Switching a product line for concept to manufacturing was so easy. New designs could not be easier. I can not wait to try Alibre out for Automation Design projects in the near future.

Extremely easy to learn. Other than proprietary snag of Dimension Drawings of other similar CAD software, switching is easy, simply import the 3D object and re-create great dimension drawings for manufacturing and incorporate the changes/dimensions/GD&T with ease. From then on, updates and/or revisions of a part for manufacturing are so simple, it is amazing. I literally had a lot of fun learning Alibre Design Professional.

Recreating the dimensional drawing for manufacturing was the only thing that I could find missing in converting from other similar software's. This is simply a proprietary matter period.

Fastest start with a new tool I've ever had, combined with a straightforward and helpful sales and support team makes it a no-brainer to select Alibre.

Straightforward, clean user interface. Easy to grasp concepts and tools. The only tool that I've ever used for design (and I've tried them all) that really made sense from the start. A few minutes with the trial version of Alibre and I was set. Since then, I've recommended Alibre to anyone who'll listen, and all our designs are completed in Alibre, too. I also love the documentation and YouTube videos - a great way to learn new ideas. The licensing model is also a win.

Nothing at all, really. So far, everything I've wanted to do has been possible and achievable.

Alibre Design Expert does everything I want in a 3D cad package, and is the first package I've continued after the first year of use. A big plus on top of this is the customer support and forums, both of which are quick to help. This is the most positive experience I've had with a cad package.

I like Alibre Design Expert on many levels. First, it was easy to get started. With over 40 years of cad experience, learning the basics of Alibre Design 3D modeling was fast. Then the more advanced capabilities such as configurations, global parameters and boolean's made it easy to maintain model integrity. Next but not last, the assemblies feature was a major consideration in the purchase. It has been rock solid and invaluable in product design.

One drawback for me with Alibre Design is the 2D drawing package. Though it is very capable even when compared to more expensive packages with such features as exploded views, bill of materials and ballooning, etc. , the workflow is not as intuitive as it could be. Sometimes it takes many mouse clicks to accomplish what seems to be a very simple task. It is possible, however , to create very functional and useful drawings.

The Cons out-weigh the pros. The one pro being low cost. If decision were mine, I would be using Solid Works.

Under utilization of computer power and graphics cards. For all intents and purposes no ability whatsoever to manage project files, creating an impossible mess on your hard drive that you can't fix because it will break all of your assemblies and require hours of re-locating files in their new locations.

I'm a Inventor user at my day job, it was easy to get up and running. Having a maintenance contract is worth having if I get stuck, they tespond quickly, my software is up to date. I enjoy using the software.

Perpetual License, I do not need a super pc to run the software. Produces quality results.

Very little componets in the library content, must be created and added on your own.

My overall experience with Alibre Design Expert has been great. We really like the Sheet Metal option. We have a Plasma and Press Brake in our Workshop and when we export DXF files to our shop machines the end products are exactly what we expected. No surprises.

We were looking for a 3D Modeling program to aid in the development of specialized farm equipment. I had many friends use solidworks and constantly complain about the cost. Solidworks for farmers if a very expensive option. After spending some time researching 3D Model programs we decided on Alibre Design. We have been using Alibre Expert for over 7 years. What I can say is that its a feature packed 3D modeling software that I know can compete with higher priced Solidworks. I have shown my engineering friends Alibre and they are amazed how powerful it is. The thing with Alibre is that its powerful and precise.

Coming from AutoDesk 2D to Alibre Design was a challenge. Alibre has developed a 800 plus page workbook that is excellent to learn on. There also is abundant YouTube videos that come available daily. I'm Still learning and improving my design skills. If I used it everyday I probably would have mastered it sooner.

The software works well for quickly trying out ideas and producing parts that can be manufactured. I use it for checking fitment of our product in different installation environments.

Easy to learn and use yet has the depth of features needed for advanced/complicated models and plans. The part and assembly modeling tools are excellent. The drafting/drawing tool is also good and makes it easy to create exploded views and link BOMs.

The 2D drawing program has some areas that could use improvement. Changing the part/assembly can cause some dimensions to lose their connection to the part and need to be redrawn. There is no way to duplicate a drawing using a different configuration of the same part/assembly. Occasional glitches can prevent the drawing from being reprojected and so the drawing has to be recreated.

