CADDIT Australia has released the latest version of Geomagic Design 2013 (formerly called Alibre, now owned by 3D Systems). Geomagic Design 2013 is the most significant release since 2009, featuring hundreds of enhancements, improvements and fixes.
The base price of Geomagic Design remains at a modest $220. Geomagic Design is Australia's de facto choice for low-cost 3D parametric, mechanical design software which offers features similar to AutoCAD Inventor, SolidWorks and Solid Edge at a fraction of the cost. All versions of Geomagic Design includes advanced STL file export for 3D printing and rapid prototyping.
Geomagic Design Professional continues to offer photo-realistic rendering, STEP import/export and full 2D detail drawing. Geomagic Design Expert adds comprehensive sheet metal, direct (non-parametric) modeling, variant design and motion simulation capabilities. Geomagic Design Expert also offers reading of SolidWorks sldprt and sldasm files, Solid Edge and AutoCAD Inventor files. GeoMagic Exchange is a lower cost option available specific for CAD translation.
A full 30-day free trial of Geomagic Design can be downloaded from CADDIT Australia at this link:
http://www.caddit.net/cad-cam-software/geomagic.php
18 May 2013
19 April 2013
Important progeCAD 2013 Update Released. Try-It-Again Offer from CADDIT.net
Sydney, Australia 18
April 2013 - CADDIT has released an important update for progeCAD 2013 on their progeCAD webpage. Since the initial release of progeCAD 2013, several hundred improvements and small fixes have been added to progeCAD 2013. These improvements cover functional areas as diverse as PDF printing, image manipulation, network file access, graphics, AutoLISP and other command areas. A few new undocumented system variables have also been added to progeCAD. These include the new MINOPENGL variable for setting the minimal OPENGL version requirement to activate graphics acceleration. For users with older systems and perhaps experiencing cursor/graphics issues in progeCAD, we recommend setting MINOPENGL to a lower value. Another setting has also been added to force NVIDIA GPUs to work with progecad on notebooks with dual GPU.
Users who unsuccessfully tried progeCAD 2013 before March 2013 are encouraged to try the program again. For such users with access to only one PC, CADDIT can arrange for resetting the trial period. The trial user needs to contact CADDIT.net HERE for having it reset: http://www.caddit.net/store/index.php?main_page=contact_us
This offer is only open until 15 May 2013.
Users who unsuccessfully tried progeCAD 2013 before March 2013 are encouraged to try the program again. For such users with access to only one PC, CADDIT can arrange for resetting the trial period. The trial user needs to contact CADDIT.net HERE for having it reset: http://www.caddit.net/store/index.php?main_page=contact_us
This offer is only open until 15 May 2013.
18 March 2013
Alibre Design 2013 Preview - The Best Alibre Ever
The folks over at Alibre USA have been hard at work at what looks to be the best release ever of their flagship CAD software. Alibre is the defacto CAD software for low-cost parametric 3D mechanical part and assembly design in Australia. Priced modestly from A$220 for the base hobby user package to A$2200 for the top-end version including motion simulation, direct editing, variant design and direct reading of CATIA and Unigraphics files, Alibre is a more viable option than SolidWorks or Inventor for smaller budgets. Alibre 2013 will introduce literally hundreds of improvements in all areas of 3D modelling, assembly design, 2D drafting and section views, sheet metal design, bill of material and more. The overview document Alibre has provided to CADDIT Australia listing these enhancements is 59 pages long. Here are some highlights:
USER INTERACTION CONSISTENCY: In previous versions of Alibre, CRTL and SHIFT multiselect treated were differently in the various modes of Alibre. Alibre 2013 now uniformly implements multi-selection in the Design Explorer and Work Area, using Ctrl and Shift. More commands can also be applied to multiple objects in a single operation such as anchor, hide, suppress, align and scale view etc. Right-click behaviour has also been improved to ALWAYS show the options that are available to all selected items. (Previously there were cases where a right-click actually deselected all selected items.) "Apply" buttons have been added to numerous dialogue boxes so that changes can be seen before leaving many commands. Conflict visibility has been improved, dragging the "Dog Bone" has been fixed, real-time measurement data now appears in the status bar, some menu items have been consolidated, even the licensing dialogues have enjoyed some housekeeping. There is now a much more consistent user experience with the overall interface of Alibre. This is good new to those using Alibre for their everyday mechanical design work :)
UNDER THE HOOD: Alibre 2013 will be powered by Dassault's new ACIS V23 kernel, released six months ago (see announcement here). This means better modelling and problem-solving on the geometry level of Alibre. STEP file export includes multi-part assembly and drawing "packaging" (somewhat similar to progeCAD "eTransmit"), STL publishing for 3D printing enjoys better support for binary STL, and control of the STL data.
