Alibre Design 2011 Personal Edition

05.01.2011
When I make stuff--regardless of the material I use--I start by creating a rough sketch of my idea using pencil and paper, and then I launch into the project, typically spending a great deal of time revising and fixing mistakes. In the future, however, I may try to design some projects in Alibre Design 2010 Personal Edition to save time and frustration on the back end. That is, if I can ever master this hobbyist-level CAD program.

I looked at the shipping version of Alibre Design PE ($99 as of January 4, 2011), which is a teaser app for Alibre's $699 Professional and $1399 Expert versions. The more-expensive versions have more tools, include parts libraries, and let you import or export more file formats (from other programs, for example). With this latest edition, the pricier versions are native 64-bit applications, whereas Design PE is still a 32-bit application.

Alibre says that most users won't come close to the RAM limits imposed by the 32-bit application, unless they create something with thousands of parts. I never ran into any RAM issues, but my models were relatively simple. According to Alibre, the new version offers faster 2D editing, too; I can't confirm that assertion, but the application was certainly fast on the two systems that I used it on--and one of them was a notebook with integrated graphics.

My models contained few parts because I'm a 3D novice. I took drafting classes (eons ago), and I'm pretty good with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and other 2D design applications, but Alibre Design requires conceptualizing and implementing designs in three planes, and its tools and controls are much different from the ones I'm accustomed to. Math, geometry, and occasionally trigonometry come into play.

Design PE does not stand in relation to a high-end CAD application the way does to Though Alibre provides a few video tutorials and a lengthy list of text tutorials, Design PE is essentially a high-end CAD program with some features stripped away. I usually endorse that approach with software--because I'd rather learn to use the good stuff than eventually hit a capabilities ceiling--but I found Alibre's application difficult to learn. I suspect that most people who lack 3D design experience will feel the same way, though Alibre says average folks can get the hang of it, and fans of the application aren't hard to find. A large group of people who use it hang out at a company-sponsored site, .

That's not to say the application impossible to learn. I stuck with it and eventually created a table lamp model that might have saved me significant time, wood, and aggravation if I had had the model on hand last summer when I actually built the lamp. When Design PE worked as I expected it to, it was very gratifying. See, math isn't so hard!