This is first day of use stuff. No complex surfaces, and still not an
assembly. I'd say 4-5 hrs of going through the exercises.

C Smith

Can Alibre render that stuff?

Paul Lamar

I guess I don't understand the question. I made these myself, with alibre,
today. Render as in????
I exported them to igs files, because I've seen that format here on this
letter. There are quite a few export choices. As far as the term "render",
what do you want to see? A jpg? There are a few .stp choices. I will
document the export formats, tomorrow.


C. Smith

jpgs.

This is what your parts look like rendered with Rhino.

Paul Lamar


So here is a jpeg of the completed assembly. I haven't explored all the
features of presentation, there's a whole slew of options, so these are just
defaults. I'll try to add fillets to edges, and I think the top block is
doable later today. Some of the hole dims aren't clear to me from the jpegs,
but I think I can come pretty close.
C. Smith

That is pretty good Craig. Either that program is easy to learn or you are a
genius. I suspect the latter.
What does it cost? Can I get it for Linux?

Paul Lamar

The standard edition is $97 right now.(my current version) Then there are
the support and upgrade options.
http://www.alibre.com/

It looks like it is a windows only program. Sorry.
But I think for 3d, the standard edition is a decent starter. I purchased a
12 month training and support package, that was another $500 roughly, which
gives me access to the exercise book (which walks you through that universal
assembly) downloadable videos (about 2.5 Gb of .avis) and there are online
tutorials that cover functions, like fillets and chamfers for example.
I may be wrong, but I think the online tutorials are included with the basic
price. The exercise book is extra, one should poke around the website, maybe
talk to a sales rep to get clear on what is included with which package.
All I can say is the way the book leads you through the steps, and gets the
basics of part creation right out in front. Then learn the refinements by
online topic tutorials. I'm liken it! 8-D

C. Smith