Learning CAD with Alibre Atom3D

I've got some more memory now which hopefully will work but the website doesn't mention the disc requirements. Anyone notice what it takes up? I've only got 30Gigs left on my drive so do I need to offload some pictures to make more room? I'm thinking of getting an SSD if there are bargains on Black Friday but that's a week or two away.

The folder my version is in takes up 3.6Gb

Flushed by my initial success I've started on the crank assembly in the exercise section. The toggle was straight forward so I started the crank handle but selecting the' viewing and analysis' tab I only get a limited ribbon without the 'Pan' tab I'm supposed to click. All the other ribbons available don't have anything like the options shown in the exercise screen shots, does this mean that all the options required to design the crank assembly are only available when a full licence is purchased after the six month trial?

Mick, which page of the PDF is that to save me looking right through it?

I can't see any mention on going to Viewing and Analysis in the section about the handle?

Edited By JasonB on 13/11/2018 18:07:40

Mick, somehow you have opened the tutorial for Alibre Design not Atom you want this one as Atom does not have those pan/rotate icons. You need this one

Don't think you will be missing much as I have never used them in all the time I've had Alibre.

Edited By JasonB on 13/11/2018 18:51:49

There's an autosave option - choose a directory and a frequency and it will save you much wo

Thanks Jason. Memory working. Download tomorrow with any luck.

Hi how do you do a delete if you make a mistake one wrong mouse click and no matter how far you have got you have to start again.Sketch 45 before you ask and getting very frustrated

If you want to delete something while sketching there is an undo arrow top left which will allow you to go back one click at a time.

Next option is to delete one of the sketches that make up your part to do this right click the sketch, extrusion, etc in the list down the left of the page and you have the option to delete or edit it.

Graham,

Within a sketch you can always delete parts of the sketch if they are wrong (or you can move them, resize them etc.). You must go into 'select mode' (the cursor icon in the ribbon) - otherwise the sketching tool you have been using remains active, once in select mode you can do your delete, drag etc.  You can also exit the sketching tool currently in use by pressing Esc.

Don't worry about sketch number getting high - you can rename sketches (it is good practice anyway to give a meaningful name).

Edited By David Jupp on 16/11/2018 16:20:38

Edited By David Jupp on 16/11/2018 16:22:45

Thanks Jason i am using a laptop big mistake the icon is only match head size.David when you get so far 35 times and cannot get any further it's called ********** frustrating not good practice.No offence but the magazine instructions do not always match what's on the small screen.Is it possible to put it on another computer?Thanks Graham

Right, I'm getting on quite well with the first exercise but I'm trying to generate the six spoke pattern of the wheel, everything is okay except there's no 'axis 6' in the design explorer to establish the centre so I can't complete the operation, I've tried clicking on most options but all that's displayed are the three normal axis selections. Thanks in anticipation.

You may be trying to make your sketches too complex.

It's best to keep the sketches simple, and produce complexity by building up parts from multiple sketches.

As well as the undo button, if you go wrong you can delete, edit or 'trim' unwanted elements of a sketch.

I started trying to draw complex shapes exactly how I wanted them, but discovered it's best to roughly arrange what I want by eye then edit and use dimensions to move the elements and get exactly what I want.

You can move to another computer, I think David explained how to deactivate the licence on one computer and move it to another further up this thread.

Neil

Mick, two pages above you should have created "axis 6" page 93 of the pdf.

Graham, if you are getting stuck at the same point, post a screen shot and tell us what you are wanting to do.

Edited By JasonB on 16/11/2018 18:29:28

If icons are really small - one potential cause is a relatively small, but hi-resolution, screen. If you saw High DPI, or 4K in the marketing blurb for your computer you may suffer from this,

There are some changes you can make to help - see this article

Transferring to another computer is dealt with here , it's written for Alibre Design, but the process is the same for Atom3D. You can install on multiple computers, but only have the activation live on one at a time. The non-activated computers work in 'Viewer' mode (can't edit or save).

Hi. Jason. That was my mistake, completely missed that operation, but, I've generated the rectangle that will become the wheel, entered all the required information and the circle generates, only problem is its about half an inch away from the spokes. When I've generated the rectangle it remains red, when I select 2D the out line is blue, but I can't get the whole rectangle to become blue, is this a problem. I generate the rectangle at a point away from the spoke as indicated in the pdf. Thanks.

Mick, when you draw the rectangle that will become the rim one side of it should be in line with the end of the spoke as I have shown with the red arrow. Once rotated this will give the right diameter rim that will be in contact with teh spoke ends not spaced away from it.

The rectangle which is revolved to form the wheel rim is shown in the exercise manual as drawn just touching the end of one of the spokes.

Rectangle corner indicated by circle 3 in the Manual should be at same Z co-ordinate as end of spoke.  Are you definitely sketching on the YZ plane ?

The rectangle is only blue whilst being 'dragged' - as soon as you finish placing it (click on second corner) it'll switch to another colour. The image in the manual looks to me as though it has been snapped just before clicking that second corner.

Does you wheel rim have a diameter that is too large, or is it 'out of plane' with respect to the spokes?

Edited By David Jupp on 17/11/2018 16:25:18

You may be able to fix the position of your rectangle by applying a co-linear constraint between the spoke end, and one side of the rectangle.

Can you share a 3D screenshot?

It should be easy to get it all lined up, but we need to know how it's 'out'.

Thanks

Neil