garryj
Heliman
Location: Bellevue, WA
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| I seriously doubt that any design professional will feel safe using this product while connected to the internet. For the hobbyist it might be a good resource? I wonder what the "small fee" is to turn off the internet requirement? I guess we will find out...LOL
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As do I, but the Alibre software itself is for real. I'd hazard a guess that any company that uses this type of software to generate real revenue would rather deal directly with a company during their evaluation period, and Alibre certainly offers that with their "real" products. But if some of their employees have used Alibre Express at home and like what they see, who knows what could happen?
I'd also hazard a guess that the non-professional world is a HUGE market that has remained relatively untapped, and I do think that this (albeit "gimmicky") effort is a real boon to "the rest of us" that would like a taste of the parametric 3D solid modeler world, and maybe actually get something that's useful out of the bargain. If anyone expected something that matches SolidWorks or Inventor feature for feature and still is free, they should keep looking (if they did expect that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell them  ).
I'm an R/C heli enthusiast that is also a "hobbyist machinst" (probably just like a whole bunch of folks on this forum!), and a while back, I was looking for a parametric 3D solid modeler package that was not a joke that fit my $1,000 budget, which is a joke in the 3D solid modeler world 
I spent several months evaluating all the "trialware" that I could get my hands on, and settled on Alibre's "Basic" package, which at the time, was $795, and I have been very satisfied with my purchase. Alibre Express looks to have the most-used basic features, and it appears that the 100,000 that registered will get these "bonus" features:
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| Advanced part modeling, which includes features like shelling, 3D sketch, reference surfaces, etc. View the Alibre Design brochure on our web site for the full part modeling feature set.
Create and edit assemblies with up to 25 unique parts. You can open an assembly with more parts in read-only mode.
Create 2D drawings with standard orthographic views. All drawings are fully associative: you change the model and the drawing updates.
3D import/export of all the standard formats Alibre Design supports, including STEP, SAT (ACIS), and IGES. DXF and DWG are supported in 2D, and STL is supported for export.
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I take from this that the "regular" Alibre Express will be limited in its file import/export functionality and may not have 2D associativity. And, IMO, the part limit on assemblies will be one of the most limiting factors. But, how much should a reasonable person expect from something that's "free", even given the adware baggage? In the past, I have used PTC's "Pro Desktop Express", which was their un-advertised "free" trial/learning solid modeling package, but it was buggy as all get-out, no import/export capability at all, and the file format you did have was only compatible with Pro Desktop Express, and not any of their other "commercial" products. Alibre Express looks like it uses the same native file format as its "big brothers". Compared to that, Alibre Express looks like it will be a bargain, even if it was twice the price
Here are several examples of what I was able to cobble up in Alibre Design Basic, and I consider myself a rank amateur. I think something like the tailbox should be completely do-able in Alibre Express. The other pics are assemblies that have more than 25 parts, but again, I don't think I used any feature tools to do the individual parts that Alibre Express doesn't have.
I am one of the 100,000 registered (after I found out that it was probably Alibre that was behind X-CAD), and do plan on installing Alibre Express on a second PC to compare it to the "full" (though most minimal) package that I purchased from them. My experience with Alibre as a company has been good, but I guess time will tell on their Alibre Express venture. I do hope it works out well in the end, though the start has sure been a bit rocky...
  
garryj
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and the ads drives me nutts... hehe..
