Preview of Alibre Design 12 Release, New Features

Only days remain before the public release of Alibre Design 12 as of time of this article. Alibre 12 definitely continues the standing tradition of delivering powerful, easy-to-use features at low cost. Here is a list of some of them, grouped by their work space:New commands and tools in Alibre Design: Alibre Design will offer a 3D-text feature... [Read more]

$99 Alibre Announced, Special Promotion in Australia

PRESS RELEASE (Modified for Australia)Richardson, TX (August 11, 2009) – Alibre, Inc. (http://www.alibre.com/) today announced the boldest marketing initiative in the history of 3D CAD – making professional grade 3D CAD software, including parts, assemblies, and 2D drafting, available to anyone for under $100. In Australia the promotional... [Read more]

How to Repair a Bridge

If you lived in the San Francisco Bay area, I wouldn’t need to tell you that the Bay Bridge is closed.  A  tie rod in a repair brace failed dramatically, dropping a several thousand pound steel saddle, with tie rods still attached, onto the bridge deck, hitting several cars (though, fortunately, no one seems to have been seriously injured.) The... [Read more]

CAD and antitrust?

Ralph Grabowski asks the question in his blog “Does CAD face antitrust under Obama?” It’s an excellent question. All major CAD vendors have “market power” in certain relevant markets.  Lock-ins from restrictive licensing and poor interoperability sometimes leave CAD consumers with little meaningful choice. It’s... [Read more]

Medusa4 Personal: free 2D CAD software

I read Ralph Grabowski’s blog regularly.  A few days ago, he mentioned Medusa4 Personal, from CAD Schroer. Actually, he mentioned that it is free for personal use, runs on Linux (and WIndows), and that he had an installation problem with it. I double checked, and indeed, CAD Schroer’s installation guide for Medusa 4 Personal doesn’t... [Read more]

Thinking about engineering and design

For the last seven weeks, Ralph Grabowski has been writing in upFront.eZine about CAD companies he met up with in his recent tour through Russia. This week, he writes about NTP Truboprovod.  As he explains, in Russian, Truboprovod means “piping systems.”  If you’re interested in tools for piping systems engineering, you... [Read more]

Why did you click "accept"?

There is a demo version of a CAD program that I’d like to take a look at.  It fits into a category that I’m very enthusiastic about:  Tools that empower non-CAD-gurus.  I wanted to talk about it here, in my blog. Yet, I can’t install it. It’s not because my computer is incompatible. It’s because, after having... [Read more]

Push/Pull/Drag/Drop Deelip

Update:  In this post, I’m trying to point out that disagreement isn’t a bad thing, as it can lead to discussion.   I’m also providing a little history, to show that not everything new is unprecedented.  Apparently my sense of parody is a bit obscure, because some folks thought I was picking on Deelip with this post. ... [Read more]

Before there was SketchUp

SketchUp is an amazing tool for doing conceptual design of buildings. It’s one of only a handful of CAD tools capable of inspiring passion among even casual users. But what came before SketchUp? Check out this demo tape of Alias Upfront, circa 1991.Go to Source VN:F [1.8.5_1061]please wait...Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)VN:F [1.8.5_1061]Rating:... [Read more]

Which CAD program would you recommend?

I recently received an email, asking me to recommend a CAD program. I thought it would be interesting to post a copy of the email here, and ask what you think.I am looking for a new 3D CAD program that is easy and intuitive to use like a Tool driven direct modeler that can also produce accurately dimensioned 2D drawings to be plotted with title blocks... [Read more]