Alibre – A First Attempt

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

It does help to get organised before you start. You wouldn't start drawing on a board without a reasonable idea of what you're trying to achieve and at least some of the dimensions – bore, stroke, wheel diameter, whatever – or a basic layout sketch.

I don't know if Alibre does this, but Fusion allows you to define and name parameters before you need them, or to name a dimension when you define it. The same applies to sketches and new planes/axes. I find it much easier to pick the required plane, axis or dimension from a list that includes Main Spindle Axis, Headstock Midplane or Main Bearing Diameter than pointing at the visual representation. So much so that I rarely have such construction features visible. This also makes it easier when you go back to the model later and can't remember what dimension329 refers to.

It is essential to work out why an operation didn't work as expected immediately, as it will probably spoil any subsequent work. That can be as simple as drawing the profile on the wrong face or plane, adding a diameter rather than a radius, or an inadequately defined sketch/extrude/body/component. It's one of many reasons I prefer to model parts in place, as dimensional errors are immediately apparent.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Yes, planes, axis, extrusions and other features can all be given a name that shows in the tree down the left hand side. Just right click and choose "rename"

It is a feature I seldom use.

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Why not Revolve the profile of the column, including the tapered section? You could then fillet/chamfer the ends as required.

It would at least make you feel like you'd made some progress and you could then try later with the current method.

Martin.

[Ches Green UKParticipant @chesgreenuk]

I have Alibre Professional BUT all the features I used to do the nut and the scribing block column are included in Atom3D

Jason, thanks for that. It's reassuring, if I do take the plunge, that the basic version will be good enough to get the show on the road.

Ches.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

When I first bought Alibre they did a version called "Alibre PE" which stood for Personal Edition, this was a slimmed down version much like Atom is and that served me well for several years. When I needed to update due to a computer change and going to 64bit from 32bit they did not offer Atom or PE at the time so I went with the more expensive pro but there are only a few extra bits that I sometimes use.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Ady1 – if you've had problems with particular downloads, you must have been unlucky. Hundreds of customers have successfully downloaded Atom3D. Yes you can download Alibre Expert and then enter an Atom3D licence key – BUT if you've got used to the Expert feature set during trial, you may be disappointed by Atom3D. Note also that the user interface in Atom3D is deliberately simplified to make it easier to learn.

If anyone has problems with downloading, installing, activating licence, Alibre or local reseller can and will assist.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Just tried again.

My drawing's plane indicators don't match the diagram in tutorial and I can't make them to do so.

The little boxes at the top just move the figure around. The plane selectors in Design Explorer don't seem to anything at all, as far as I can see, apart from using the little beady eyes to turn them on or off.

Even so, I can still select the edge, but the Project thing just ignores it no matter what I do.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Can you post a screen shot or photo of the screen of what does not match.

If you are having a job with using project to sketch to place that reference line then you can leave that bit out but draw your triangle at the other end and then the XY plane can be used to position the edge of the triangle using co-linear constraint which is (–)

EDIT

Just checked mine and I get exactly the same planes come up on starting a new part as they show in the series, mine is not altered from the default settings. It should look like this when the part modelling screen comes up

 

If it does not show the same green plane lines then click the view tab and make sure you have th etwo arrowed icons at the top right clicked as these will also toggle the planes and axis lines on and off.

Edited By JasonB on 27/04/2023 18:44:51

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

The MEW tutorial was produced before Alibre introduced the individual 'Eyes' (visibility icon) for each plane in the Explorer . More recent versions of Atom3D add the Eyes into the Design Explorer.

The instructions in the tutorial are still valid; BUT do NOT click on the Eye when selecting a Plane, as that will just toggle the visibility. Instead click anywhere else in the name of the plane or the planes icon to the left of the Eye. You can also select the plane by clicking on it in the 3D workspace, instead of in the Design Explorer.

Pay very close attention to which plane the instructions tell you to select.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Nigel,

I am prepared to set up my computer in Atom3D mode, and run a private screen share session to go through any aspect of the tutorial you wish, and answer any questions you might have about any aspect of working with Atom3D.

Jason – Atom3D has a much simplified set of visibility toggles in the View Tab, so screen images from Pro might confuse Nigel further.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Jason –

No, all looks fine, with that starting plane diagram and all. I've just re-opened the simple template I'd made and its planes are labelled as you have them there.: XY.

So I created the column yet again (I know its size by heart by now!) and once again tried that Project To Sketch tool, but although it did pick up the edge this time, that was it. I was left still looking down on the column from above and at an angle to the two vertical planes.

"Next" is selecting the XZ plane. It says.

I can't understand these plane controls. They turn the object in unpredictable ways, including upside down, and enlarge it several times, and I can't work out which is the right view of something that looks the same in several of them. Nor if I am looking at the right plane from the right side.

I gave up at that point.

'

I'm afraid I can't send what I'd tried doing. Although I've a vague idea how to do that now, I do not save failed work.

