Surely [correction: make that hopefully] there must be a way to retrieve use of your, now unsupported, previous version.

You don’t deserve to encounter hurdles like this, Nigel

MichaelG.

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Edit:__ a Google search for alibre atom downgrade returns some reasonably encouraging links.

As Jason mentioned, uninstall the version that won’t start, then re-install the previous version.  Ignore messages about licence release when uninstalling.

You should have seen a warning during the update that it was not valid with you licence, and had the option to cancel at that point.

On 25 December 2024 at 09:54 Michael Gilligan Said:

Surely [correction: make that hopefully] there must be a way to retrieve use of your, now unsupported, previous version.

You don’t deserve to encounter hurdles like this, Nigel

MichaelG.

Exactly so.  Nigel assumes the old version has gone, but that’s unlikely.   He might have to uninstall the new version.

As to not deserving hurdles, though Nigel is good at many other things, he’s distinctly accident prone when it comes to computers!   I put this down to him rather stubbornly believing software works as he imagines it should, and then getting confused when it doesn’t.  In that sense some of his misadventures are self-inflicted!

Software is tirelessly single-minded, and it cannot adapt to individuals.  The individual has to change.   Cure is difficult: users have to RTFM and they have to adapt to how the software works, not the other way round.

Nigel damns Alibre unfairly with ‘nor how you imagine designing a completely new machine by drawing and assembling its components without first having such an assembly (or general-arrangement) to guide designing them.’  

Now I’m not an Alibre user, but having followed the offer articles, and what owners say about Alibre, it’s clear that Alibre is similar to other CAD packages.   Many provide tools that help tackle chicken and egg problems, but using those tools requires technique, which Nigel hasn’t learned yet.   The fault is Nigel not Alibre.

All my efforts to help Nigel with CAD failed and it’s frustrating – he gets so close to success, and then stubbornly veers off, perhaps jumping in at the deep end or by making a small mistake and persisting despite warnings that the foundations are crumbling until the software can’t cope.  When a 3D model has so many mistakes that the geometry does not compute, the computer bails out!     Then the software is blamed when the real problem is good ole “garbage in, garbage out”.  The operator is responsible for the garbage, and learners make lots of mistakes.   No shortcuts or preconceptions – newbies have to start at the bottom and learn the ropes.

Dave

To be clear, Atom3D does not enforce a subscription based licence – though in North America a subscription option is available for those who really want it.

The default licence type is perpetual (for the version of the software that was current at purchase).  Software updates (access to newer versions) are optional and can be purchased in 12 month chunks.