I recently had the need to purchase some 3D Modeling software. Most all my clients use Solidworks, but frankly I can't justify $5K+ plus yearly maintenance for a seat of something I'll only use maybe a few dozen times a year.
I looked around and ran across Alibre Design. I took their web seminar, demo'd it and bought it (it has a 60 day money back guarantee). What really sold me on the software was that it was designed with the 80/20 rule: Give the users at least 80% of the functionality of the industry leader at 20% of their price. It seems to deliver on that promise as I can't find much that Solidworks does that Alibre Design doesn't do. They have an excellent on-line users forum that is comparable to this list -- lots of kowledgeable and helpful users. So far I'm very pleased with it and it seems relatively bug free. I also ran across an on-line article written by the CEO of Alibre -- I think he hits the nail squarely on the head in regards to the "questionable" upgrade cycle taken by so many CAD vendors: http://www.designnews.com/article/CA478166.html How does this relate to Altium? I think we know the answer to that. Alibre seems to practice what they preach and I for one find it refreshing! I think Altium could learn a lot from a company like Alibre but of course they're free to do as they choose... Matt Pobursky Maximum Performance Systems On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:46:43 -0500, Bagotronix Tech Support wrote: >�>�I would upgrade if they would simply offer us laggers a reasonable >�>�fixed upgrade price. �The more upgrades that occur, the more >�>�expensive it is, and less likely it is that I will upgrade. �The >�>�next version will likely be better, and add additional modules I >�>�don't need, and the increased price to upgrade will probably scare >�>�me away again. �I can't imagine I'm the only one in this situation. >� >�Their theory is that Altium needs to make a guaranteed revenue amount >�from laggard upgraders, nearly on par with the revenue from >�enthusiast upgraders. That's why each new version has a more onerous >�upgrade price. �If they didn't do that, users could more easily >�justify skipping a version or two and it would save the user money at >�the expense of reducing Altium's revenues. �In other words, it's a >�way to prevent the laggard mentality from cannibalizing the >�enthusiast mentality. >� >�Unfortunately, it does mean that Altium will lose some customers over >�the long haul. �I guess they feel they have to set a lower limit on >�the *effective* price of using Protel. �For those of us buyers who >�cannot agree with the seller on a price, we will have to take our >�business elsewhere. >� >�>�I don't need the FPGA support. �I just need a decent program for >�>�schematic capture and PCB design. �That's it. �Protel used to be >�>�the perfect program for that. �Protel is complete overkill for that >�>�now. �I don't see that Protel wants me as a customer, so I don't >�>�think it is unreasonable to ask members of this forum if there is >�>�anything out there that may fit my minimal needs a bit more >�>�economically. �Any recommendations? >� >�That is the problem with so many categories of software. �Within the >�past decade, so much software has become "gentrified", that is, >�priced out of the original market. �It's a plague that swept the >�world starting in the dot-com era, and long after the dot-com crash >�the effects of product gentrification still remain. �The software >�space is now inhabited by Free/Open Source Software, very expensive >�closed-source software, and not much in between. Even Windows, the >�most common OS, has been gentrified. �$300 for a retail boxed copy of >�XPpro, $200 for XPhome. �The problem with not having much in between >�those 2 extremes is that the free/open stuff is frequently not easily >�usable in it's supplied form, and the proprietary stuff is too >�expensive and locks user's data into proprietary formats (vendor >�lock- in). It's truly a sad state of affairs. ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
