Alibre Express for free and fun :)

[ErikG]

No I'm not selling it, but FARK, it's so intuitive. Going through the first tutorials it's so clever and very easy to use!

I've been banging my head against that Rhino wall more than once...

So if you haven't checked it out, do that!

And I'd say the price is just right, ITS FREE!

Sure I think it's limited to a max of say 25 parts (if I remeber correctly). And you have a row of ads at the top, but not to annoying.

Well I like it.

Wether its as good in the marine environment... Well I haven't gotten that far yet

Edit: Forgot to include a link for anyone who has missed it:
http://www.alibre.com/xpress/

[ErikG]

As I'm going through the tutorials...
It works with native Rhino files!
Seems like a good thing

[CGN]

Alibre have a plug in that works with Rhino i don't know if it will work with the free version, now for those who registered for X-CAD the fisrt 100,000 are getting a sweet deal becouse the version for those is including shelling and other good features, but if you download now the version is a little bit more crippled, but still a good deal.

[nevd]

Do you think its worth spending USD 995 to get the full version? Could it be used as a replacement for Rhino or could it be considered as a replacement for Acad?

[CGN]

No as a rhino replacement or 2D Cad, Alibre is a parametric modeler like solidworks or ProE, it has nothing to do with 2DCad or surfacing, Alibre is good for mechanical stuff, shafts, rudders, bitts, cleats just to mention some, you can import sections from a rhino model and import it into alibre and create structural members of a boat, it can be done I just don't find it quick or efficient enough when compared to solidworks, but for hobbies and with plenty of time it is possible to achieve such task, you can produce 2D drawings form the models and have a bill of materials of the parts in your assembly, all this parametric you change your model and it will reflect on your 2D drawing.

They are really good on support, and I think the price is right, they also have a bunch of modules like Algor FEM analysis, MSC motion designer ( I think that's the name) there is a plug in for rhino, and they have other plug ins including for CAM and CNC.

[ErikG]

Well CGN knows about this stuff. Me I'm just an amateur.

But with that said, I find in my first stumbling atempts that making most interior parts is a lot quicker in Alibre than in Rhino.
But I think that only has to do with that the userinterface and the tutorials are so good, so it's very easy to get into it.

As for When and Where a surface modeler or a parametric is the best thing to use... I couldn't say.

[Tim B]

I'd just go with rhino for interiors, It's very fast and efficient (I've even put in the pot plants) and I've been playing with geometry files upto about 20MB (before deciding to split it up).

As for getting into Rhino, there are still things that keep me on my toes, but now that I've started to write LMH (see website for screen-shots in the next few days) I've started to get a better appreciation for how the surfaces actually work, and this has allowed me to progress with Rhino at a previously un-heard of rate. Perhaps we all just need a little tutoring on surface definition.

The major downside for me is that it is only supported on Windows, and I honestly don't want to develop my own code in Windows just because it's not comfortable. For the moment, at least, It looks like I'm going to be using LMH (Linux) Rhino (Windows) and my own bits of code to do design work.

Tim B.