Solidworks v Alibre Pro

[jbeech]

I'm not looking to start trouble, nor stir up fanboys. Simply put, I've been using pencil and paper for sketching things and then making prototypes with a lathe and mill. When it works, I have parts made in production quantites with CNC machines. While I have resorted to AutoCAD when necessary, it's really not the tool for 3D and a friend will usually convert my sketch using his 3D package but this is becoming awkward as volume ramps up. Hence, I now find myself investigating 3D CAD.

I quickly zeroed in on Solidworks as a suitable package but also found Alibre Pro seems to be well regarded. An important advantage of the latter is price, but saving money is soon forgotten if the tool is awkward and not efficient. Consequently, I figured who better to help me choose than folks familiar with these tools?

My parts are simple, and my assemblies don't generally exceed 100-200 parts (and more usually are 15-30 parts).

Frankly, $1500 versus $5000 is significant so what makes Alibre Pro less suited to my needs than Solidworks?

Rgeards,

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

what makes Alibre Pro less suited to my needs than Solidworks?

From the sound of it, nothing! Alibre would seem to fit the bill adequately. If you need half decent surfacing ability occasionally, you will find Alibre lacking.

An even better deal for you might be found at

http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm

I was going to recommend Co-Creates Solid Designer PE, which was free ... but it appears the money grubbing new owners (PTC) no longer offer that module.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Ahah! Found it. I was wrong ... perhaps PTC isn't as money-grubbing as I thought.

http://www.ptc.com/offers/tryout/pe2.htm

 

[Eltron]

I used to be an Alibre user. In fact I still have it on my machine. Relative to SW it is clunky, but if you are doing a specific type of work only, you may be OK. Have you tried out any one month free trials?

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[moyesboy]

Check out the Alibre design express free version. you might be able to do everything you need with that (its not crippled or restricted to personal or educational use - it is legal for commercial use).
It all works, and depending on their current marketing policy - it changes all the time - you can buy the extra functionality you need bit by bit.

I have used Alibre quite a bit.
There is no doubt solidworks is better but not 10 times better depending on what you are doing...horses for courses.

 

[jbeech]

A major question is how do I interoperate with suppliers if I elect to use AD instead of SW? For example, for parts I expect to be CNCed, will I give them a .STP or IGES file (which is better for the purpose?) and will they be able to open it with SW, and more importantly, if necessary, edit it? Or must I, if dealing with a CAM shop which uses SW, resort to SW as well for interoperability? In short, when I visited the Design2parts show in Orlando a few months back, all the vendors asked for a SW file and in my inexperience, I neglected to ask if I used AD, could they accept a file output fomr that instead (or if it would becoem a pain in the rear to do this).

 

[beachcomber]

SpaceClaim might be worth a look.
It has really good import functions that would let you use any of your old models, and quite easily create new ones from existing AutoCad drawings.

http://www.spaceclaim.com

You can get a 40-day free trial quite easily (30days + extension of 10 days if reqired) and there are some good videos on their web site.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.

Where would we be without sat-nav?

 

[Eltron]

A .stp or an .igs file should be what the CNC shops ask for, although most of mine do ask for the native SW files. It was constantly a pain switching formats. So that in conjunction with some other limitations at the time made the switch a no-brainer for me. However, now SW is getting better at recognizing features and populating the feature manager when importing IGES or STEP files. I think you just need to try them out for a month, and send your shops a couple of file formats.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[jbeech]

The same basic question on the Alibre forum has elicited some pretty good responses, but frankly, I am not so sure I understand all of what's been written. Here's a link if any of you care to try and help me understand better.

Specifically, why a surface modeler may cause other problems for me (swertel has been guiding me quite well with his responses, but I still have questions, so perhaps another viewpoint would help).

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=263127&page=1

Many thanks folks!