We have had excellent customer service and support any time we have needed it. Also we look forward to Alibre updates every year because Alibre gets better and better every year.

Alibre meet our price point to bring 3D CAD to our small machine shop. Over the last 10 years Alibre's software has got better and better, giving us a very powerful design tool without the big expense.

For the cost, we don't really have any cons. Alibre gets the job done for us day in and day out.

Absolutely easy to work with lots good tutorials good forum. Mature software!

-easy -software is yours no saas -good tutorials -good forum -nice people

-no real hobbyist license -bad cam there are better choices

I have designed parts for motor sport applications as well as 'in house' commercial products and even a self build house project. I love Alibre.

The online tutorials make self tuition very easy. Having switched from a very old and uncommon 2D design package which had no functional similarity to Alibre I needed and utilised all of the tutorials. I praise thier clarity

There is nothing I don't like. Its a pleasure every time I have an excuse to have something to design.

Although it has it's share of idiosyncrasies, Alibre proves itself to be a good solidworks alternative for individuals and small businesses. The price of Alibre Atom and Design Pro makes them attainable to home users, Atom especially which is quite a powerful CAD application in it's own right, given it's low price. Overall I am generally designing objects for 3D print, and Alibre gives me the tools I need in an easy to learn package. I often use it alongside Blender and ZBrush, when I need certain components to be accurately modelled or made in a parametric manner.

Alibre is a bit lacking in surface modeling tools, making it harder to model complex curved or organic surfaces. Sometimes there are also basic tools you expect to be there, and they don't exist. For example scaling a sketch requires a workaround of extruding the sketch, scaling the entire object, projecting the sketch, suppressing the rescale and extrude, then going into sketch edit and moving the sketch back into position using a somewhat cumbersome move tool.

Absolutely love it.

Love the cost for deployment and ease of use. Feature rich. Really is a hidden gem in the 3D modeling world. More people need to see how well it works. I use it for everything from generating models for rendering in Keyshot for customers to review to large assembly models/drawings for manufacturing.

I don't have anything that really bugs me about the software, small refinements are really all that is needed.

Alibre is a very powerful 3D drafting software that handles simple to complex parts and assemblies well. Performs like a much more costly piece of software.

The 2D drafting is a little lacking, but workable. Creating a drawing is easy, but customizing it can be clunky.

Ability to wrangle data from diverse systems (solidworks,Catina,NX,inventor, Freecad , Blender, etc.)

Lack of Curve based surface modeling and associated continuity evaluation tools.

I'm able to quickly and easily get what's in my head out onto the screen. The software doesn't fight me and enables me to be the most creative version of myself.

Easy to use, intuitive interface, little to no errors or failures, easy to see if I make mistakes, powerful export control, very easy assemblies, and best of all... the stuff you make is yours.

No Linux support. You have to open a sketch to get at the equations dialog.

Overall my experience with Alibre Design is excellent. It is an affordable and capable mechanical design tool that I intend to keep using for the foreseeable future.

I have used Alibre Design in its most capable version since the very early 2000's and find it quite adequate for my needs. I have a limited budget and although the scripts/automation of some operations found in more up scale products are useful and convenient they are also expensive. I would rather spend the extra time to manually do these things than spend the money for automation. Similarly some of the more advanced functionality would be nice but I rarely have need of those sorts of things and can usually find a work-around. FYI- I am a machine design engineer with decades of experience and in the past I have used both Solid Works and Solid Edge in the most capable version available at the time and each for a period of years. During the periods where I used different design software I also used Alibre Design concurrently for personal projects.

Over the years Alibre Design has continued to expand its capabilities and the increased functionality is always welcome. However this has come with a slight decrease in stability. A decade ago I could count the number of software crashes in a year on the fingers of one hand, Now it's more like 1-3 times a month. Not all that bad but could be better and there could be a more robust recovery capability.

I couldn't have wished for anything better. I am extremely satisfied with the tool and I love using it all day everyday.

