What Can Alibre Do if I Have FreeCAD? |JOKO ENGINEERING|

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Public Dislikes: Only like this comment if you dislike the video.

[@BloodyMobile]

Well, that's one way to shove it up YT's face. I like it, but for obvious reasons I won't like the comment for that.

[@j121212100]

@@BloodyMobile for shits and giggles I disliked the Public Dislikes comment.

[@Nuttoz]

Oh. noway.

[@avongil]

I switched over to freecad after I had issues with a part I needed to get out in alibre. The sketcher in alibre is nice for simple stuff, once it gets complicated - crash city. With realthunder's freecad, I finally made the jump and I must say it brings back the fun I had in the late 90s with ProE. The sketcher is rock solid. There are still bugs that make it not really parametric, but I get around them by working with spreadsheets. I just refuse to pay for software I dont own or runs on the cloud - this is a great option.

[@j121212100]

and it is free like free beer and free speech.

[@flypic1098]

As an ex Inventor user, Alibre looks far more familiar to this old man's eyes. I'll investigate this further. Thank you for opening my eyes. Jim 😉

[@ExMachinaEngineering]

I literally got a quote for Alibre Design Expert today. Perfect timing!

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

The fancy one! I hope you enjoy it!

[@BestUnderPressure]

My mom always said I'd be famous. Thanks for all your videos. They are very helpful.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Thanks for the comment that started all of this!

[@rossmaunders9854]

Once again a very helpful video. Thank You! I have maintained an Alibre Design license since purchasing an early version from an add in Nasa Tech Briefs. I recently retired from the Automotive world (NX, Catia, and a stew of PLM, Industrial Design, and CAE tools. Early on had a hand in writing surface and special CAE tools.) With the help of your videos I've caught on to FreeCAD and am finding I can use FreeCAD and Alibre in a complimentary workflow.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

That's awesome, welcome to the post NX world! It's nice to hear someone is using a workflow similar to mine.

[@tiborkemeny8644]

You've made a decision for me smooth and easy. I've been working with pressure vessels, Freecad - I really like it - gave me some hard times too... I think, I'd use Alibre for CAD-modelling and preparation for FEA. Thank you for your video and your time :)

[@redshiftcnc]

I'd be curious to hear what you think of the latest improvements in Freecad .22 or soon to be v1.

[@avejst]

Great video tour Thanks for sharing your experience with the "kids" with all of us 👍😉

[@flypic1098]

Didn't have time to watch this fully earlier but I have now. As an ex Inventor user this looks very friendly to what I'm used to. I'm very impressed. Thank you. Jim

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Thanks Jim! I think Part Design is a great workbench and really lowers the learning curve

[@flypic1098]

That's the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'm at the age now where this old sponge between my ears can only soak up a little . . . . and very slowly! Jim 😉

[@flypic1098]

I'm in England. Just spoke to John Minto of Mintronics. They're a reseller for Alibre. What a fantastic guy! He explained it all to me about the pricing and maintenance etc. I know now what I'm looking at so I'll watch some more video tutorials and make a decision on buying this. Give them a ring. (No I'm not getting anything for this) (Hope I'm not breaking any rules with this)

[@simpernchong]

Nice comparison. Thanks

[@mtrivelin]

Thank you very much for your time dedicated to this educational video. It would be very interesting to see a comparison of Alibre against Ondsel. I'm a 3D artist who does little modeling, but when necessary I do it in Maya. I decided to study CAD so I could 3D print objects with exact measurements. I'm studying Ondsel, a variant of FreeCad, but all the time I come across a video saying "that other cheap CAD program" is much better, that it doesn't give errors, it's faster, etc. The cheapest CAD program of the moment is Alibre Atom. So I don't know whether to continue studying OndSel or dedicate my little available time to something more mature, like Alibre. Obviously cost is an important factor. Alibre Atom seems to be affordable. There are other options like Plasticity, but the approach to the problems seems to be very different.

[@jjdawg9918]

Excellent video! I was stoked and then.... Windows only (; It would be so nice for 3D what-if prototyping to not constantly worry about the TNP in FreeCAD. easily worth $149

[@TheFarCobra]

Great video as always.

[@tre4B]

Would love to see a new version of this video comparing these two now

[@bl4688]

Great analogy! I get it.

[@thefekete]

4:20 is blazingly fast, but you don't have any joints in that model.. so that metric is up in smoke.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

I can't tell you how happy I am that someone caught that!

[@TheOriginalGeekyNoob]

I'm considering Alibre Atom3D right not for the exact reasons you demonstrated there - I currently use FreeCADLink, and love it for the most part ... right up until its assembly time, then, its just miserable, compounded by the fact that professionally I use Siemens NX, which is an absolute beast. I tried Solidworks Maker, which was fine aside the cloud management of models was also quite messy, so Alibre is about the only CAD I've yet to try out...