Would it help anyway? All the screen-shots I've ever seen can't accommodate themselves on a new screen without losing a lot of definition. Nor would it show what I'd done, or what buttons I'd pressed, only the display at the moment of capture.

.

I am losing heart rapidly. Another 3D CAD programme too difficult even at a very basic level?

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

Nigel, I don't know much about Atom, but instead of sketching a taper, couldn't you apply a chamfer to the top of the column? This is where my ignorance of Atom could fail me. Most of the cad software I have used allow for the creation of an unequal sized chamfer. The top of the chamfer could be 3mm, and the side 25mm. (These measurements are only an example). This will give an unequal chamfer, as near to a taper as makes no difference. When you get over this particular hurdle then you will get stuck into finding out a bit more about the software.

Now a question about projecting to sketch. Did you start a new sketch on one of the two planes that would allow for the creation of the chamfer, and then use project to sketch, or did you select to top "circle" of the column before starting a new sketch? Again, ignorance my have me on the wrong path here.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 27/04/2023 23:54:26:

I am losing heart rapidly. Another 3D CAD programme too difficult even at a very basic level?

Totally don't give up. Just keep plugging away and once you start to "get it" all your CAD fantasies will come true, the final result is worth the effort

For the money Alibre Atom does it all for a hobby engineer, all the basics, plus 3D construction/drawing movement to test tolerances etc

I'm 4 months in and I have:

Built a replica warco magnum bender

Turned my 2 ton arbour press into a 5-10 ton press via the Dake system

Currently doing sheet metal die design and experimenting

Instead of trying to figure stuff out in the garage you log-on and build it in Alibre, it does 95% of the job in virtual reality and then you hit the ground running when you step into the workshop, cut this, turn this, drill that, you've already done it and figured out the machining/construction route/pitfalls and you can see most of the sneaky real world problems before they actually happen

I'm pretty snookered after 4 hours in the workshop but I can do 12 hours of CAD, current stuff, project stuff, reviewing stuff. Virtual reality model engineering is fun and very gratifying.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Lee the idea of the exersise is to get beginners using all the functions, canfem was use on the previous base part and now the next part is being used to show how project to sketch and a revolved cut works. Yes a chamfer of length & angle woyld do a similar job.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 27/04/2023 23:54:26:

"Next" is selecting the XZ plane. It says.

I can't understand these plane controls. They turn the object in unpredictable ways, including upside down, and enlarge it several times, and I can't work out which is the right view of something that looks the same in several of them. Nor if I am looking at the right plane from the right side.

How are you selecting the plane? In the example you should be clicking where it is listed down the tree at the left of the page. This will only bring up a view that is square on to that plane not at an angle. You may be clicking the boxes top left which are not mow to select planes as they can bring the part up at angles eg isometric view. Part size will change to fit the working area depending on it's size so looking at the end you will get the small 6mm dia enlarged but if you look at the side the 200mm length will be fitted the screen.

Hopefully DavidJ can help when he has his machine set up.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Nigel – saving files that have not worked out as expected is helpful. From experience I can tell you that it's often (not always) clear what the user has done incorrectly from examining the file.

If nothing else you can go back to the file later and re-examine your own work, or just take up where you left off. There's no rule saying you have to finish an exercise in one session. If a feature doesn't work out you can either suppress it or delete it from the design, then try again.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Jason –

You are right in that trying alternative ways to obtain a result is not what I want to do. It might work but would defeat the object of the (literally) exercise.

Your suggestion on using a "smart" TV, some way back amused me. I have no TV, "smart" (whatever one of those is) or scruffy! If you think I find CAD hard don't ask me to turn on the telly and select a given channel, with one of those boxes of mysterious buttons. I haven't a clue how to use those, and once, staying in a bed-&-breakfast house, did try only to go an unwittingly de-tune everyone's – I had had no idea that in "my" room was the master set for the house!

=====

Anyway I went mouse-hunting today and have now installed a nice new 2-button and wheel device of the sort Alibre expects. Purrr…..

…until I tried that exercise yet again.

Disaster.

The mouse is so sensitive and rapid that in my wobbly hand I cannot rotate the image properly, just make it leap wildly around at great speed, to weird angles as the distorted grid shows. At one point the image shrank to a useless tangle in the middle of the screen, and I had to start all over again. (Is there a definite Close File function in Alibre?) So replacing the pointer has not made Alibre any easier to drive; but I did know buying it would be a gamble.

I can't control it properly and because the object in this tutorial is just a long, slender cylinder I have no idea which end is which. Also, sometimes it takes a few goes for a tool to register, so I think I am locking the programme when that happens.

Eventually the drawing settled into something looking vaguely right, don't ask me how, and I could make that Project triangle. I set the triangle on the column edge where that crosses a vertical plane as expected, but I could not be sure it was the right intercept of four on the end, nor if on the right end.

