Engineers - Free Parametric Solid Modeler (Legit)

[Egaladeist]

Hi Tim_axe,

Here's a site that might have some interest to you and others...

http://www.mcadcafe.com/
Welcome to MCADCafe, the Leading MCAD Portal

information on Alibre Design Xpress...

http://www10.mcadcafe.com/search/inf...JxPTAmc2k9MA==
MCADCafe - Web Search
( edit: link won't work...if you put ' Alibre Design Xpress ' into the search box it will direct you to the page I meant )

and another free item...

http://www10.mcadcafe.com/goto.php?h...y_21_2005.html
MCADCafe

Eg

[DakX]

You know they are well over 100.000 if i can still count. (101.140)
So where is our free software?
By the way, nice reading foxy i didn't even see that. My guess is that it will be full of adware and other sh*t.

[Tim_axe]

We get it on August 1st... Still another week to wait before we get it...

[Tim_axe]

Update: This email was sent out to the first 100,000 to register today...copied/pasted into the thread...

Hi ______,

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:

1) 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.

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

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

4) 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 <URL Removed>.

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 <URL Removed> and if you opt out, we won't send you messages.

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

So apparently as the first group of 100,000 people we get a few more features than what the official "Alibre Design Express" will offer. Only when it is actually released will we know for sure what is included. But it is exciting that the only thing they're putting in there is Google Ads. Definately better than other things...

And the funny thing I find is that the Google Ads on their website have links to their competitors...wonder if when we're running their free version of the software Google Ads will urge us to buy SolidWorks and 3D Studio Max, lol.

[The Grunt]

Hmm, I didn't get an email, and I was in the first 100,000...

[Tim_axe]

I'll say it now:

Darn It!


I've been watching threads at BBR unravel and I'm finally becoming pissed off at x-cad.

• Bait-and-Switch - Original terms mentioned fully-functional - Now it is crippled
• Viral Marketing - You get it only if you tell 100,000 people!
• Google AdSense Violations - It is designed to show AdSense where it isn't meant to be (Section 5, subsection VI)
• Censorship - Deleting forum posts criticizing their actions
• Non-Response - No official word from them other than press releases

There are probably more, but those have really pissed me off. I thought it was alright at first, but now that happy feeling is gone.

This x-cad thing could probably make a nice case-study for someone writing about Adware/Spyware and other underhanded stuff. But until August 1st you writers won't even be able to conclude the story...what a rip off...


A Link -- Linkage @ BBR


(BTW, if a mod can, get rid of the "Legit" part from the thread title please. It looked legit at first, and even I was willing to think it was, but it has become a bait-and-switch due to bad viral marketing and I don't want to give them a lot of credit for it anymore)

[Kthln01]

i just got the email to download.

I think the rush for the first 100,000 was pointless, because the site asked me for referrals who would get free copies as well.

i'm not even going to try the stupid thing now!

[foxyloxley]

I would NEVER say that there's no such thing as a free lunch

But it's a shame that it appears to be less than first advertised ...............
'cos there's 100 000 LESS punters for the NEXT one ..........Or maybe that was the intention

[i2c]

Just become friends with the lab staff and ask for a site licensed copy of what ever CAD software they use, at my uni there more than willing to hand out copies to who ever needs them.

I got myself a copy of Solidworks, Matlab and Ansys - all hardcore engineering programs. (~£20,000 of software if i purchased as an indivisdual)

See what they have to say, you might be surprised! I was!

i2c

[Tim_axe]

Yeah, I'll probably ask when school rolls around. I use GNU Octave instead of matlab for the time being. I don't use it much, but when I need to quickly get multiple numbers from a function I use it for the easy creation of arrays and display of them.




As for this X-Cad stuff...there seems to be much more than Google Ad-Sense. If that is even Google Ad-Sense, since from the screen shots I've seen it is much more targeted than Google ever was. But it has a lot of HTTPS traffic going on, and it communicates with their servers all the time, constantly sending a lot of machine information (not encrypted) and then something else that is within HTTPS and not visible.

Very suspicious. I'm not even sure if I want to run it, but I decided to download it so they have to pay the bandwidth. Still, I noticed they changed some more stuff half-way through (they now have more required fields on the download forum, I got it when there were no required fields). They're a sneaky lot. I wonder what they are trying to do? I don't feel comfortable running it to find out...