CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
10 January 2005
Implementation Investments
New Business Maximizes Productivity and ROI with Alibre Design 3D CAD Software
Carr Information Services, a new engineering design and consulting company focused on the needs of the material handling and machine design industries, adopts Alibre Design as its primary solid modeling tool and gets productive in a week while saving 5 to 20 times the cost of comparable applications.
Owner Steve Carr had years of experience with expensive software like Pro/ENGINEER and CATIA, but needed a more affordable solution for his new business. He considered purchasing AutoCAD and TurboCAD, but knew he would need a good parametric solid modeling tool for the conveyor machinery he planned to design. While Carr was skeptical of Alibre Design because of the low price, he decided to take the 30-day free trial and see what it could do.
During that 30-day period he was able to complete his first project as a consulting designer. Part of the reason he was able to reach production-level output so quickly with Alibre Design derived from his broad background of skills and experience with 3D modeling software. Even so, much of the credit, notes Carr, goes to Alibre's clean interface and ease-of-use.
"I've been through training in Pro/ENGINEER and CATIA that took several weeks," said Carr. "Then once the basics are learned, it might take up to six months to become productive. That wasn't the case with Alibre Design."
Carr admits that the software's low price at first gave him pause. But as he used the software in actual production projects, he was amazed at the ROI he was enjoying with Alibre Design in his consulting business.
"From my experience in the field," he says, "a lot of applications with all the modules attached will run a company up to $20,000 and more per seat. But few of the engineers will utilize more than 10 to 15 percent of the software's features. I could have spent from 5 to 20 times what it cost to use Alibre Design and still ended up using the same features that come with Alibre Design, and are all first-rate."
For the full story visit http://www.alibre.com/products/customerstories/cs.2005.01.06.carr.asp .
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