It's an ad server

[doug6949]

Just got the latest email from Alibre/Xcad, wherein it says:

"All free versions of Alibre Design Xpress require an Internet connection and will display a banner of Google ads through a built-in web page. No third-party adware is installed on your system. If your Internet connection is lost we have taken steps to ensure that you can save your work. The Internet connection requirement can be turned off for a small fee."

This info was not available during the promotion. You will note that the page on the Xcad website bashing less-than-ethical practices of other cad companies has been removed.

[mrainey]

For fifty dollars you can eliminate the requirement for an internet connection and all ads. Could still be a remarkable deal.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by mrainey Could still be a remarkable deal.

It's quite obvious that depends on who you ask.

[Rekd]

It COULD have been a good deal, if they'd been up front about their intentions and the level of functionality from the beginning.

[mrainey]

There's a huge amount of activity on the Alibre Express forum, with opinions all over the map. Lots of people are outraged, lots are happy, or at least optimistic. The CEO even has a couple of long posts explaining his position.

http://www.alibre.com/xpress/forum/

[ger21]

Originally Posted by Rekd It COULD have been a good deal, if they'd been up front about their intentions and the level of functionality from the beginning.

I'm getting free software to do 3D parametric modelling. It's got ads in it, which I didn't expect. I also didn't expect software worth more than $500, even though they said it was comparable to $5000 software. They definately didn't handle this the right way, and it probably cost them some potential customers of their "real" software. But I think that of the 99,000 people that are not complaining, they'll probably sell a lot of $50 upgrades which will probably make up what they lost. And probably quite a few of those people will go on to upgrade to full versions.

Bottom line is, it IS a good deal. It's free! If you expected more, you were probably a bit naive, imo. ( you don't have to quote their ads again, I know what they said. )

[doug6949]

Nobody really got hurt. The promotion was misleading and many people are offended. The probable result is that a crack will appear on the newsgroups within a few weeks and Alibre will have shot themselves in the foot.

[moyesboy2]

I'm sure there is a crack for every design software out there for those who want to look for it.
I heard there is already a crack for AD...
So if thousands of people get a crack and switch the ad banner of ADX what does that matter?
There would still be thousands of 3D models being created in alibre format rather than SWX, SE, Pro/E.
Its how much data there is out there that matters and what format becomes the accepted norm (like dxf).

If you want to use the software professionally then you can't use a cracked version of anything. For sure your licence details are inside every step, sat, iges and dxf and the risk is not worth it. If anyone thinks is is to save $4000 on SW then is it still worth it to save less than $1000 on Alibre's full version? and worth the risk to save $49 on ADX?

ADX allows you to create a solid model of any complexity and use it for whatever purpose.
Since prodesktop express was stopped there is nothing comparable available at less than $1000 - beleive me I did a lot of research on this looking for a solid modeller!