In contrast despite 'using' Fusion 360 for a long time there have so far been no attempts to get me to pay to upgrade.īut ultimately I wouldn't trust any software that relies on 'the cloud' nor indeed any software that requires an activation process or a dongle and I'm not sure the 'free' use model for F360 will remain forever. Since then the sales rep has contacted me several times by email wanting to run a demo 'at my premises' and now they are in contact yet again offering three years interest free credit on a Solidworks licence. To enable the download they require all your contact details regardless of if you are using the viewer commercially or at home (in hindsight 'fake' details with a disposable email address might have worked). I downloaded the 2018 version of the 'free' Solidworks eDrawings Viewer a while ago as the previous version became incapable of handling newer file versions. This greedy behaviour on the part of Solidworks is of course the very opportunity that the Fusion team is capitalising on. There was another factor that caused me to stop using my works Solidworks licence - the longer I used it, the more work would be at risk of loss unless I were eventually to buy a license myself, at vast initial (and eyewatering ongoing "maintenance" costs.
I hope that the contact people at Alibre now have better developed people skills than the manager of their Australian office a few years ago. Worth having a look at the Gallery section of the forum to see what it can do once you get the hang of things, quite a few ME subjects there.
This shows what the various versions do, Atom should have more than enough for most hobby users.Īlso worth mentioning that Alibre also has a user forum and tutorials can be found on the likes of Youtube.
I do know Alibre want to a have thriving hobbyist user base - they aren't just looking to convert students into users of the top-end systems.ĭave, Atom3D is very much like Cubify Design which in turn was like the older Alibre PE ( Personal Edition) all are basically the same to use as the full blown Alibre but with a few of the bells and whistles disabled. I don't know if there will be any offers, but the more people doing the trial, I imagine the more the incentive to convert those people into long term users.
Is it going to be worth £200 to upgrade? In fact is it going to be worth me downloading the trial? Are MEW subscribers going to get a discount when the trial period ends? Looking at the history they both seem to have the same origins. Does anyone know how Atom3D compares with '3d Systems Cubify Design'?