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My company intend to migrate from Inventor to this Alibre Design Expert... but, after a month trial, i still not found any solution to this: In Inventor, the workflow i use is using Derived feature to derived a solid body from other part as a boolean cut (Subtract join in Inventor). Does anyone know how to insert ( as in Solidworks) or derived (as in Inventor) a solid body from another part file?

Love the video, but it stinks most of these features are free with hobby license of other companies. As a hobbiest, I almost pulled the trigger on atom, but without basic things like drafts, it wouldn't meet my needs. I don't make money with my work, so $1000 is a bit steep for features I have with F360.

Very neat! Thanks for the tips.

Key shot is a billed yearly application. Alibre is a one time purchase. How does having Keyshot work? Is it one and done, or will I still need to pay for Keyshot every year?

Alibre - After using Autodesk 123Design for a number of years I recently decided that I needed to move to a new CAD program. The two main reasons was 123Design tended to crash alot when extruding a sketch, and the second being that it did not have a history tree so it was impossible to go back and edit your designs. I first tried Fusion 360 and didn't like it, and didnt want to use a subscription based software. Then I came across Alibre and ended up buying Alibre Atom 3D which I have been overall happy with. I have only been using it about a month now. The only thing I don't like is that most of the tutorials or videos on TH-cam are with people using Design Expert version of the software, and some of the videos & tutorials are older versions of the software. I just wish some videos of Alibre Atom 3D were available for beginners upto more complicated steps. As I do alot of 3D Printing and wanting to get a 3D scanner I need to improve my CAD design skills.

I'm trying to do lofting 0:50 but my object is not visible and dissappear when menu start to pop up 0:60 how do I make see my object when I'm lofting?

ok you have 3 rectangle type but how do I able this on my alibre atom I only have default rectangle and cant find those two rectangle you mention

This is not bad but the runout on the flutes is made with a milling cutter/grinding wheel, on a quarter inch drill, it looks like about 3/4 inch diameter, how would you do that?

'So my favourite way to edit models'... is direct editing!

Fantastic video yet again Joseph. Thank you. Jimcad

I have actually turned down some small contracts because I had to do rotative edits to SW parts and export in step. I did'nt know how to do this and I thought the contract was not worth the time to re-design those features. This is an absolute game changer for people working in multi CAD teams or freelancing and wanting to make changes to existing files, step or otherwise

Great video. I got a new tool to use.

Love it! The school of Alibre gets better with every video you make. Thank you for your work.

You keep improving my tool belt! I wish we could import an STL and convert to Surface and then to Solid without using Freecad

Alibre customer service. That's the first thing he mentioned that sold him. And I agree! Alibre excels in that area for sure, and I hope it always stays that way.

This is really cool! Nice job guys!

These are the types of demonstrations that are so great, showing beginners how to complete projects that may not be focused on CAE!

Great video! I did not know about the first two methods. I've been using the third method (orient part in a new assembly). In fact, I use this method to align the CG of a part or assembly with the origin because Alibre--frustratingly--doesn't calculate the mass moments of inertia at the CG. It only calculates the mass moments of inertia about the origin and the principle axes. This is one of the features that Alibre is sorely lacking (along with an assembly constraint that allows one to center a face between two faces--rather than have to calculate offset values).

These are some cool ways to go about it. Although it's worth noting that most 3D Printing slicers will let you re-orient a part however you like, but it's still useful to be able to do it many ways in CAD. Thank you

Amazing timing! I JUST ran into this issue haha

This was a great video! I would love to learn more about surfaces. I've been using Alibre design Expert for 15 years and slowly but surely becoming more comfortable in it. your video series have been a great help! Can you believe I only just learned how to use refrence geometry to work in assemblys? it's both embarrasing and delightful..