SKETCHING AND PART MODELLING: Sketching performance is significantly improved and more responsive, especially when zoomed in. Dimensions can now be placed between concentric arcs and circles to define the difference in their radii. All disjoint ends of a sketch (caused by DXF or DWG import, etc) are automatically healed when the active Sketch is exited. User is no longer prompted that sketch problems exist when only Disjoint Ends exist, as they are automatically healed. Pressing Escape while in 2D Sketch Mode now make the Select tool active. User can now import Points from a CSV file into a 2D Sketch as well as for 3D sketches. User can also designate any 2D dimension to be Driven during dimension placement or after dimension placement by modifying the dimension. Driven dimensions update in real-time as figures are moved or further define objects in the sketch. Driven dimensions can also designated to show up in the Equation Editor as a parameter. This effectively enables use dimensions from one part in another part. For part modelling itself, the THREAD tool has been improved with drop-down menus of thread definitions.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS: In this blitz review of the upcoming release of Alibre 2013 we haven't even started to discuss what's new in Assembly design, drafting, sheet metal, BOM, third-party bonuses etc and this article would be WAY to long to include them all. There is one improvement we picked from sheet metal we wanted to mention here. There will be a brand new tool which allows designers to create sheetmetal bend lines directly from a sketch, complete with rips. These bend lines are used to fold a tab or flange. This is particularly useful if you are trying to recreate a sheet metal part from an imported 2D drawing of a flat pattern:
It is important to note that Alibre Design 2013 will not support Windows XP, except for general how-to questions unrelated to anything in the operating system. Users really need to be using Alibre 2013 on a computer running at least Windows Vista or newer. Users choosing to remain back with Alibre 2012 on Windows XP and on active subscription will continue to be supported. For further information about this upcoming release of Alibre 2013 in Australia contact CADDIT.net (link). A further announcement will be posted here when the software is availble for download and trial.
USER INTERACTION CONSISTENCY: In previous versions of Alibre, CRTL and SHIFT multiselect treated were differently in the various modes of Alibre. Alibre 2013 now uniformly implements multi-selection in the Design Explorer and Work Area, using Ctrl and Shift. More commands can also be applied to multiple objects in a single operation such as anchor, hide, suppress, align and scale view etc. Right-click behaviour has also been improved to ALWAYS show the options that are available to all selected items. (Previously there were cases where a right-click actually deselected all selected items.) "Apply" buttons have been added to numerous dialogue boxes so that changes can be seen before leaving many commands. Conflict visibility has been improved, dragging the "Dog Bone" has been fixed, real-time measurement data now appears in the status bar, some menu items have been consolidated, even the licensing dialogues have enjoyed some housekeeping. There is now a much more consistent user experience with the overall interface of Alibre. This is good new to those using Alibre for their everyday mechanical design work :)
UNDER THE HOOD: Alibre 2013 will be powered by Dassault's new ACIS V23 kernel, released six months ago (see announcement here). This means better modelling and problem-solving on the geometry level of Alibre. STEP file export includes multi-part assembly and drawing "packaging" (somewhat similar to progeCAD "eTransmit"), STL publishing for 3D printing enjoys better support for binary STL, and control of the STL data.
