cheap CAD offer

Just thought I'd share this in case anyone is interested - Alibre is currently offering Alibre Design Standard for $99, down from it's usual price of $999! It's a commercial product, so not free or open source (although there is a free version with a limit on parts per assembly), but I've been using the free version for about a year and have found it a pretty handy 3D CAD tool. I use SolidEdge at work, but use Alibre at home and have found it to have most of the functionality and ease of use for general modelling, although I have frequently run into the part limit when trying to build up an assembly. I think the offer runs for another couple of weeks, so if anyone is interested you'll need to act fast. For those in the UK like me, there is a UK reseller offering it but at the usual Brit-tax rate of £99 + VAT, however I was able to buy directly through the Alibre website for $99, saving me over £40.
It does export stl files, so I'm hoping it will come in handy for reprapping when I finally get my extruder working.

Did I miss?...I don't see the $99 price tag!

Still going for a few more days I think: [mkt.alibre.com]

Thanks for the heads up Matt.
$99 sounds like a good deal for this CAD software.

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Provillus

The deal is now back on!! with the translator so you can open and edit the Solid edge files for mendal! i just bought my copy..lol

I´m going to play around with the 30day trial first.
Let´s see if this tool is for me.

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I took a serious look at Alibre some time ago. It's a pretty powerful 3D CAD package. That said, the problem with Alibre, iirc, is that while you can export STLs, you can't import them. That means that you can't work with STLs developed and published in places like Thingiverse. That's a major disadvantage.

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

Forrest Higgs Wrote:
> while you
> can export STLs, you can't import them.

That´s indeed a huge disadvantage, considering
STL is #1 file-format we are working with.

Any filters that can convert STL lossless into
a format it can import?

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Hi Marcus,

... try converting/optimizing with MeshLab ...

Viktor

To be honest are there any CAD packages that can import, and then manipulate and edit STL files easily? ive been looking for some months now and havnt found one.Alibre has the largerest file import solution i found, and although the STL it exports are not Binery, they can be opened in Meshlab, and then re-saved as a binary STL, i found this works quite well.
i am currently working through the Tutorials and so far am liking it.

... i'm importing, editing and exporting STL with Lightwave and my CNC-package IsyCAD/PicturesbyPC.

For easy design/redesign or manipulating of 3D-objects you can use MeshLab or MeshMixer/ShapeShop ...

Viktor

how much were those cad systems? my budget was £150 max..lol

Can you produce Technical drawings/bills of material and assemblies as well?..maybe i missed a trick here..lol

I got curious about the Alibre/STL issue and took another look. Alibre's manual says that it can import DXF files.

Using Meshlab I can convert STL to DXF files. I did this with one of my good STL files and then opened the resulting DXF file in Voloview Express. All of the information is there still. I think I am going to buy a copy of Alibre now that I have a workable, if a bit awkward path from STL to Alibre and back.

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

False alarm. Alibre can only import 2D DXF files, not 3D. Sycode makes an Alibre plug-in that allows STLs to be imported. It costs $95, however, which effectively doubles the price of owning Alibre.

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

Looks like Alibre is not supporting Mesh data in any way. To edit STL you need a mesh modeler. Alibre is pure parametric solid modeler which is something different all together. You will need some sort of reverse engineering soft to convert STL back to nurbs or solids.

I just checked out the Sycode plug in with Alibre, and it works perfectly! very easy to use and edit the STL files, and then export them again as STL's again. the best bit is being able to acuraly snap to points and measure features! now anything i print i can check for accuracy after! so plug in + Alibre £170 still very cheap for profesional software thats on par with Pro E and solid works etc..and i also use these alot..lol

http://download.cnet.com/Alibre-Design-Xpress/3000-6677_4-10424841.html

Why pay $99 if for us last version is all we will ever need.

Here is the press release.

(Sorry, the Xpress-version of V12 is also free and limited in the same way.
The $95/97eur-version is not xpress but standard)

PS:
I just played through the first tutorial and this tool is GREAT.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2010 04:38AM by MarcusWolschon.

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oh nuts...lol, Free is definatly better than the £99 i paid..lol

sweaving Wrote:
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> oh nuts...lol, Free is definatly better than the
> £99 i paid..lol


My mistake.
The free version is the limited "Xpress" version.
you download the 30 day trial all it becomes xpress
after the tim is up.
Quite a few limitations of cause. I do not know if
it can still export STL in the xpress-version.
Can anyone check that fact?

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sweaving Wrote:
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> To be honest are there any CAD packages that can
> import, and then manipulate and edit STL files
> easily? ive been looking for some months now and
> havnt found one.Alibre has the largerest file
> import solution i found, and although the STL it
> exports are not Binery, they can be opened in
> Meshlab, and then re-saved as a binary STL, i
> found this works quite well.
> i am currently working through the Tutorials and
> so far am liking it.

The best for that specific purpose is TurboCAD Pro, versions from V10 onwards. The picture shows a Mendel frame vertex, solid to the foreground.
Select the imported stl, right-click properties, in the 3D category move the check from surface to solid. As the pic shows, it consolidates the stl mesh facets into one face when they're coplanar. Once that's done, the part will accept shelling, blending/chamfering, face deformation and in the later versions bending and unfolding, if, as in Alibre, the geometry's suitable. They use the same kernel, but TC isn't parametric. The part can then be re-saved as .stl. TC handles both ASCII and binary stls. New versions are pricey, but older ones are more reasonable on ebay. Make sure it's Pro, not Deluxe.