Excellent video as always. I do have a request. I used Inventor and the wire/cable/harness add on. I know I would be able to create wires and cables in Alibre using parameters; however, is there a straightforward way or technique to add cables and wires? I'm sure this is a feature a lot of people will want (or want to know how to do). The way I would probably do it in Alibre is to use the sweep and drive the parameters of some of the lengths, for instance, if the cable was in a cable chain, the bottom and the top lengths of the cable in the chain would drive each other in some way. Anyhow, hope to hear a good process on how to do this.

For some reason, this video is lower resolution than the other tutorial videos (text is not readable)

can not find import in version 27

Would be nice to have actual multibody modeling with derive parts functionality.

I was looking for this and just realized this is not in the standard 199US version... you have to buy the pro version (999US) to get this feature and many others missing, I'm sad now

How to make the Spline starting point really Inside of the middle of the circle and If I wanna make the spline connected to the edge of circle? I wanna make it as a good guiding line for handle?

Keep in mind that mirroring right thread produces left thread. May be not important here, but important when you prepare parts for 3d printing.

for some reason my loft and spline wont work properly and when ever I closed the software and open again works why is that I have to reset my making

Is there any release map for PDM ?

The biggest limitation right now I see is no general save and check in of exports. As a single user, I was saving projects on a cloud drive share. This syncs between my desktop and laptop. It also holds my license key to release and reregister when I switch computers up to 3 times a day. Running the PDM locally on the desktop is generally good. However, there is no way to save associated files such as exports and drawings. So I still need directories in the cloud drives for projects and it gets confusing if I don't name then the same. So I'm working on a 3D printable design. I use my python script to export STEP files for all the parts of my assembly to drive somewhere. The script includes a spot to have suffix so I can label v1, v2, etc. It would be amazing if we could have an Exports folder in a project on PDM and have PDM as a target for export. Including checking with versioning. However, this needs a folder proxy location for using it as a slicer can't read out of PDM. This lends me to go back to using Github for file versions over PDM as the Alibre files are only part of a full project solution. A windows filesystem driver layer for the PDM would allow access out of it for read only. This would mount as a drive on the PC and point to your PDM server. Then readong project associated drawing as PDF, pulling STEP or STL files for slicing, etc. would be possible. Hmmm...

Great video as always, thanks! I see you are using hotkeys for dimensioning and constraints, did you set these up yourself or are there standard hotkeys that I can't find?

But can PDM tell me why I buy way too much filament? I think not.

I thought SolidWorks and FreeCAD splines are bad, but it looks like the splines here are even worst

Is it possible to copy a part in the library?

In case you're not aware of this, the BOM videos are playing out of order. #70 in the list plays #71, #72 plays #73, #73 plays #74, and #74 plays #70. Excellent introduction to the product!

is it possible to test the pdm system in a trail version of alibre?

Great intro, but its not clear how you got that dark background when you rendered the image.

Is there a setting that makes it easier to select lines when trimming a sketch? If one has the slightest tremor selecting a line can take minutes and become frustrating.

Wait, you're telling me I can get a forever copy of Alibre for about the same price that OnShape charges for one year?

Thanks!

I have expert. I'm an ex Inventor user. I love Alibre and the support is excellent. Jim

How you multiplied the feature around the surface?

You can’t beat Alibre. I’m a daily Solidworks user at my day job and use Alibre at my second job. There isn’t anything I design is SW that I can’t do with Alibre. If given a choice I would pick Alibre hands down.

I'm sold!

Can you do draft along lines like in SolidWorks?

Why I got Design Expert..? Because even it, the most expensive Alibre option, costs a small fraction of the Solidworks licence and you get a comparable CAD system (with better Sheet Metal and more Robust Assembly Constraints, IMO). And if you don't need all of those tools and just want something to design simple parts to 3D print, you get Alibre Atom. Same design kernel, same robust system for around 200$ in the US.

Linux version?

what is an easy way to continue a line as an curve/arc? Something similar to Click and hold left button in Fusion360

What about parts that move like hinges? That's my biggest challenge when I use assembly in context, when I rotate parts that are used for constraints, the child parts are changing too. Is there a way to use constraints between parts and still move parts around without messing up the original part?