Learning CAD with Alibre Atom3D

£199 one off purchase

Edited By JasonB on 03/11/2018 12:41:09

Hi Rik,

Licence only (not time limited) is £199.

www.mintronics.co.uk/product-page/alibre-atom-3d-license-only

There's the possibility of offers or bundles down the line.

Neil

re Alibre

I'm a beginner and have successfully produced the drawing in issue 274. On completion and exporting it as an STL file for printing with Cura. I find on opening in Cura, the drawing is reproduced as SQUARE!!

What should I have done or done wrong?

Paul

System Options -> Interoperability -> STL/ZPR , set surface deviation value to (say) 5 degrees. You may need to experiment a bit.

All 3 regions give different ways to control 'smoothness' of the STL output - my first suggestion should get you started. See image.

Hello Paul

I don't know!

I've accepted the defaults in the dialogue David has highlighted and all my 3D prints have come out fine!

Neil

You can switch the 3D view between perspective and orthographic, but then I had a shock when this part was rendered as getting bigger as it went 'into' the screen!

I checked and the setting is orthographic too!

It's actually an optical illusion! Calipers on the screen reveal the panel is drawn the same length at each end, despite appearances.

This does show an interesting possibility of 3D printing. I've printed a load of two-part shells for 30-amp connectors to clip into the panel, then I realised that I could print holders directly into the panel (like for the dual USB connector). I will either glue them in or add a simple clip to stop them lifting out.

Neil

MEW and ME arrived in the post yesterday. Downloaded AA after tea time and spent four hours playing. Did the MEW exercise, then had a go at the milling machine raising block I'm still making.

It's a bit frustrating that the included help includes Alibre Design features that aren't there on Atom.

Need to find some examples of how to use the assembly tools to orient and position parts, dragging things around in 3D is obviously not the way it should be done!

Hi all,i have tried to draw a simple 2D drawing and find the grid box is missing and no snap commands.also cannot save to cut 2d soft ware to use on mach 3 is this not possible.

Thanks to MEW for giving me the opportunity and incentive to learn 3D CAD. I have run through the first tutorial without issue. Trying get a bit more advanced, I find that I am really struggling with constraints. I must be missing something obvious as sometimes I can't get an item fully defined and have no idea why. It would be really useful to be able to display the properties of an object, to understand what is missing?

For example I am trying to model a flywheel and am trying to position holes to define the spokes. The diagram I am using as a reference specifies a PCD and a horizontal offset from the centre axis. I have a guide circle for the PCD and a horizontal guide line. It looks like an intersection constraint should do the job, but I can't get it to work. Somehow the hole circle is constrained to the PCD line, but I don't know how!

Anay tips would be appreciated, will this be covered in future article?

Stuart

Stuart you need to make sure each part of your construction is defined so

1. When you draw your guide circle enter it's diameter.

2. Next as you move the cursor towards the guide circle watch it change then draw your circle, this will place it's ctr point on the guide circle and also give the hole a diameter

3. Your hole is free to move about anywhere on that guide circle so you need to set that position, select dimension, click the ctr of the flywheel and then the ctr of the hole and enter zero when the dim lines are for a horizontal dimension.

4. Now select circular pattern to place the other holes.

Myself I would not use a guide circle just place a hole along the horizontal axis and set its length from the flywheel ctr as half the PCD.

Dennis Grid and snap to grid can be turned on and off but mine is not the same as Atom so David or Neil will have to answer though personally I never use snap and neither does David.

Draw the part as a sketch then extrude it even if it is only 1mm thickness and then save. Now create a drawing of the saved part and use that to produce a DWG or DXF 2D drawing

EDIT

4th or 5th page of this tutorial shows where grid and snap can be activated

Edited By JasonB on 04/11/2018 13:57:23

Edited By JasonB on 04/11/2018 13:57:51

Mark, if you click "Alibre Atom3D" at the top of this thread by the logo you can download the boring head parts and then go here to download the assemble which will let you see how it was put together

Mark - if you want to move on to assemblies ahead of the tutorial, take a look at this group of videos. They do show Alibre Design, but the basic principles apply equally to Atom3D.

Jason and David. Thank you both very much. This'll keep me occupied for a while tonight (and through the dark winter nights...).

I'd like to grow beyond the Visio that I've been using for 2D and IT related stuff since the Visio company was formed and feel the need to build up some new 'mental muscle memory'.

I can see it costing me some money next year!

Edited By Mark Rand on 04/11/2018 16:57:48

New to this link. Very interested to learn about this package. BUT, I am a Mac Book Pro user. Is there a version that works on a Mac. I am sure a lot of your reader are Mac users.

Sorry Les,

The problem is that most packages are written for just one operating system.

Neil

To switch on/adjust the grid:

File ... system options (near bottom right)

In the options box choose Drawings--Sketching

Display, snap and sizing for the grid are among the options.

You can also change them for Parts/Assemblies.

Hope that helps,

Neil

Hi Paul,

My brief experience shows it's best to ignore the grid, place your main block using dimensions from the centre point, and then place all the other sketches by reference to that main block or each other.

The best approach is to make dimensions follow from each other rather than trying to dimension everything. If you lay out four circles in a square in a sketch you will notice that once the first circle is dimensioned and placed dotted red guidelines appear when other circles are aligned with it, also new circles will 'tend' towards the same size once they are close.

Once you have placed a figure in a sketch. It's easy to check the size of a sketch other than what you are editing with a temporary dimension (which will show as a driven dimension) you can either choose the red cross or just delete it if you don't want it to be permanent.

25" sounds big, are you sure you are not on metric somewhere and getting a 25mm grid?