PunchCAD's ViaCAD and Shark will also stitch stls into solids, ASCII and binary.

I own each of them, and Alibre, so if you've got file exchange issues, I can likely solve them. Blender, AoI and other free CADs can usually interface through .obj. email me at makdickinson AT goconnect DOT net.

Best thing I've seen recently is AutoDesSys's Bonzai 3D. Check out the features on their site. It makes me salivate watching the videos. It's a direct modeler, not parametric, but its SO fluid.

Murray

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2010 07:24AM by murd.

sweaving Wrote:
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> To be honest are there any CAD packages that can
> import, and then manipulate and edit STL files
> easily?

Blender works for me.. It's not designed for CAD but it's so flexible that it's been doing everything I need. rab3d.com's precision modelling tutorial has been priceless. Here's an animation of something I'm designing with blender, and here are some renders of imported STL objects that are perfect 1:1 scale when printed at 600dpi also made with blender. Apparently there's a caliper script for adding measurements to the renders but I haven't played with it yet.

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Wooden Mendel
Teacup Firmware

I gave blender a chance.
Multiple times.
But when I saw that the stable, release-version in every debian and ubuntu
does intersection when asked to do union, union when asked to do subtraction
and a very broken subtraction when asked to do intersection I was gone.
It does have these nice loop-subdivisions but they stop working the moment your
object is no longer convex.

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MarcusWolschon Wrote:
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> I gave blender a chance.
> Multiple times.
> But when I saw that the stable, release-version in
> every debian and ubuntu
> does intersection when asked to do union, union
> when asked to do subtraction
> and a very broken subtraction when asked to do
> intersection I was gone.

You need to make sure you have your normals correct (It could be that your models were inside out), and also, make sure you select the objects in the correct order (if doing difference), before you can use the boolean operations.

Also, the boolean operations have bugs and are slow for anything other than trivial models. Typically, I create the entire structure, save, then proceed to performing the boolean operations one at a time, when there aren't more conventional means to create the structure (Extrusion and/or mesh based modeling works better and faster if you use Blender.)

BeagleFury Wrote:
> You need to make sure you have your normals
> correct (It could be that your models were inside
> out), and also, make sure you select the objects
> in the correct order (if doing difference), before
> you can use the boolean operations.

It´s not that the boolean operations are buggy
and fragile. It´s the point that it was not even
doing the correct operation but a completely
different one that got me upset.

> Also, the boolean operations have bugs and are
> slow for anything other than trivial models.
> Typically, I create the entire structure, save,
> then proceed to performing the boolean operations
> one at a time, when there aren't more conventional
> means to create the structure (Extrusion and/or
> mesh based modeling works better and faster if you
> use Blender.)

I was subtracting existing (slightly sized) parts to create matching holes
for them and adding the existing RepMan-tool-holder to the new tool.

The most complicated thing I tried to do in blender was the
cryptex. The boolean worked about 1/3 or the time but I had to make
sure to use trial and error to find what operation to click to get
it to do the one I wanted because clicking the correct label gives you
the wrong operation.

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Again, if the boolean operation was 'wrong' more than likely, your model was inside out. If your model is inside out, the boolean operations consider the outside of the model the inside, and the inside of the model the outside (Or, in other words, the boolean operations work properly mathematically based on the direction of the normals, but not as you had intended.)

To get it correct, you have to edit the mesh, select everything, then press CTRL-N (or space -> edit -> normals -> recalculate outside); this should correct the problem you were seeing with boolean operations "not working".

BeagleFury Wrote:
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> Again, if the boolean operation was 'wrong' more
> than likely, your model was inside out.


THIS IS A KNOWN BUG.
I´m not the only one experiencing it and
there is no way you can reliably make a union
instead of an intersection,... with wrong normals.
(And I guess the normals of 2 freshly created cubes
are very likely to be correct.)

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MarcusWolschon Wrote:
> > Again, if the boolean operation was 'wrong'
> more
> > than likely, your model was inside out.
>
> THIS IS A KNOWN BUG.
> I´m not the only one experiencing it and
> there is no way you can reliably make a union
> instead of an intersection,... with wrong
> normals.
> (And I guess the normals of 2 freshly created
> cubes
> are very likely to be correct.)

Fair enough. I've never encountered this bug then; whenever I've done boolean operations, they worked as I would expect, or could be made to work as I expect by renormalizing the meshes. I have seen pixel and corner glitches, which is why I usually avoid boolean operations; prefering instead to model using extrusion and mesh techniques rather than CSG techniques.

[forum.alibre.com]

I´m currently trying it.
It hangs on a medium complexity model in importing the step-file (1.6M
and on importing a trivial model (56 faces) nothing imported.
So... your milage may vary. I´ll still go on and write my own STP import.

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I found that you can easily fool Alibre Design into not becomming the
limited Xpress-edition but staying at pro-level after 30 days by simply setting your computer´s clock.

Who would have though that in this price-range and with online verification
of the license-key they don´t check the date with the servers.

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