Anyway it was there, but not as in the Good Book. It was much smaller and upside down, pointing upwards and outwards like a horn. I had no idea if the column is the right way up either. When I try to do as it says, the bar turns end-on in milliseconds, as well as greatly enlarging it, so it can go either way and still look the same – most likely the wrong way.

(An optical trick I have used sometimes on symmetrical lumps in TurboCAD is a little, temporary sphere without "Adding" it, on the datum corner, to show when the rotated object is back "home". In Alibre, it would become part of the object, but a comparable move would be a feature to be added later anyway, such as a chamfer at one end of the column.)

Hopeless….

.

Does anyone know how to re-assemble A0 drawing-boards…?

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

***Nigel***

This video will show you how to slow your mouse down… I made it especially for you!!

Martin.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Surely any 3D program has a 'home' icon, that will rotate the view to whatever you designate whether that's the front or an angled view? Used together with a 'fit to screen' function, that would prevent such problems. It would be one of the things a real, on-site tutor would mention fairly early on….

[Ches Green UKParticipant @chesgreenuk]

I bought Alibre Atom 3D this afternoon. Reeived the licence number about 90 mins ago so Alibre is downloaded and running.

During the Install it tried to install Visual C++ but failed part way through. The install successfully continued anyway. I then downloaded Visual C++ from Microsoft and then 'repaired' Alibre hoping it would now 'see' C++.

Have got half way through Jason's Nuts video…will continue tomorrow. I notice sometimes the mouse cursor doesn't want to grab the line/feature…..it's a decent Logitech M510 wireless mouse. Anyway, getting late…will investigate further tomorrow. But so far the Alibre Interface seem reasonably intuitive.

Ches.

 

Edited By Ches Green UK on 28/04/2023 23:14:31

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Nice one Ches. Prepare to become addicted once those basics are mastered.

Don't get hung up on micro details like threads, create a master metric and a master imperial sheet

make basic stuff from old ME plans in imperial and metric, drop the "parts" together into "assembly" put them together and watch your virtual reality creations move

Awesome

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Posted by Ches Green UK on 28/04/2023 23:13:45:.

I notice sometimes the mouse cursor doesn't want to grab the line/feature….

That is the software "catching up", some of it is instant, some of it needs a fraction of a second or so to get going and you need to hold your mouse click a teeny bit longer than usual

There are a lot of numbers whirring away behind the scenes to make the on-screen magic happen

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Lee there are several "home" options along the top left of the screen, If you watch my videos in this thread you will see I tend to favour the default isometric one Can be set to any of about 8 views much like clicking the corners of the navigation cube in F360) and will resize to fit the screen.

Ches, ask if you have any queries, you may also want to try the scribing block column but may be harder to follow without the article unless you can get to the digital archive.

On the odd occasion it does not immediately seem to pick up an axis so a bit of moving the pointer to another part of the axis seems to do it

Nigel well I think the TV comment does sum up what I have said a few times in the past and can explain things like mouse problems, not being able to open links that others have and so on. Though I'm more inclined to think the old mouse was slow rather than the new one being fast as I don't alter the speed when I fit a new one, the default seems fine.

As for which way up your column is you should be able to keep track of it as the red outlined sketch of the 6mm circle will be the top and the planes and axis will intersect at that end.

I will say here that I would have selected a different plane to start with which was discussed way back when the series first started and would probably go a long way to solving your disorientation. As done per the article when you click the isometric the column is laying down, I'd have started on the ZX plane then it will show as upright.

As for your triangle ending up the wrong way sounds like you are not using the project to sketch and then the coincident constraint but just dragging it about.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thank you

Martin – Have found the settings (it's a slightly confusing route through it) and slowed the mouse down. Will just have to see if it helps! I use the cursor arrows to move the drawing horizontally and vertically, though they are slow. As Ady says, it involves the computer doing a huge amount of re-calculating!

I like your twisted clevis – must be a market for them!

Nick. – Alibre has that set of cube symbols whose home aspect seems to be the one with the red dot on the lower right front corner, but I think it refers to how the drawing is started. If so, if that's already on the wrong plane it will still be on the wrong plane whenever you return it to the home aspect.

.

I've mentioned my wobbly hands. They've always been like that but are worse now. One function it affects is the basic page-scrolling by the slider at the side of the display. Microsoft has reduced its width to about 2mm, needing hands as steady as a neuro-surgeon's to use it with the mouse.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

In Atom3D,pressing the 'Home' key on the keyboard will fit the current work to screen in the current orientation.

As Jason has already pointed out, the 'standard view' icons at very top of screen give a quick way to re-orient the model and zoom to fit at the same time. There are pre-defined shortcut keys for these views (e.g. 'Front' = Ctrl + 1 , the digit must be from top row of main keyboard – NOT the Numpad to right of standard keyboard).

Nigel – as in all Windows software, you close a file in Atom3D by clicking the cross icon at extreme top right of the Window that the software is open in.

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