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Good luck! I think Alibre has a solidworks feeling to it.

[@Austinfromcorncountry]

@Joko Engineeringhelp: what are the specs on the computer you are using to run Alibre? I am considering Alibre for personal/side business use but some of the loading times that I am seeing on your videos would be pretty annoying to me (I'm a spoiled Solidworks user with a good PC at my day job). Mainly Im wondering what your processor is, your ram, and your graphics card. PS I'm very thankful you are creating Alibre content because you are just about the only one on YT doing it!

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

I wouldn't use the specs to represent loading time in the video; recording video at higher definition is a lot of resources all around while trying to run a CAD platform at the same time. Xeon(R) CPU E3-1505M v6 @ 3.00GHz × 8, 32GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro M2200 Graphics. Thanks, in the description of my recent videos you can use my affiliate link to get a discount on any Alibre products you'd like to buy (It supports me too!)

[@Madeinoz1967]

The problem with Alibre is there are not MacOS ports, and the main reason I initially moved from Alibre to F360, now on Freecad

[@tomdeline]

How do you fix the topology naming errors? I noticed that things break specifically when making reference to external geometry. Are you supposed to go back and redraw the broken sketch every time you make a change?

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Although this was made in SolidWorks, the principles apply to all the other platforms. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5OvpHWgj9miis0 Generally yes, broken references should be corrected to the right geometry.

[@AsiAzzy]

For such complex parts a better option is a true pro CAD like CATIA v5 or NX- very well optimized for complex geometry and large assemblies. I can work on 10 years old pc opening the full model of a car with several thousands parts in catia v5. I'm not sure i can pull of such a stunt in any hobby -midgrade cad like aliber or freecad, or even inventor, SW. I know NX can also do it, maybe CREO (idk, i have very limited use of creo)

[@michaelevan9184]

Wish Alibre was built for the Mac platform

[@RafaGmod]

da hell i barely can make a cube in freeCad HAHAHAHA Started using freedcad last year when i got a 3d printer for christmas and i'm still struggling. You are a monster!!

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

I understand the learning curve. I have some work coming out, I think within a week, that hopefully will be helpful.

[@dougsteel7414]

I will look at "alibre". If it manages to not take the top spot for worst UI in modern software aware from freecad, I might use it. Seriously, the developers must understand context and modality in order to write the software, which is functionally great in execution, can they not by analogy not apply it use? For us?

[@JSunBurns]

I have Alibre Design but one limitation it has is that it cannot easily produce physical threads. I really need this for 3D printing. Fusion 360 has this feature. I’m not sure if Free CAD has it or not. This is probably the only feature that I wish Alibre would copy from Fusion 360 as they do it very well.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

It's a good point. I have not tried threaded holes, I know Expert and Pro are listed to have automatic threads here in the detailed comparison view: www.alibre.com/alibre-design-feature-comparison/ But I have not yet investigated the extent of that feature. Check out the fasteners workbench on FreeCAD. I usually generate the fastener with the thread I want, then boolean the fastener to create the thread on my model. Alibre could do that with mcmaster carr models of fasteners too. There is another feature that I believe is newer in FreeCAD that my partner @allvisuals4u has covered here that should do what you want: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nonOf6SpdrmKmdU Usually when I print I either tap the thread or use self tapping fasteners if that makes life easier for you. Something like this that uses a hole to tap itself into: www.mcmaster.com/self-tapping/for-use-in~plastic/stainless-steel-torx-rounded-head-thread-forming-screws-for-plastic/ This is a very worthy question that I wish had better answers

[@JSunBurns]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp They are cosmetic threads in Alibre. Fusion 360 has a toggle that switches the cosmetic threads to physical threads just by selecting the option. Alibre doesn’t have this yet. I posted a feature request in the Alibre forum once, but people wanted to argue about how useful the feature is. Many designs like the Voron V0.1 3D Printer is made using 3D printed parts such as belt tensioners with plastic threads and plastic nuts. I don’t understand why people would argue to keep a limitation in this product. I can understand why you wouldn’t print a 2mm threaded bolt. That wouldn’t make sense with todays 3D printer technology, but a 20mm part with a coarse thread works very well on a 3D printed part.

[@boblewis5558]

Not an expert on FreeCAD by any means but short answer is YES. Just do a KZbin search for Freecad threads. LOADS of tutorials. Just ensure you use the latest stable release for production use (0.19.3) or 0.20.0 Beta but seems pretty stable. Details correct at 22/2/2022.

[@ericbalmer3390]

Great Video, do you only use alibre atom or also alibre design? What's the difference between the alibre versions?