As a solo young Independent Industrial Design, Design Engineering & CGI Contractor, working with many softwares in their pipeline including Mechanical CAD, Simulation, 2D Raster/Vector/Publishing, Mesh CAD DCCs, Animation and Visualisation tools, the costs can ramp up very quickly. To add to that, very few today offer perpetual licenses which is better as with Saas the data, software and access is controlled by company whose pricing, policies can change anytime. Alibre Design for me was a Professional MCAD software with amazing feature sets, very generous pricing and very flexible and pocket friendly upgrade options. Using Alibre, I am no more anxious about missing maintenance and paying huge costs or upfront overpriced licensing fee which is not solo contractor friendly. The modelling tools are great, the features match upto competitor mid-tier MCAD with 3x the price. The best part is the Company, their philosophy, being customer centric and the amazing community around this amazing tool. I could not have wished for anything else and I am very positive my relationship with Alibre Design is going to be very long term.

I feel the high tier surfacing for Industrial/Product Design use cases can be improved and I am positive the team is working on better surfacing capabilites.

It has been a good relationship, but Alibre isn't keeping up with the competition.

I started on Alibre when it was free. This was so long ago, our office still had dialup modems. I parked in a hotel parking lot and used their internet to download my first copy. It has reasonable capability compared with other similar tools.

The cost is starting to exceed the capability compared to other similar products like SolidWorks. We will likely switch at the beginning of our next big project.

We have found quite a few uses for the product. We have modelled control cabinets, 3d pdf and present to our customer. It works excellent in this respect. It is great for laying out a panel, or in house machined part. You can model the physical design with confidence. It also works excellent for collaboration with customers. It is also very favorable with 3d printing.

It was difficult at first. We initially purchased in 2004. Performance has improved dramatically since it inception. The geomagic move almost drove us away. After geomagic, it appears that Alibre found its home as a good player in the 3d modelling and cad realm.

I still have a few issues with sketching, not really as intuitive as I would like. It has also improved quite well. Works fine on MACOS using parallels.

Overall I really enjoy working with Alibre Design software. It is easy to remember where all the commands are listed and the workflow is easy. With every release it is getting closer to the more expensive CAD software on the market today.

I like that it does everything we need to get jobs done quicker and easier than other CAD software costing twice as much.

Some minor features are absent that I would use occasionally to save time that are seen in more expensive software.

We were recently approached by a SolidWorks VAR. The cost to move to two licenses of SW was almost $11,000 USD. Annual maintenance was quoted at about $1,300 for each license. That is a non-starter. For our use; the value proposition just isn't there for a move to SolidWorks.

Alibre Design was purchase in 2013 because it included 3D CAD and CAM. We weathered the transition when the company was sold to 3D Systems and then when it was bought back. The software languished under 3D systems and become a real problem. Alibre Design is reasonable mechanical CAD. Exports to STP, SLT, and IGS have all been good and are easy to generate. The software becomes slow when we import electronic models from Altium Designer, but that is expected due to the size of these files.

Modeling errors are often ambiguous. Stability has occasionally been an issue, especially with more complicated geometries. A couple of times over the years, I've had to completely scrap a design are restart when the software would crash repeatedly.

Great product. I use it everyday in my engineering and design. It intuitive to use and there are plenty of tutorials and help through the knowledge base to get up the learning curve on features such as sheet metal parts

I purchased Alibre after using other modeling software (AutoDesk Inventor, SolidWorks). Alibre is the best value for the buck. It offers all the tools you need to create 3d models and assemblies in varying complexity. The drawing tool makes clear and easily annotated drawings.

I would like to see easier tools for threading and fasteners

A great design product for my model projects. Designing is a pleasure with Alibre. I’ve built some models with a comp,exits that I could have not accomplished without Alibre.

I like that I own my designs. They are local to my computer. I like that I am not required to pay a annual license fee to use the product. I like that the support is top notch, responding in usually less than a day. I like the ease of use.

Missing Sind features I could really use. I can get around these shortcomings. The product has been a bit ‘buggy’ in the past. The bugs seem to come and go with new releases.

Realy great. It help me to much in the design process

Is realy easy design and 3d modeling. In the profesional version should be include the use of assembly and Part Configurations, and should be able the use of cut feature on assemblyes, I dont need sheet metal. and is to much the costo to expert just for that features. It realy help if you can see the properties of a part or assembly before you open de file. So yo could select the right part. It shoul have Vectric Cut2d Export file, or integration

Assembly Expldode View, is comlicated to use and edit You should reselect (edit) plane when edit scketh When you replace a part in assembly, do not respect the relations with other parts

Easy to use and very fast . Software is able to point out issue

Exporting to other software such as substance painter