WorldCAD Access

Alibre Design Xpress Withered?

Reader fremont_bubba noticed that Alibre's free Design Xpress has gone 404 on us. Searching for it on Google gets us...

Alibre, Inc. - Page not found
Oops, we can't find that page. This page has moved or no longer exists. We apologize for the inconvenience. Were you looking for...

...as the top-ranked search item. And the newly redesigned Alibre.com Web site eliminates all mention of it from its product listings and product comparison tables.

Fortunately for the rest of us, it is still available through CNET's Download.com service. Get it free while you can!

Autodesk Embraces Rhino

Autodesk Labs has a no-info posting for a Rhino -> Inventor translator up this afternoon.

No details, so maybe this page got posted too soon. This sort of xlator is "easy," because Robert McNeel & Assoc has an open file format for its CAD software.

Next up: SketchUp translator?

Animator to be Opensourced?

Breton Slivka of Busting at the Seams blog says he has obtained the source code of the software that eventually became Autodesk Animator Pro -- a 256-color pixel animation program that was very popular in the early 1990s.

The original author, Jim Kent, wrote it for the Amiga home computer; when he licensed it to others, he kept the copyright to the source code.

Now that he has the source code, Mr Slivka wants to create an open source version. But he lists these problems:

• Some material in zip files might not have been written by Mr Kent.
• Documentation is copyrighted by Autodesk.
• Fonts are licensed from Anim8.
• And he needs to figure out how (1) to compile the source code and (2) to compile it with open source compilers.

He's looking for help on all these fronts. (Wiki article on Animator Pro.)

Free Medusa Downloads Incr. by 100%; Linux Popular

CAD Schroer says its free MEDUSA4 Personal 2D/3D CAD software was downloaded 2x as often in Q1 as a year ago.

More interesting to managing director Michael Schroer is how popular the Linux version is proving with downloaders in some of the 109 countries:

• Italy -- 75% choose Linux.
• Average -- 35% choose Linux
• Germany -- 13% choose Linux. 

CentOS, Fedora, Mandriva, RedHat, SuSE, and Ubuntu users get smart editing, basic 3D, parametrics, and a sheet metal design module. To download, you have to register and then provide the Physical Address of your computer's ethernet adapter. Following installation, the software runs for six months, after which the license must be renewed, for free.

The company did not provide download numbers. 

The apparent enthusiasm for Linux-based Medusa CAD matches comments by Deelip Menezes about the native Linux-based Bricscad due out later this year: "[Bricsys] are excited as h**l about it. It is going to cause a stir and they know it."

slash.dot Comments on CAD Software for the Unemployed

avishere of Design Engineering magazine posted the story on slash.dot of Autodesk and SolidWorks who...

...latched onto the worst-economic-disaster-since-the-Great-Depression meme and released free versions of their flagship computer-aided-design brands before their potential users are forced to sell their laptops on Craigslist.

The slash.dot crowd makes these observations:

• These software firms are worried the unemployed will turn to free CAD software.

• "Not all Solidworks' customers want a hand out. I actually want to pay them for a full license for an Ubuntu port. But they'd rather hand them out to Windows users for free than take my money."

• "...a portion of the 'uncertainty' is due to the fact that everyone is certain that we are in 'uncertain' times. If we stopped pushing that down folks throats, then there might be less panic..."

• "Nothing like an economic meltdown to make Co's recognize the value of their most important asset: their current and potential customers."

• "And there have been reports that some laid off workers are starting their own companies..."

Unthinkable that people should start their own companies! From where will mega-corporations get the employees they need when everyone if off doing their own thing? 

SolidWorks: We Also Love the Unemployed

Following Autodesk's early morning press release, SolidWorks was quick to re-issue their's from February. Their offer to the unemployed engineer is less -- and more -- tantalizing:

• Free student version of SolidWorks (includes COSMOS) for 3 months; Autodesk's is 13 months.
• Free certification testing; Autodesk charges.
• Online portal with links for training; as has Autodesk.

The SolidWorks Engineering Stimulus Package is at www.solidworks.com/ESP.

Autodesk Software Now Free to All (Unemployed)

Students and faculty have been able to get free 13-month licences of selected Autodesk software titles for several years, and now the company expands the program to the unemployed in the fields of architecture, engineering, design, and manufacturing. From the newly created Autodesk Assistance Program portal, you can download any of the following:

• AutoCAD
• Inventor Professional
• Revit Architecture
• Civil 3D

The portal has links to free online training, as well as the opportunity to write certification exams at a discount.

So how does Autodesk tell if you really are unemployed? You have to hand over the names of your former employer and human resources contact, and then Autodesk will spot-check that your former boss really was mean enough to fire you.

At 13 months, this is the most generous program for laid off CAD users -- other than CAD software that already is free, like Alibre Xpress and IMSI/design's DoubleCAD. Programs from other CAD vendors are typically good for six or 12 months.

Offer valid until the end of this year.

Bob Mayer Likes Autodesk's New Upgrade Pricing

Ralph,

DoubleCAD XT -- our AutoCAD LT work-alike -- is free for personal and commercial use. We think that's a pretty good upgrade price. : )

Also, if you want more power (like the geometric constraints included in the $4,000 version of AutoCAD 2010), we're honoring AutoCAD LT's upgrade price of $575 for DoubleCAD XT PRO for the next two months -- and we're honoring this for *any* version of AutoCAD LT (not just three versions back).

Bob
[IMSI/design]

P.S. Here is a link to the press release we sent out last week on this: finance.yahoo.com/news/IMSIDesign-Matches-AutoCAD-LT-iw-14733364.html

In addition, I'd note that Inventor LT is no longer free.

Google's Vector Drawing subPackage

Google slid a vector drawing add-on to Google Docs yesterday. It's  more like a Visio than a CAD package. But it is semi-intelligent, with things definable arrowheads, vector text, and editable splines. There is an animation option I haven't figured out yet.

"Sketchy" is based on SVG for most Web browsers and VML for IE. You access it with the Insert | Drawing menu item.

I must've stumbled on it early, because this morning I found articles announcing the add-on at Techmeme.

Free Add-ons for SketchUp

RenderPlus is a company staffed by some of the people who used to make Aritek (purchased by Softdesk 12 years ago), and they have a list of add-ons for SketchUp that you can download for free from here:

• RpWallMaker creates wide walls and cut openings.
• RpTreeMaker create custom tree components.
• RpEdits lays out your 3D components and ones from the 3D Warehouse.
• ProjectSketch selects and places commercial office furniture.

The site also has non-free add-ons, such as for rendering, generating BOMs, and editing 3D components.