had to understand boolean algebra and AutoCad was ran in DOS!!

[MechMach]

I use both Solidwork and Alibre almost daily. I use Alibre Expert and Alibre Cam 2.0 (vm6) for tool pathing with both native Alibre parts and directly imported SW parts. On many parts I have modeled them in both just to see how they turn out. While Solidworks has a much much larger bag of tools, I find Alibre much faster and less fatiguing. There are some things Alibre simply can't do, but what it does, it does well. Transitioning between them has not been a problem.

In my experience, if I can't model it in Alibre, then I probably can't mill it anyways, and, if you need more advanced CAD functionality, then you already know what you need and will be able to justify the expense.

I would recommend Alibre standard till you get familiar with parametric modeling. Then wait for one of Alibre's frequent sales on upgrades and get the pro version.

[foxsquirrel]

I use both Solidwork and Alibre almost daily. I use Alibre Expert and Alibre Cam 2.0 (vm6) for tool pathing with both native Alibre parts and directly imported SW parts. On many parts I have modeled them in both just to see how they turn out. While Solidworks has a much much larger bag of tools, I find Alibre much faster and less fatiguing. There are some things Alibre simply can't do, but what it does, it does well. Transitioning between them has not been a problem.

In my experience, if I can't model it in Alibre, then I probably can't mill it anyways, and, if you need more advanced CAD functionality, then you already know what you need and will be able to justify the expense.

I would recommend Alibre standard till you get familiar with parametric modeling. Then wait for one of Alibre's frequent sales on upgrades and get the pro version.

Will the CAM 2.0 take .sldprt files direct and 3D contour? Just curious because we are going to replace MCAM possibly later this year and plan on spending more time with sales reps during the decision stage and have all the vendors over.