SKETCHING AND PART MODELLING: Sketching performance is significantly improved and more responsive, especially when zoomed in. Dimensions can now be placed between concentric arcs and circles to define the difference in their radii. All disjoint ends of a sketch (caused by DXF or DWG import, etc) are automatically healed when the active Sketch is exited. User is no longer prompted that sketch problems exist when only Disjoint Ends exist, as they are automatically healed. Pressing Escape while in 2D Sketch Mode now make the Select tool active. User can now import Points from a CSV file into a 2D Sketch as well as for 3D sketches. User can also designate any 2D dimension to be Driven during dimension placement or after dimension placement by modifying the dimension. Driven dimensions update in real-time as figures are moved or further define objects in the sketch. Driven dimensions can also designated to show up in the Equation Editor as a parameter. This effectively enables use dimensions from one part in another part. For part modelling itself, the THREAD tool has been improved with drop-down menus of thread definitions.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS: In this blitz review of the upcoming release of Alibre 2013 we haven't even started to discuss what's new in Assembly design, drafting, sheet metal, BOM, third-party bonuses etc and this article would be WAY to long to include them all. There is one improvement we picked from sheet metal we wanted to mention here. There will be a brand new tool which allows designers to create sheetmetal bend lines directly from a sketch, complete with rips. These bend lines are used to fold a tab or flange. This is particularly useful if you are trying to recreate a sheet metal part from an imported 2D drawing of a flat pattern:
It is important to note that Alibre Design 2013 will not support Windows XP, except for general how-to questions unrelated to anything in the operating system. Users really need to be using Alibre 2013 on a computer running at least Windows Vista or newer. Users choosing to remain back with Alibre 2012 on Windows XP and on active subscription will continue to be supported. For further information about this upcoming release of Alibre 2013 in Australia contact CADDIT.net (link). A further announcement will be posted here when the software is availble for download and trial.
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30 October 2012
progeCAD 2013 Released - AutoCAD 2013 & Windows 8 Support
Sydney, Australia 30 October 2012 - The long awaited progeCAD 2013 has been released on the CADDIT.net website. Since 2006 progeCAD has offered high-quality CAD software with distinctive AutoCAD-like features - like native AutoCAD DWG read/write (no conversion) and similar commands and toolbars. Engineers, architects, surveyors, builders, landscape designers, manufacturers and other hobbyists and professionals alike prefer progeCAD as the affordable AutoCAD alternative. progeCAD 2013 is a major new release, and the first version to include IntelliCAD 7 source code into its product.
progeCAD pricing will continue at the low $400+ level (as opposed to AutoCAD's full $6000 license cost plus Autodesk maintenance subscription, etc). progeCAD 2013 continues to offer features used in previous versions, like DWG-to-PDF and PDF-to-CAD support, the free EasyArch add-on for architectural drawing, 3D solids and rendering, advanced hatching, text and dimensioning commands, thousands of free symbols and more. progeCAD 2013 also adds new features including:
PC3 plotter
configuration file support
New Print Style
Manager Interface
New Printing /
Plotting Interface
AEC
visualization (AutoCAD Architectural Desktop objects)
STL (mesh) and DAE
file export
New Dimension Style
Manager Interface
Advanced Spline
Editing
New wireframe
"HELIX" command
New ACIS Solid
"LOFT" command
CAD Underlays of PDF, DWF and DGN
files
Microstation DGN File Import (selected versions, as
underlay)
New LMAN (Layer
Manager)
Improved Purge
command
Multigrip
editing
New overall GUI
style
Windows 8 Support
AutoCAD DWG 2013 file format support
AutoCAD and progeCAD users alike are invited to download progeCAD 2013 free at: http://www.caddit.net/progecad/progecad.php
This is a free full version 30 day trial which will allow you to save, print, etc and experience the cost savings benefit of CADDIT progeCAD for yourself. progeCAD 2013 licenses will be available as progeCAD single, mobile USB, network NLM, academic and corporate solutions.
Please contact CADDIT International for more information about progeCAD HERE: http://www.caddit.net/store/index.php?main_page=contact_us
For technical questions and user experiences about progeCAD, visit our forum HERE:
http://www.caddit.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
progeCAD pricing will continue at the low $400+ level (as opposed to AutoCAD's full $6000 license cost plus Autodesk maintenance subscription, etc). progeCAD 2013 continues to offer features used in previous versions, like DWG-to-PDF and PDF-to-CAD support, the free EasyArch add-on for architectural drawing, 3D solids and rendering, advanced hatching, text and dimensioning commands, thousands of free symbols and more. progeCAD 2013 also adds new features including:
AutoCAD and progeCAD users alike are invited to download progeCAD 2013 free at: http://www.caddit.net/progecad/progecad.php
This is a free full version 30 day trial which will allow you to save, print, etc and experience the cost savings benefit of CADDIT progeCAD for yourself. progeCAD 2013 licenses will be available as progeCAD single, mobile USB, network NLM, academic and corporate solutions.
Please contact CADDIT International for more information about progeCAD HERE: http://www.caddit.net/store/index.php?main_page=contact_us
For technical questions and user experiences about progeCAD, visit our forum HERE:
http://www.caddit.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
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