Free 3D CAD software

[Gui Cavalcanti]

I thought everyone in the FIRST competition might be interested in this:

X-CAD (http://www.x-cad.net)

These people are basically offering everyone who signs up a free license of their parametric modeling software (think Autodesk Inventor or Solidworks, except free). The catch is that 100,000 people have to sign up before August 1st; right now they're at 55,000. I know my team used to struggle with the single-license rules for the software that came with the kit, so this might be a good thing for low-budget teams.

[Morenoh149]

I subbmitted my request

I hope many others will too before the offer expires ;)

[[527]phil]

I registered too, hope enough people register

[Matt Krass]

I'm number 55,817! Come on people, click the link!

[Adam Richards]

55891! wewt

[sirbleedsalot]

I am number 55,892.

[sanddrag]

I dunno. It seems like a way to harvest e-mail addresses and information and stuff.

[wilshire]

yeah but still its worth the incentive. Its not everyday that you get free CAD software.

[spears312]

I mean this seems like an awesome offer, but I can't seem to find any images or real info about the software. Does any one have any links or such?

[Gui Cavalcanti]

I mean this seems like an awesome offer, but I can't seem to find any images or real info about the software. Does any one have any links or such?

That's actually the point. If you read the FAQ and press releases, they're not telling anyone anything about the software. I'm under the impression it's viral marketing applied to CAD, which is... weird. When I say viral marketing, I don't actually mean computer viruses - I mean marketing campaigns spread by grassroots methods, word of mouth, and a good dose of mystery surrounding the people responsible. My guess is we won't know the true value of the software until (if) it's released to those who signed up. I figure I might as well give it a try, I haven't got much to lose other than an email address that's firewalled anyway.

[sanddrag]

It's wierd that they don't have a privacy policy or anything on their site. I'm sticking by the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probabaly is." For all we know the software itself could have malicious components. Given the lack of any sort of information whatsoever, I'm not so ready to just jump right into this.

[spears312]

Well, I'm gonna give it a go. If it is just a e-mail harvest, I don't think I'll be in too much danger since I use a hotmail account externally. If it does lead to software tho, I may be a little leery to DL it till I know its clean.

[sanddrag]

Here's the satellite picture of the address that the domain name is registered to. Looks like a house.
link (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=4001+Cherrywood+Road+Austin,+TX++78722&ll=30.294081,-97.711694&spn=0.005397,0.007918&t=k&hl=en)

Just think about it. I it is going to be so good, why don't they say anything about it and why would they give it away for free. Why do you get all this out of it and what do they get out of it?

[miketwalker]

I think it could be a good potential to just hook people if the software is any good... especially with so many other CAD programs. For example, look at Microsoft Onenote... Microsoft did very good giving so many copies away to college kids last year and this year... and expanding on it, etc... that in the future I definitly think many students will purchase the future releases. The program might not make money now... but, nothing makes money off the bat... if they have 100,000 people... and 1,000 people buy the second release, then they are able to compete and make a profit.

[ChuckDickerson]

I heard about this a week or so ago and surfed around and from what I can tell the speculation is that X-CAD = Alibre (www.alibre.com). I think (90% sure) the offer is real but I haven't signed up yet because I can't quite figure out what the catch is yet. I am thinking they give you a crippled copy of Alibre for free and offer you an upgrade to the full version for a discounted price or something. Think about it. Even if the upgrade was $50 or maybe $100 with an instant user base of 100,000 people that would be an easy $5,000,000 to $10,000,000. You have to give it to them. It's a neat marketing scheme.

[Ryan M.]

Has anyone actually installed the software and scanned for viruses or spyware yet? Once you do and it passes, then I will register... maybe. :)

[Not2B]

And if they don't get 100,000 people?

You get nothing but junk mail for years?

They said nothing on their site to make me think it was for real. It was more marketing speak than anything else...

[Elgin Clock]

I heard about this a week or so ago and surfed around and from what I can tell the speculation is that X-CAD = Alibre (www.alibre.com (http://www.alibre.com/)).

