Alibre Design In Linux VirtualBox

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

I have used Alibre Design for many years, don't use it often so not an expert by any means. I have recently installed Linux Mint as I am weary of Windows 10 keep asking me to go online, login, use Skype and running updates when I am doing something else (despite updates being switched off) .

I have been trying to make Alibre work using Oracle VirtualBox running Windows 7 as a guest. I can get the Alibre GUI to load but as soon as I try to start a 2D sketch I get a long winded error message.

I wondered if anyone here had managed to get this combination of programs to work or could suggest where I should be tweaking things or perhaps state definitively that I am wasting my time!

Thanks, John

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Not sure about VirtualBox – lack of full support for DirectX is the stumbling block in many cases when trying to run Alibre in non-supported environments. For example I've never heard of anyone getting Alibre to run under Wine.

Is the Win7 installation in VirtualBox fully updated?

What does the error say?  Which build of Alibre Design?

Edited By David Jupp on 29/12/2018 15:30:43

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Looks like you'll need 'Guest Additions' installed (whatever they are) then play around with acceleration settings. There does seem to be quite a lot of information around on-line, but not all that clear.

Alibre Design currently utilises DirectX 9c for the graphics. Good luck – you may need it.

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

I ran Win 7 on Linux Mint in VirtualBox for a few weeks, but was not very happy with it, although I don't recall why. I then switched to VMware Workstation Player.

Although this is a commercial product it is free for personal use, but it does everything I want. If I recall correctly one has to register to download it. That being said, I haven't yet tried running Alibre on it.
Clive

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Hi David, thanks for getting back to me.

Alibre is Design Expert v2018.2 build 19071

The Windows 7 guest machine has all the updates and service packs, so it is as up to date as Windows 7 will ever get. Guest additions is working and I have tweaked a few settings (not the right ones apparently) Also downloaded the MS DirectX package and installed that so that should all be there.

First error comes with start page:

Second error comes when trying to start 2D sketch:

I must admit I wasn't really expecting it to work but after much searching the interweb it would appear that some have got much older versions to run. I suspect that the virtual graphics card isn't up to the job.

Cheers

John

Edit: Typo

Edited By Journeyman on 29/12/2018 16:13:44

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Any more information when you click the 'Details' button.

There do seem to be lots of reports of graphics issues with VirtualBox and Windows games (which also tend to use DirectX).

Might be possible to get it working, or you might do better with a different Virtual Machine environment. Alibre Design v2018.2 (19071) works well enough on native Win7 (as long as dotNET is fully up to date).

Alibre does try to 'call home' to check the licence at launch – so it may also be important that the network adapter for the virtual machine is set correctly…

I'm really guessing though (no direct experience with VirtualBox). I'm aware that there are at least a couple of options for VMs on a Mac that Alibre can work with – so Alibre can run on a VM.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Details show thusly:

I may have to look at an alternative virtual machine.

John

Edited By Journeyman on 29/12/2018 16:37:30

Edited By Journeyman on 29/12/2018 16:38:25

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Which confirms the problem is DirectX related.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Thanks David, rather suspected that. Will report back if I discover anything that works.

John

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

John,

Maybe this means more to you than to me.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Thank you, yes helped a bit and together with another post I found – I removed Guest Additions and re-installed with experimental 3D support enabled and:-

Not quite as smooth to use as in it's native environment but it appears to work. Now to do some more testing with something a bit more complicated and see if it falls over!

John

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

Have you installed the add-in which gives the virtual machine direct hardware access to the graphics adapter?

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Not quite sure to be honest! I was thinking that's what the Guest Additions 3D bit was. I will do some more reading tomorrow.

John

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

Posted by clivel on 29/12/2018 15:51:28:

I ran Win 7 on Linux Mint in VirtualBox for a few weeks, but was not very happy with it, although I don't recall why. I then switched to VMware Workstation Player.

Although this is a commercial product it is free for personal use, but it does everything I want. If I recall correctly one has to register to download it. That being said, I haven't yet tried running Alibre on it.

It appears that you now have Alibre Atom up and running on VirtualBox, I have just installed it successfully on Windows 7 running on VMware Workstation Player – just the incentive I need to start working through the tutorial.

Clive

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks for posting this hread John, I hope it helps some other Linux and maybe some Mac users.

Neil

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Not directly connected with Alibre, but the following may be of interest.

I use Linux Mint v.18.1 with the Mate desktop. I started with Mint v.13. I also have a DOS program (Mpro) and a Win32 bit program (DesignCad v.17.2 (DC17).

Mpro.

Mpro, despite being a DOS program ran very well indeed inside WinXP, so when I converted to Linux, I Initially used WinXP inside Virtual Box, with Mpro inside XP. It worked but was slow and stuttered. I tried DOSBox, but that was unsatisfactory. (As I understand it, DOSBox is prioritised for games, and not applications – if that makes sense.) Wine tried to replace itself with DOSBox. Eventually I used DOSemu which works perfectly if slightly slow at times, even though I set DOSemu for fastest operation.

DC17

I do have an earlier version of this program, (DC2K). Initially on Wine 1.4 neither DC2K nor DC17 would work properly. Wine v.1.6 inproved matters such that DC2K started to work whilst DC17 tried to work, but was unusable. Wine v. 2 and DC2K was perfect whilst DC17 was just about usable. The latest stable version of Wine, v.3.0.4, and DC17 is more or less perfect; the bits that don't work properly can easily be worked around.

