Tech Diver/Cad Jockey

RonMicjan

Hey Matt, welcome, between Paul and I you should have met everyone at dema Glad you had a good time. Folks, if you dont know matt, you are missing out. He is a stellar guy.

(ok matt, do I get a free copy of SW now?)

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Ron
"Life is pain princess, anyone who tells you different, is selling something", The Dread Pirate Wesley.


www.tmishop.com Diving bits etc.

Genesis

Solidworks is a very nice product; my biggest two issues with it are the cost (especially of keeping it on maintenance!) and the use of dongles, which I personally find offensive.

I'm an Alibre user as a consequence of these things - were Solidworks more competitive on these matters, I'd consider your product instead...

Just a bit of feedback from someone who actually uses this stuff.... and welcome!

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"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American."
http://www.denninger.net
http://www.diversunion.org/liability.htm - Fix the Diving Cert racket

narked at 90

hi matt welcome to the boards,
we use SW to model a lot of the products we make for rebreathers,
so you may find up PMing you loads when we get stuck
kindest regards john routley
Welcome Page

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SolidWorks_Matt

Hi Genesis,
Where are you located that you are using dongled versions of SolidWorks? We have never used dongles in North America (for stand alone seats) and we are making a move to eliminate them world wide. Australia and China are already dongle free and in the near future they will be eliminated elsewhere in the world. But in the U.S. we have never used them.
The cost of maintenance while it is inline or cheaper than others in the industry can pose a challenge for companies, especially smaller ones. the best thing to do is to go back a few version of SW and look at what you had in the the product then and compare that to what is added to the product each release. Most of the time people find significant value in those features (especially when you consider that most of the new features come directly from requests). You also of course get technical support with the maintenance agreement which will maxmimize your productivity with the software.

Ok now off of my corporate soap box I have been following your home built project and am very interested in it. Are you currently designing it in Alibre, or do you use Alibre in your day to day job? PM if you want to chat or would like some hep with the modeling side of your project.

Matt

SolidWorks_Matt

Glad to hear that you are using SW. Feel free to hit me up with questions. I will do my best to provide you with a timely response with the time difference and all.

Look forward to seeing some of your stuff,
Matt

Genesis

Interesting. I was told it required one, which was one of the decision points. I wonder if that came from an enterprise user (where you might have them?) where as a stand-alone it would not?
I understand software life-cycle costs and maintenance expense better than many, since I sell software for a living and have for more than 20 years.

I just find the TCO on SW to be excessive compared to the competition's offerings. I guess it comes from having a market-leading perspective - you get to do things like this, and customers respond with their wallets (in whichever direction they deem appropriate.)
The handset design work (which had to be fabricated by an outside house as I do not own a $100,000+ CNC milling machine ) was all done in Alibre. Most of the other mechanical drawing was also done in Alibre, although none of the other parts (so far) have been sent out to be made, as they could be constructed/manufactured here without the need for CNC equipment. In the case of simple parts (E.g. scrubber lid pieces) I have printed mechanicals on full-sheet labels, stuck them to stock, and then drilled/cut directly on the patterns. That works remarkably well if you don't need tolerances to the thousandth.

The T-pieces and perhaps hose connectors (e.g. quick threaded-disconnects .vs. hose barbs) are on the plate if I decide to produce the K1, and those will likely be injection-molded pieces if so. That of course presumes I am buying 100s due to mold costs. In that case both the part and mold will be modelled in Alibre.

I use Alibre for some other work besides the K1; I don't have a "day job" as I'm semi-retired from the Internet industry, but do some CAD drawing for various people on a contract basis.

__________________
"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American."
http://www.denninger.net
http://www.diversunion.org/liability.htm - Fix the Diving Cert racket