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Good question. All my videos default to Atom, I occasionally will use Alibre Design but the thumbnail is specifically marked with 'Pro License." Everything in this video is Atom. You can have a long list of Alibre Version differences here: www.alibre.com/alibre-design-feature-comparison/ ^change the list to detailed comparison to see all the feature differences. The major points for me are the pro licences have some time savers like more ways to draw arcs, (these don't limit your capabilities), Pro has sheet metal, boolean capability, proprietary file format support (like SolidWorks .sldprt) GDT callouts in drawings, and I think a few extra assembly tools. In my opinion it's stuff that you really don't feel too hard unless your working in a manufacturing environment.

[@ericbalmer3390]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp Thanks very much for your detailed answer. You helped me a lot.

[@3dprintingfun329]

As a programmer, i am liking OpenScad

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

I taught myself VBA but that was the extent of what I know of programming. I'd like to jump more in to it but I haven't had a chance. In your experience, does OpenScad have similar capability in model generation to FreeCAD or Alibre or would you prefer the programming interface or both/neither?

[@3dprintingfun329]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp One thing is it is slow to render. It is basically a very simple but powerful scripting language. You can make reusable functions and there are many free libraries out there for it. But i think i am biased because i do programming for a living and right now it is easier for me than CAD. I suspect if i learned a good CAD program, I would prefer it. I tried FREECAD but i hate it. It crashes and I find simple things hard to get working. Been thinking of Alibre. Fusion is top notch but I don't like renting.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

@@3dprintingfun329 Relatable! Much respect for those who program for a living, it's a great profession and requires good logic. Alibre has a free trial if you haven't tried it out yet. Since I'm coming in from the mechanical side, I rely a lot on the graphics display to 'spacially' visualize everything; naturally I gravitated more to FreeCAD, Alibre and SolidWorks. Good luck!

[@SeanLumly]

Thank you for introducing me to OpenScad. I am new to CAD, and have been using FreeCAD. At first, I HATED the software, because it presents a large number of options, but requires specific things be done in particular ways to use them. This is unintuitive and requires "learing" the interface. But it has grown on me immensely, and for many tasks it is easy to see "how" they can be done. One thing that I like about FreeCAD is the infrequently mentioned Addon system. It is IMMENSELY powerful, adding things like node based "programming" to the software, as well as the ability to model 3D curves from a set of disjoined splines. FreeCAD's spreadsheet is also very useful, allowing for some associative paramerization control over values that can then be presented in the CAD model. But sometimes, programming is wanted (by me, at least) for complex parameterization. I was actually thinking of writing my own "CAD" software for precisely this purpose. But I think I'm going to look at OpenSCAD first, after my exploration into OSC is complete.

[@csdstudio78]

I'm curious about the "one" cad package you're not a fan of. :)

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Dassault XDesign. I have a few videos on it if you would like to see the problems I've had.

[@3dprintingfun329]

How about ProgeCAD ( based on Intellicad)? Perpetual and has scripting i believe.

[@stojanovik69]

Great Video as always . I have a problem in FreeCAD . Problem: To create an parametric 3D model .A simple 3D rectangle with some layers. A basic body is embedded in another body that consists of several layers. All values ​​are created parametrically. The "initial values" are chosen randomly. I've been struggling with FreeCAD for months. Is it even possible to create such a virtual model in FreeCAD? I am thankful for every help . P.S It's for a PPA work.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

I'm not sure I completely understand, are the bodies overlapping? Are there engineering drawings of this object?

[@stojanovik69]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp Basic body, e.g. a 3D rectangle body with a pocket in the middle for space for another component/body. then only 5 sides of the base body are attached in several layers with different values. a kind of sheathing , with several layers , all parametric , for a virtual 3 d model

[@stojanovik69]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp like a kind of cool box with several layers of insulation . the other body comes in the " cool box " a " lid on it ...

[@DG-hw5zy]

The placement of the knobs on that guitar... Especially the top one... I don't think I'd like to play a guitar with the knob constantly rubbing on my wrist. Knobs are usually smaller and clustered towards the bottom right from the player's perspective

[@yakdaymar6659]

Thank you 😲😲😲😲😲

[@flypic1098]

Just been looking at prices ? ? ? ? 2019 approx £200. - - - - - Now over £2,000 with prices varying all over the place. I've seen it for £3,500 ? ? ? ? by some resellers offering support etc ? ? ? I thought it was supposed to be affordable for old codgers like me ? ? ? Jim

[@Z-add]

Buy direct from alibre. For $149 right now.

[@flypic1098]

@@Z-add How do you do that then? The Alibre website gives an option to select a reseller not purchase from them.

