Learning CAD with Alibre Atom3D

I was wondering whether there was any possibility of the series of tutorials in MEW being available as a standalone set of .PDF's or a small booklet. I think they have been very well written and would make a very handy reference guide. I do not want to ruin the magazines by constant reference to them. I have gotten further in 3 or 4 hours with AA3D than I have in several years of playing with Turbocad 17 & 18.

I have been in IT all my life but I still prefer the written word rather than online tutorials, you can stick Yellow stickies on page for quick reference, not quite so easy on a computer screen.

Colin

We are looking into this.

Neil

Turret for 1:16 British Power Boats 'Whaleback' ASRL. A stalled model I've been working on for well over a decade.

Only stand-off scale I'm still not happy with my pop-bottle and car turret so I'm printing this one in 'transparent' PLA. I will just paint the glazing bars. Will be interesting to see the result.

Joining parts. Is there a way to join to previously defined parts together in AA3D? I want to fuse some parts so that I can then shell the resulting solid. I tried assembling the parts together and then saving as a step file, hoping that might work, but it still opens in the assembly workspace with seperate parts. I see in the full blown package there is a Boolean assembly tool, I dont think that this is available in AA3D. Any ideas

No, Boolean tools are not available in AA3D.

With a bit of thought you might be able to shell the individual parts, removing any touching faces as part of the shell command. You might have to get a bit more creative with extrude cuts (after shell) if only part of a face should be removed. Depends a lot on the specific detail of your design.

Thanks David. I guess I'll have to stop being so lazy, and recreate the parts mounted on a plate- I'm creating a mould plate for a flexible mould, and was hoping to recycle the parts

Lionel, you can copy and paste the sketch(s) from one part into another, below is the model of a cylinder and I have just copied and pasted the sketch for the separate leg into that model and then extruded it. They are now one part.

You should be able to create a new part and model your mould plate and then "paste stamp" each of your separate sketches onto that and extrude, other features can also be copied over or may be quicker to add to the new model.

Edited By JasonB on 04/03/2019 08:08:59

Thanks Jason that will certainly speed things up, although most parts are then also rotated or lofted, but it will definately speed things up.

I have been meaning to get stuck into the Alibre tutorial for a while. I started when I uploaded the software but other pressing matters meant that it got sidelined. What puts me off continuing however is if I invest a lot of time and effort into the software, all the benefit will be lost when the trial period ends unless I pay for the software. For a lot of people this will be fine, but for the limited use I may make of it in future it is an expense I might not be able to justify.

I would be interested to know how others feel about this cliff edge in a few months time.

Doug

I will be buying a licence. I have enjoyed working through the tutorial and am now waiting for the latest magazine and latest episode. To be honest I also have Turbocad 2017 & 2018 but have struggled with it. Have also tried Autocad and Draftsight back in the past in a limited way. I have found the tutorials in the magazine very well written. They would be helped if the pictures were always on the same page as the text, but I appreciate the editor and layout designers constraints. And in some cases having the pictures larger would help quite a bit, having to use a large magnifying glass to read some of them. I want to try and draw stuff up to be printed on 3D printer.

The tutorials on the Alibre website are also line by line detailed. It beats stopping /starting and reversing a Youtube video. Nothing wrong with Youtube videos but I find text/pictures much easier.

Having spoken to Mintronics a few days ago I gather the price will be announced shortly. With the six month trial you can get to grips with it before spending the cash. Better than buying it and then not getting on with it.

Colin

I think a lot will depend on how much the licence will cost and if any special deal will be available for hobby users. I thought the licence was around the £200 mark which would be too much for me to justify, but I would be interested at a lower cost.

Doug

I have just received an e-mail advising me that MEW Atom users with a trial licence get a discounted price of £166.50 plus VAT. The message includes a link to order. Maintenance is extra, but the basic licence is perpetual.

John

Hi everyone.

i have been a CAD user in industry for 43 years starting with AutoCAD in 1985 and following on to Solid Edge inthe 90's. Since my retirement I have tried various free or low cost CAD packages with limited success until I came across Alibre in 2010. I found this easier to become accustomed to and enjoyed using it until the free licence was withdrawn.

I have welcomed the current 6 month licence and I have been following the tutorial series in model engineers Workshop. I have been following the tutorial series and have come up against a problem with the thumb wheel.

All goes well until I reach the internal thread. I have a fully constrained profile sketch but when I fill in the details on the Helical Cut window the OK button is greyed out.

This has been my 8th unsuccessful attempt. I would appreciate someone pointing out where I am going wrong.

Gary,

The OK button being greyed typically means that a required piece of information is missing. Check carefully that you have your thread profile sketch specified in the 'Sketch to Revolve' field, make sure that there is something in the 'Axis:' field - this can be an Axis, a straight Edge of the part, a reference line from your profile sketch, or a Cylindrical Face - cylindrical face of the hole is used in the tutorial.

Check also that the plane you have sketch profile on and the axis chosen make physical sense in relation to each other.

If those 2 fields are populated, and OK is still not accessible, it is possible that your user profile is damaged - to fix that go to the Utilities Tab of the Home Window and click the link to 'Reset User Profile' - re-start Atom3D after doing so.

Can anyone tell me how to mate a spring to a shaft in Alibre 3d assembly. I have tried the Quick icon used to mate shafts with holes but cannot get it to work for springs. The screen shot shows the shaft and spring. I want the spring to be anchored to the small diameter on the shaft.

Thanks

Tom

If you right click on the spring and then select "show reference geometry" you can then mate the XY plane ( most likely plne) of the spring to the shoulder of the other part, may need to enter a distance depending where the plane is on the spring.

You can also align the central axis by the same method.

Quick will work the same as this

Edited By JasonB on 11/03/2019 18:29:05

Edited By JasonB on 11/03/2019 18:47:54

Just an update on my turret.

The upper part is proving difficult to print neatly with no fill.

And then my heater cartidge went open circuit. Once I've fitted a new unit, I will try printing with a low percentage of fill and see if it looks OK.

Neil

You will have to CNC it Neil

Alibre in MEW:

It seems to be a simplified "trial" version. I worked through the first instalment, then as invited tried exploring it further, bringing a very sparse and patchy knowledge of CAD via still fighting TurboCAD and being defeated by Fusion360.

I soon found it not possible to place objects where I wanted, and close examination of the printed screen-shots and the tool-bars on screen, revealed some significant commands had been switched off. (Faded symbols)

I thought, "Oh aye? I wonder what it will cost when the 6-month trial ends if I want to use it for real and need such details as specifying co-ordinates?"

So by all means try it and buy the full version if you find it suits you, but be aware the MEW tutorial is using a stripped version.

If you are yet to try it, Alibre's publishers also regularly send you irritating, somewhat patronising and frankly pointless "marketing" e-posts!

I did find the Alibre course moderately easy as far as I went, but I was following the recipe in MEW, and in due course decided having gone so far with TurboCAD I was being daft to start again.

To be fair to both programmes though, I ought point out though my approach was totally different; and I know my own limits with CAD. The Alibre / MEW course says draw a 3D model then produce the orthographic workshop drawings from that. In TurboCAD, I stick to orthographic-only as its hellishly difficult 3D modelling is beyond me. Let's be honest though; software like TC, Alibre, Fusion and SW is really intended for professional users given costly, professional training. If you don't have the aptitude for teaching yourself industrial-grade software for which no proper manuals exist, you won't learn it to any very useful level.

I don't think I will be disposing of my industrial-grade, A0-size, parallel-motion drawing-board!