Alibre's Tutorials ROCK

[Rance]

I had loaded Alibre Express about 10 days before the contest ended and tried feverishly to learn enough to design something for the contest. I thought, boy, if I could submit something (even simple) in a short time as a new user, I might just win 3rd place. In short... NO WAY. I tried several times to build something as simple as a piece of angle iron, but I just couldn't do it. No, I'm not really that stupid, just ignorant (there's a difference)

Well I left it installed and got the notice a few days ago about an update. I was on the virge of just uninstalling it but thought I'd give it another chance. I started the download (@ 56k), and left to go play Racquetteball. When I came back, I finished the update and also found a tutorial from one of their consultants. I normally do well with tutorials so maybe this was the ticket.

Well, I completed two of their simple projects, a Bowl and an Extrusion (similar to 8020). I am so stoked after completing these!!! Not only did I learn how to do the beginning stuff, I finally found a reason to use the dancing banana in a post.

I'm not sure if I am one of the first 100k users to download express so I'll have to check tonight. As I understand it, I'll need something more than just the common Alibre Express to export to the files I'll need in getting my drawings to G-Code.

I understand 2D/3D drawings well but having almost NO experience with any CAD software packages, NO I did not find Alibre Express intuitive. However, there are aparently MANY tutorials from Alibre in addition to some from others that can help get you jump-started.

Rance (getting stoked about more designing now!)

[ger21]

If you've never used a program like Alibre (or Solidworks or Inventor or.....), doing the tutorials is MANDATORY. Unless you want to spend hour after hour getting nowhere. A few tutorials will get you up and running in a few hours.

[spalm]

Rance,

I too am excited about Alibre. I tried a trial version last spring and really liked it. I guess I am weird because the user interface really made sense to me. I am an expert at schematic and PCB cad and run many advanced simulators at work, but have never been able to cross over to mechanical cad, especially standard Autocad. I bought books and actually tried real hard. It really has been maddening.

Anyway, I want to go back to Express now that it does not have the google ads. One other restriction that I think I saw was a limitation to the number of components for an assembly. Two days ago I got an email from Alibre that I actually read and noticed:

Advanced Assembly Extension: $199
Create and modify assemblies with an unlimited number of parts.

Advanced Drawing Extension: $199
Create Bills of Material (BOMs) and additional 2D drawings views for detailing including broken, section, detailed, partial and auxiliary.

These seem like reasonable prices if it gets to be a problem. I plan to do my next machine in Alibre (or at least some of it). If you want to share some parts, we should hook up.

Steve

[Rance]

Originally Posted by spalm Rance, ...I plan to do my next machine in Alibre (or at least some of it). If you want to share some parts, we should hook up.

Steve, I'm assuming you are talking about coordinating to minimizing duplication of drawings. Or are you referring to cutting parts for two machines at the same time? With my first machine being so small and used as a training/testing ground, I doubt there would be many physical parts of my machine you'd be interested in.

If you're talking about drawings & design work then I look forward to that. I see from some of your files that I had previously archived for future reference (which is now) that you already have many components drawn (MDF2A_Components.pdf, etc.). Are you not happy with the drawing pkg you had used? I assume you intend to use Alibre to replace your previous drawings.

My immediate goal is to get some key drawings done and posted to let the 'inspectors' (you, Ger, etc.) take a look at for opinion feedback. There's at least one that I think you'd be interested in to strengthen up the gantry rocking before you get too much further.

So which drawing file format is best for sharing? DWG, DFX? Do tell.

Rance

[ger21]

I think Steve's talking about Alibre part files. Common parts like Steppers, Couplings, bearings....even Routers (spindles). Stuff that anyone using Xpress can use. I started to model a Porter Cable 892 in Xpress, but haven't had time to persue it.

[spalm]

I think that Alibre has real possibilities for many users on this site. It is free for the basic package. It is a real 3D CAD system. A few dollars can be thrown at it later if you run into its limitations. This is a real plus in my mind. Like Gerry mentioned it would allow us to share part files for the kind of thing we are building here. That is what I was talking about. And did I mention that it is free?

Using it for modeling a machine allows you to actually slide the gantry back and forth to check fit, etc. It would open up a whole world of CAD that many users here have not been able to employ.

It has not been since last spring since I used it, but I do think I remember that one can export to drawing mode and save as dxf, which would allow you to convert to Gcode and route it.

And did I mention that it is free?

Edit: Why has this package gotten all the bad press and not caught on here? I don’t get it.

Steve

[ger21]

Originally Posted by spalm Edit: Why has this package gotten all the bad press and not caught on here? I don’t get it. Steve

Apparently, since people didn't get the full Alibre package for free, they'd rather use nothing. I personally think it's great. But since I can draw or model about 10 times faster in AutoCAD, I haven't used it much. But I will in the near future.

[davidmb]

Rance, get hold of a copy of MeshCam, Alibre Express can output 3d part files as .stl (stereo lithography) format. MeshCam will import these format files and output gcode. So far I have managed a simple part right through machining, see the thumbnails.

I am quite impressed with this whole setup as the test part took about 5 minutes to draw, 2 min to convert and 7 min to machine.

[ger21]

MeshCAM is great, but it's not the best choice for 2D or 2.5D parts. But yes, it does work great with Xpress. That's one of the first things I checked.

[davidmb]

Yes as ger21 pointed out Alibre and MeshCam are not a good choice for 2d or 2.5d, I'd go with a standard cad such as autocad or turbocad and something like ace convertor to take the dxf's and convert them to gcode. I tend to get tunnel vision as I'm working towards machining 3d (double sided) patterns for hobby casting.

[Rance]

Nice example David. Gerry, its a full enough pkg. for me. Steve, seems that I recall you mentioning that Xpress is Free. That's my FAVORITE WORD.

[leberen]

DONT FORGET FINANCING!!! around $85 a month for 1 year, then skip a year and renew the next. Cheap and providing similar features to the heafty boys.