[@m4rvinmartian]

Can you tell me why I want a history tree? I don't get this method of doing stuff.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Hi Marvin! History trees are needed for engineering. While the model shows the finished product, history trees show every step and every parameter used to make the model. This is not useful in modeling for things like animation usually. For instance, lets say I have a feature I need to change by 0.05mm, and I have 20 items that dimensionally depend on the feature I need to change. Without a history tree, I have to change everything With a history tree, I can revisit the original dimensions that I gave the part, and If I modeled with correct intent, the 20 dependent items will automatically update based on the one dimensional change. In something like animation, it probably doesn't matter to update things here and there, but for engineers who need to track every dimension of every feature on every surface, it really helps to have the parametric 'history tree' system for easy updates, being able to scrutinize every step of making the part, and setting relationships between features that update in dimensionally predictable ways that mean less work. I understand your point of view because I approached blender wondering how anyone would want to model without a history tree. But then I started seeing the cool benefits that Blender and other modelers offer. It feels like different worlds, but both ways are awesome. Hope that helps.

[@m4rvinmartian]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp Yeah, I don't do animation. I've been doing "engineering" in CAD since the 80s, and that's why I don't get the history. We never needed it. In fact, I have done just about every thing you can use CAD for, [surveying, petroleum assay, jewelry making, engine building, stress and flow, optics] and I have never said, DAMN, I wish I could go back and undo something?? There's no back, it's always forward. It has literally never been an issue for me, and I am really trying to figure out what it is that I do now, when I need to change "20 items" See, I would just select the "20 items" and then go to the dimension panel and change the dimension for them en masse. History sounds like the exact same thing, but with more steps. I cannot understand why you wouldn't either select handles and snap them to a new point, type in a new dimension, or hit scale? Nobody has ever really given me a CLEAR situation that a history would allow you to modify something quicker or better than just modifying what you need modified, directly. I think when you're used to working in the real world, building solids on a computer, you have a different workflow that is time agnostic. You make things much more flexibly that way. If I decide I need to "go a different way"... well actually, right.... My newest project, I saw a sample of a different methodology on the attachment point. So now I need to change 1/3rd of my model. I am going to make the new piece and swap out my old piece with it. What does history do for me here? What if I made that piece first "in history"? What if I don't want it to push an update through history because I want to see how the new method integrates? Here is a good example in an old quote: *“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” - Michelangelo Buonarroti* See, engineers, since we're not magicians, we start with things that exist and remove from it, to make what we want. That's how we CAD.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

@@m4rvinmartian What platforms have you used?

[@Z-add]

@@JokoEngineeringhelp this answer should be an entire video by itself.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

@@Z-add In a month or two, I'll be covering non-parametric 3d modeling and it should be a good contrast to see the differences

[@pierrec1590]

I've put FreeCAD aside for a while because it is prone to crash on me as soon as the model get a little complex. I found that very frustrating. Alibre was nice, then they wanted me to pay for it.

[@TAH1712]

Do you work for free - do you put tens of 1000's of development hours in and give it away? The developers must get paid somehow.

[@pierrec1590]

@@TAH1712 Alibre is the brand and a corporation. They hire developers, for sure, but the free demo allows them to have quality control feedback for free. If they no longer need it, that's fine by me, I'll go help some other brand.

[@TAH1712]

@@pierrec1590 It's my experience that free doesn't equal useful quality control feedback at all - sure you'll hear about a bug or get some suggestions to more free features or more free translation options.

[@pierrec1590]

@@TAH1712 ...and your point is? You merely affirm that your experience is but a minuscule angle on a much wider reality, and we all knew that!

[@TAH1712]

@@pierrec1590 My point is exactly as I wrote above in the first 2 lines. I'll say it again... Free CAD ( of any flavour ) doesn't exist because they need your help to debug it. And, I don't know 'What the much wider reality is that we all know' is - can you expand on that please, but only if you want to. Thanks.ps. I'm not trying to be provocative with you. Instead, I'm trying to understand why you believe in not paying for usage of software even if there are bugs!

[@Z-add]

Will multicores CPU help in rebuilding?

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

Yes, along with graphics for heavy models

[@tcurdt]

No price on the website. Buy only through retailers. File Formats: "Broad Range". Did we just step back in time to 1998? Just because of that alone it's not an option.

[@JokoEngineeringhelp]

www.alibre.com/atom3d-import-export/ This page from Alibre.com lists Import proprietary formats from SolidWorks and neutral formats as STEP, SAT, DWG, DXF, while Export Formats are 2D and 3D PDF, STL, STEP, SAT, DWG and DXF. Are you outside the US? Price is listed for US IP addresses on the website but uses quotes outside to my understanding. SolidWorks/3D Experience/Catia, Creo, Ascon Kompas and others require a quote to provide pricing for the majority of their license options often through resellers; many providers sell that way. I'm not sure how import/export formats or quoting makes Alibre not an option.

[@electronicshobbyistmushtha5448]

Pc specs?

[@boblewis5558]

Not used anything MS for over 20 years, and don't intend making such a retrograde step EVER, so won't ever be using Alibre either.