Alibre is based out of Richardson TX, and X-CAD out of Austin.
Could be a possibility I guess.

But the webmistress of the X-CAD site uses a hotmail e-mail account as her main contact. Kind of fishy.
And the address provided leads to a park in Austin. Even more fishy.

Meh, that's what secondary e-mail addresses are for. :)
Just call me #56480.

[[527]phil]

We'll thats why i have more than 1 e-mail address, actually 5, so I'm #55,884, #55,885, #55,886, and #55,889 :D

[jdiwnab]

I heard about this a week or so ago and surfed around and from what I can tell the speculation is that X-CAD = Alibre (www.alibre.com (http://www.alibre.com)). I think (90% sure) the offer is real but I haven't signed up yet because I can't quite figure out what the catch is yet. I am thinking they give you a crippled copy of Alibre for free and offer you an upgrade to the full version for a discounted price or something. Think about it. Even if the upgrade was $50 or maybe $100 with an instant user base of 100,000 people that would be an easy $5,000,000 to $10,000,000. You have to give it to them. It's a neat marketing scheme.

I have tried Alibre and have found it so finikey and touchy that it is difficult to do some basic things like extrude. It took me an hour to do in Alibre what it took 20 minutes to do in Inventor. Even it this is real, if it is a crippled version of Alibre, then it is going to be very bad.

[ChuckDickerson]

Just reviving this thread in case anyone was considering signing up for X-CAD. It looks like they are at 99,200+ and will hit the 100,000 mark today or tomorrow. I went ahead and signed up yesterday but only gave them my name and email NOT my phone number so we will see what happens. I figure the worst that will happen is I can send their junk email to the spam folder.

EDIT: Looks like X-CAD = Alibre Xpress

http://www.alibre.com/xpress/news/press-release.asp

[sanddrag]

Yep, that's cool to know it is for real. Even though most say Alibre is aweful, it is free (and probably the best you can get for free) so I created a spam account and registered for it. :)

[ChuckDickerson]

Would I be considered overly pessimistic to wonder if their server is going to mysteriously crash 1 second after the 99,999th person registers so that the last 100,000th person is unable to register and blow the whole deal but they now have 99,999 email addresses??? We'll just have to wait and see now I guess.

[mechanicalbrain]

608 more people!!!

[mechanicalbrain]

293!!!

[mechanicalbrain]

200 LEFT!!! hurry up and get yours :D

[spears312]

I've never heard or seen much about alibre, but heck, if it's going to be free, I'm game, especially since I don't have any CAD software right now. Looks like they are ~60 out from having all 100,000.

Update: Looks like we have reached the magic number (and evidentially have passed it). Nothing yet though.

[sanddrag]

100,000!

[miketwalker]

100,009 and no link.... hmmmm...

[sanddrag]

100,009 and no link.... hmmmm...I was thinking the same thing, but maybe it either takes time to send out 100,000 e-mails or maybe they won't be sending it until August 1st.

[[527]phil]

hmmm, well even if it's free it's till gunna be better than nothing. I have catia v5 and it's wayyyy too complicated, hopefully alibre will come with a manual or something.

[sanddrag]

phil']hmmm, well even if it's free it's till gunna be better than nothing. I have catia v5 and it's wayyyy too complicated, hopefully alibre will come with a manual or something.The site says it will come with the same tutorials that come with the pro version that costs $$.

[miketwalker]

I think I found the catch in it. If you look through the link to the site, and look at the software screenshots... theres like a 150 pixel tall banner across the entire top of the thing with ads from Google. Even if it's free, 150 pixels is a heck of alot of space to take up for ads especially when you're trying to model. That'll be a pain to work with sketches and such in, and ads just get annoying in general anyhow.

[[527]phil]

Your forgetting the magic word, FREE. You can't complaine if you didn't pay for it.

[mechanicalbrain]

yeah the fact that you dont pay for it makes it nice just dont wipe your computer.

