Layers

[tobyaxis]

Alibre Design Professional V10. The reference manual shows that Alibre has Layers but they do not exist in this version. I'm not even sure if this is the SP1 Version. Anyone know if there is a difference between V10 Professional and V10 Expert??

The Manual shows that the settings are in : (Files>Properties>Layers tab)

[Mechamatic]

You have to be in a drawing workspace. Layers only apply to drawing entities.

Len

[smurph]

Toby,

I don't believe there is any notion of layers for the 3D parts. There are layers for the 2D drawings though.

Also, if you switch hit between 2D and 3D, you will notice that there is not a "units" tab in the 2D File->Properties. You set the units with a dimension style there. Default is inch, so you have to go in and define a metric style.

There are differences in the 2D and 3D interfaces that you have to watch out for when searching through the docs.

There is no difference in the Alibre Professional and Expert as far as drawing goes. With Expert, you get Alibre Motion, Alibre CAM, and a few other 3rd party programs. Otherwise, the interface is the same.

I had Professional and I upgraded to Expert, so I have seen both products.

Steve

[tobyaxis]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to read the manual more carefully in the future. Still lots to learn at this end.

One other quick question.

Alibre seems to give an error when I try to trim one side of a Symmetrically Constrained Rectangle.

How do you get around this?

My first thought is to create two rectangles perpendicular in position ("L" shaped), trim them, then use the symmetrical constraint.

The next thought would be to use a different type of constraint.

[tjones]

Drawings can act funny when used with symetric constraints in certain cases.

Think of it as having 2 like items that are mirror of each other. Now change one by adding a new feature to it. The other side does not have the same feature so how then can it be symetric?

Some things can while others can not. This may be one of those times that it would be better to create the one half using dimensions to constrain the location then create the other side using dimensions that refer to the first half.

I am not sure if you have use the equation editor or turned on the 'show equation' in the sketch yet. You can dimension one thing and it may be labeled D1 in the equation editor. You can change the name if you like to say 'width'. Now you can dimension the other item and instead of typing the dimension you can type 'width' (or D1 if not changed).

The nice thing about the equation editor is that now you can open it and change the part length, width, or whatever without ever editing the sketch. It will regenerate the part with the changes.