Free 3D Cad Package

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:23 pm

At the weekend I cam across Alibre 3D CAD, and more importantly Alibre Xpress which is the entirely free version!

Its a fully 3D parametric modelling system like Catia, Pro/E, SolidWorks etc.

At the moment I'm in the "honeymoon" period of a 30-day trial of the full version. After 30 days it reverts to the limited Xpress version. Still, I found it easy to use and it looks very promising for robot design.

The Xpress version is limited to 10 parts in an assembly, but that's not as bad as it sounds since you can save a sub-assembly as a part, start a new assembly and you still have 9 parts to go!

If anyone's interested, I have already modelled a Fast Components motor, Hitec Feather Rx (the old 4-channel one), and a Scorpion Mini. More parts coming soon!

http://www.alibre.com

There's also a forum at http://www.alibre.com/xpress/forum

Flippt · Post by **Flippt** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:48 pm

In what format can you save them?

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:59 pm

It seems the full package can do the following (not sure about the Xpress version):
STEP AP 203
STEP AP 214
ACIS R10 thru R16
ACIS 3.0 thru 8.0
STL

and

JPEG
BMP
GIF
PNG
TIFF

Here's a quick GIF of the motor:

Glenn Jones · Post by **Glenn Jones** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:02 pm

somehow, i find this quite an difficult program??