[spears312]

I have not yet an e-mail. My guess is that there is something manual that needs to be taken care of first. When you do receive a e-mail could someone respond and say so or PM me? I thought I registered before, but the e-mail I input had a typo which I didn't realize till the counter was at 99940. I re-registered, and clicked the link in the registration e-mail, the window that popped up had the title of "thank you for registering", but the counter was already over 10,000. So I'm not 100% sure if I am counted as registered or not (I REALLY hope I am :ahh: ).

[[527]phil]

I think a smart thing to do is to save the files onto a CD after you download it. yeah yeah yeah they'll probably have something to stop you from doing that but theres always a way around it. And it may take a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time for everyone to download the software. I mean think about it if 100,000 people try downloading a large program it'll take forever.

[Tazlikesrobots]

I just registered an the registration count is 101802


Woo Hoo! :)

[mechanicalbrain]

depends on how they do it there are fast way of running mass downloads. if you find a way of putting it on disk be sure to post it.

[sanddrag]

From what I read, the program will be using Google Ads which has upset many people. Also, you need to be connected to the internet to use it to make sure you get the ads. I don't think it'll be that bad but they never said anything about ads in the original marketing.

[mechanicalbrain]

yeah it also makes you wonder what else they might add. still waiting for an email.

[half geek]

Since I don't run windows nor mac, I am always looking for alternatives to AutoCAD for use with robotics. I am just hoping this runs well under WINE. Has anybody tested this?

[[527]phil]

I just got the e-mail. Turns out their giving the downloading instructions and link on august first (2 points for whoever guessed that). And there ALWAYS a way around stuff, so eventually someone will figure out how to A. put it on a CD, and B. use it without an INTERNET connection.

[Gui Cavalcanti]

Whee:

Hi Gui,
Thanks to your participation in the X-CAD 100,000 Seat Giveaway we have reached the goal of 100,000 registrations early!

Some of you may not have heard, we announced on Wednesday that Alibre is the company behind X-CAD and X-CAD is Alibre Design Xpress, the newest member of the Alibre Design product family.

As of August 1, Alibre Design Xpress will be available to all for free. But, as one of the first 100,000 to register, you're getting a little more.

For you Alibre Design Xpress will include all the features listed on the new Alibre Design Xpress site, plus:

Advanced part modeling, which includes features like shelling, 3D sketch, reference surfaces, etc. View the Alibre Design brochure on our web site for the full part modeling feature set.

Create and edit assemblies with up to 25 unique parts. You can open an assembly with more parts in read-only mode.

Create 2D drawings with standard orthographic views. All drawings are fully associative: you change the model and the drawing updates.

3D import/export of all the standard formats Alibre Design supports, including STEP, SAT (ACIS), and IGES. DXF and DWG are supported in 2D, and STL is supported for export.
All free versions of Alibre Design Xpress require an Internet connection and will display a banner of Google ads through a built-in web page. No third-party adware is installed on your system. If your Internet connection is lost we have taken steps to ensure that you can save your work. The Internet connection requirement can be turned off for a small fee.

On August 1, you will receive instructions on how to download the software. We had hoped to release it to you sooner, but given the nature of software development, we are in the final stages of quality testing. At this time we expect all to be ready for the August 1 release.

This is truly the best offer for parametric 3D CAD software available anywhere. When you get the download instructions, please complete the steps to download and install Alibre Design Xpress right away. The special offer you get as one of the first 100,000 expires on August 31, don't delay.

If you are no longer interested in Alibre Design Xpress and would like to be removed from all future email communications and eligibility for the extra features offered to the first 100,000 registrants, you may Unsubscribe here.

This isn't the end, there will be additional valuable incentives for engaging with us over time, so I encourage you to stay opted in to our email communications and participate in the short surveys and contests. We won't abuse your email address, we stand by our privacy policy and if you opt out, we won't send you messages.

Best Regards,
Greg Milliken
President and CEO
Alibre, Inc.

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[sanddrag]

Only a maximum of 25 parts in assemblies? That really isn't very many. I'll probably download it (to keep it for a rainy day) but not install it since I have Inventor which I really like.

[Matt Krass]

I'm with sanddrag, the 25 part limit seems quite debilitating, I'll stick to SolidWorks, but I'll keep this around, you never know...