CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
13 September 2004
Product News
New Version of Alibre Design 3D CAD Software Delivers Powerful New Features and Unprecedented Satisfaction Guarantee
Alibre Inc. announced the latest release of its professional 3D CAD application for mechanical design and manufacturing, Alibre Design 8.0.
Alibre Design provides 3D parametric solid modeling for mechanical design and manufacturing at one-fifth or less the cost of comparable products.
Based on high levels of customer satisfaction and increasingly positive market feedback, Alibre is also beefing up its Guaranteed Success program by increasing the money-back guarantee period to an unprecedented 60 days.
New and enhanced features in Alibre Design 8.0 include:
• Associative Design Booleans: support for join, subtract and intersect commands, and the ability to use multiple parts and assemblies as "tools"-ideal for creating mold cavities. Change the tool and the mold cavity updates.
• 3D Sketch: sketch free-form 3D curves for use in a variety of modeling operations, including creating and routing piping or cables, or advanced sweeping and lofting.
• Enhanced Sweep and Loft Operations: supports multiple sweep paths or loft guide curves so you can create more complex sculpted shapes for consumer products and conceptual design.
• Free-form Surfaces from applications such as Rhino can be imported and used to trim solid models or thickened into a solid for further editing.
• 2D Drawing enhancements include support for images in drawing templates, flexible handling of line styles and color definitions, and improved dimensions.
• Application Programming Interface: customize Alibre Design to automate repetitive tasks and improve integration with add-on applications like ALGOR DesignCheck FEA software, included with Alibre Design Professional and Alibre Design Expert.
• User interface and productivity enhancements include:
• Improved interaction with 2D sketches & sketch planes
• Enhanced assembly constraints allowing grouping by component
• Simplified multiple selection
• Shaded reference planes for better visibility
View the full list on the Alibre Web site: http://www.alibre.com/products/new
"When I first tried Alibre Design, I was very skeptical-the price is extremely low compared to Pro/Engineer or IDEAS," said Mark Will, a Project Engineer with Servo Systems Co. "In the last year, I used it to design a series of linear stages and custom machinery; I must say Alibre Design works at least as well as the other packages. And I can run it on my laptop; a big plus when I'm on the road. Alibre Design is a solid 3D design package for a price you just can't beat."
"ALGOR's complete product line now supports direct CAD/CAE data exchange of parts and assemblies from Alibre Design and provides full associativity-allowing users to make iterative design changes without needing to redefine FEA loads, constraints and other data. This new, higher level of integration is made possible by the new API introduced in Alibre Design 8.0," says Bob Williams, Product Manager for ALGOR, Inc. "The tighter integration offered through our InCAD technology delivers increased productivity for users performing ALGOR analyses on Alibre Design models."
"I use Alibre Design primarily as a solid modeler for creating Finite Element Models," said Barry Kingwill, Naval Architect and Mechanical Engineer with Triton Naval Architects. "The Alibre/Algor partnership offers a real solution for simple and complex analysis work, alike. As long as you can do what your competition can do, it means you have the right tools. And with the improved interface to ALGOR afforded by the new API in Alibre Design 8.0, I have the right tools."
Alibre Design, the company's low-cost, 3D parametric solid modeling application for mechanical computer-aided design (CAD), is priced at $795*. Extended versions that include several advanced features and add-ons, Alibre Design Professional is $1,295 and Alibre Design Expert is $1,795.*
*International prices vary; contact Alibre for details.
Become a member of the CIMdata PLM Community to receive your daily PLM news and much more.
Tell us what you think of the CIMdata Newsletter. Send your feedback.
CIMdata is committed to your privacy. Your personal information will never be sold or shared outside of CIMdata without your express permission.