Alibre design in progress

[xyzcnc]

Startin to get the hang of it.
[IMG]

[CNCadmin]

Nice going, it will only get easier to use.

[xyzcnc]

Another update

[xyzcnc]

View from back of gantry with Y back plate hidden

[Ken_Shea]

Looking real professional xyzcnc,

CAD is not easy, in-spite of what all the CAD manufacturers say, unless they mean it's easy once you begin to master it , I know you must have worked hard on this, all those detailed great looking drawings we see can take many hours, days, weeks, even month's.

Nice work.

[xyzcnc]

Work still in progress. Table and Y backer hidden. Some spec's.... Travel X=37.0 Y=25.0 X=6.5. Will use rolled ball screws on X and Y. Z axis is a finer pitch precision ground preloaded ball screw/nut. I am still trying to figure out the best way to preload or reduce backlash on X and Y.

[moyesboy2]

How is this assembly for speed?
Did you notice it slowing down as it got more complex?
did you have any 2D drawings created from it? Did you think they were slow? It seems to me the drawings can be quite slow.

Today they released v8.2 and claim a +5x increase in speed in assemblies and drawings!
(list price went up too!)

[xyzcnc]

"How is this assembly for speed?"

Tolerable (AMD 3000 Semperon 1 gig memory). I have learned tricks to help keep assembly from slowing down to much. Build parts in there own space not in assembly, then insert into assembly. Do not use interdesign constraints if possible. If you need to build parts off of other parts in assembly mode create the minimum required geometry then close assembly and open part up by itself, delete interdesign constraints and apply local dimensions and constraints as required. Editing parts while in assembly mode is slow (if assembly is large).

"Did you notice it slowing down as it got more complex?"

Yes

"did you have any 2D drawings created from it? Did you think they were slow? It seems to me the drawings can be quite slow."

I have not created any drawings from this assembly yet

"Today they released v8.2 and claim a +5x increase in speed in assemblies and drawings! (list price went up too!)"

I have upgraded to 8.2 already. I like the upgrade but don't know where they came up with that 5x speed increase they have been talking about. It is noticably faster though.

[moyesboy2]

Suspect the 5x speed increase could be there with particular types of assembly and drawing. The drawings, expecially assembly drgs, seemed particularly slow to me.

I think the graphics card may also be an influence. I'm not talking about fancy graphics cards, but high street "gamer" cards. Did you upgrade to the latest driver for your graphics card? I notice I can set my ATI9600 to be optinmised for openGL or directx which might be significant. Alibre is using directx not openGL.

[xyzcnc]

FYI I am using GeForce4 Ti4200 with up to date drivers. Seems plenty fast for rotating, panning, zooming etc. Don't think its the bottle neck for assemblies though.

[xyzcnc]

Lets try another picture.

View showing X,Y & Z motor mounts