I understand that someone has managed to get DesignCad v 24 working via Wine, but later versions of DesignCad had a problem with the licence.

TaxCalc.

This program was, last time I used it, a Win32 bit program, and as such it worked very well under WinXP. When I converted to Linux, I discovered problems such that although I could use it to enter data via Wine, I could not create the pdf file which was required for printing. Transferring to Virtual Box & WinXP and I could indeed print to pdf, but I ran into problems with licencing. Fortunately the producers of TaxCalc accepted what I was doing and helped to overcome the licensing problems. I dropped the program after that as being too messy.

Conclusion.

Wine is improving all the time, the latest, trial version if you like, being v.4. It might be possible to use Alibre via the latest stable version, but also the latest release candidate/trial version could be worth trying. Although I haven't the need now for Virtual Box, that also is improving. I now use DC17 and Mpro as if they were Linux programs.

Peter G. Shaw

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Well, I have been doing some more research. Cannot find any separate add-ons for VirtualBox graphic card integration. Have tweaked a few settings namely the virtual graphics memory and the machine cores. Makes very little difference to the operation of Alibre. I have had a few lock-ups particularly trying the colour render functions and the whole interface suffers from a bit of lag between pressing a button and something happening.

Unfortunately whilst it might work for the occasional tweaking of a drawing I don't think it is useable on a day to day basis. Might work better on a more powerful machine but mine is an i7 processor with 8gB of ram and an SSD so it isn't a slouch by any means.

An interesting exercise but ultimately proves that you really need to run the program in it's native environment. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has had more success with a different virtual machine.

John

[Martin Johnson 1Participant @martinjohnson1]

Well you all seem to be way ahead of me! I have installed Virtualbox on a Linux machine with a view to running an ancient copy of Turbocad (which does everything I need and much more) plus Musescore (Music annotation for the other hobby). This household has had enough of being held to ransom by Bill Gates Corp. and updated whether we like it or not.

However, so far I don't really understand how to install Windows into Virtual Box. I have found this "guide":

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows

but it seems to be full of a lot of caveats – plus I don't really understand what they are telling me. Any pointers gratefully received!

Martin

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

Posted by Journeyman on 30/12/2018 15:41:50:

An interesting exercise but ultimately proves that you really need to run the program in it's native environment. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has had more success with a different virtual machine.

John

Great to see that my invisibility cloak is fully functional

Posted by clivel on 29/12/2018 18:37:16:

Posted by clivel on 29/12/2018 15:51:28:

I ran Win 7 on Linux Mint in VirtualBox for a few weeks, but was not very happy with it, although I don't recall why. I then switched to VMware Workstation Player.

Although this is a commercial product it is free for personal use, but it does everything I want. If I recall correctly one has to register to download it. That being said, I haven't yet tried running Alibre on it.

It appears that you now have Alibre Atom up and running on VirtualBox, I have just installed it successfully on Windows 7 running on VMware Workstation Player – just the incentive I need to start working through the tutorial.

Since posting that I have completed the first tutorial from MEW #274 using Windows 7 guest operating system on Linux mint with a VMware Workstation Player virtual machine.

Initial startup took a few seconds, after which it was completely usable and I did not notice any delays or jerkiness. This is running on a Del XPS 13 laptop.

Clive

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Clive, did note your earlier post glad to hear that it seems to work without glitches. I will have to give VMware a go.

Martin, install is only from a CD or DVD. You need the original MS disc or download an iso image from the MS download site. Very briefly you start VirtualBox manager and click the add button. This will bring up a series of input boxes that ask you what you want. I just selected Windows 7 and went for all the defaults it oferred. At the last stage it will ask for the install disc and you select the right drive. The install takes just as long as on a real machine.

John

[Martin Johnson 1Participant @martinjohnson1]

Thank you Journeyman,

It seems a lot more logical the way you suggest, and I do have some pucker windows disks (Win 7, I think without looking at them). The link I found seems to suggest doing clever things with Windows installed on another machine, which totally confused me! Anyway, I will give your approach a go and report back.

Many thanks,

Martin

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Martin,

Stick with it as it will work!

I use Ubuntu with VirtualBox running Windows Vista, so I can run my TurboCad 16 Deluxe and my FInale Guitar software without having to run up my "normal" Windows. TurboCad gets loads of use with no real problems. I allow my VirtualVista to access a specific directory on my main drive (i.e. outside of the virtual environment) so that I have easy access to the data I've been working on (e.g. if I've saved a drawing as a pdf to pass to someone who doesn't have CAD).

You can download (for free) Musescore for Linux – but would need to check compatibility with your existing files. TuxGuitar is another Linux app which allows you to read ProGuitar Tab (for free).

Regards Tom

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Well, following Clive's recommendation I gave VMware a try. The installation had me confused until I found a guide on the LinuxMint forum, but once up and running it was quite straightforward. I can report that Alibre runs without any glitches, at least none that I have found yet. The colour rendering that wouldn't work under VirtualBox functioned as normal. I loaded a couple of existing designs and they worked without difficulty.

I rendered this filament guide for my 3D printer in orange (that's what the real thing looks like in PETG) and it worked smoothly. I don't think the interface is quite as smooth as in it's native Windows but it is certainly useable. I shall call it a success and get on and use it. Worth a go if you normally use Linux and want to try Alibre.

John

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