Apr 10 - Alibre Introduces CAM Products

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Alibre Introduces CAM Products

Prices range from free for "select group" to $4,000

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RICHARDSON, TX, Apr 10, 2008 - Alibre, Inc. today announced the Alibre CAM product family, the first fully integrated 3D parametric Personal CAD/CAM solution that is accessible and affordable for manufacturers and machine shops of any size, even individuals. The Alibre CAM family of Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software products is integrated within Alibre’s popular Alibre Design 3D parametric CAD software that offers the functionality of products like SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER and Autodesk Inventor at a price anyone can afford. Alibre CAM strengthens Alibre’s product offering to include an integrated CAM system at a fraction of the price of alternative products providing just CAD or CAM alone.

2 1/2 axis profiling toolpath

Alibre CAM products provide 2½ to 5-axis CNC milling fully integrated into the Alibre Design interface, with complete parametric solid modeling of parts and assemblies and automated creation of 2D drawings and Bills of Materials (BOM). All components of the integrated solution are associative to the solid model, meaning that an update to a model automatically updates other related components. So when a part model is edited, all assemblies that use that part will automatically update, all 2D drawings of that part will automatically update, and now with Alibre CAM, the toolpaths created for that part will also automatically update.

Parallel finish with regions

Building on the success of Alibre Design Xpress, the first and only free 3D parametric CAD application that has been downloaded over 500,000 times since its release in August 2005, the entry-level member of the Alibre CAM product family, Alibre CAM Xpress, will be offered free of charge to a select group of manufacturing professionals. This initial group will then be authorized to invite colleagues and partners to also get Alibre CAM Xpress at no charge. Unprecedented in the CAD/CAM industry, Alibre CAM Xpress is the first and only 3D parametric CAD/CAM system available for free.

“Alibre CAM and Alibre CAM Xpress are going to disrupt the stagnant CAM software market,” declares Greg Milliken, CEO of Alibre. “Today most CAM vendors are dependent on CAD vendors, so they either throw in their lot with a single vendor, or they try to ride the fence by working loosely with all of them for fear of upsetting anyone. They are so afraid of doing anything that will upset the status quo that they’ve relegated themselves to the table scraps of big CAD companies, such as a listing on their partner page and ticket to an annual user conference. Worse, with few exceptions, customers either get taken to the bank with an ‘integrated’ solution from one of the big guys like Siemens/UGS, Dassault and PTC, or they settle for working with a hodge-podge of solutions from multiple vendors, or they have to give up real CAD capabilities altogether just to be able to afford the CAM software. Alibre is changing the status quo by providing a single, integrated parametric CAD/CAM solution for the mainstream machine shop at a fraction of the price of anything else on the market.”

“Very, very impressive,” said Mark Ecklund, President of Ecklund Engineered Products. “I have the whole process working from design to part. I designed a motorcycle triple clamp in Alibre, ran toolpaths in Alibre CAM, sent the posted G-Codes to a HAAS machining center and pressed the start button. The part has over 50,000 lines of G-Code and it worked perfectly the first time! It really is a complete design to finished part solution. Thanks for this product.”

"At Tormach, we’re dedicated to making high-quality CNC machinery affordable to the individual," explains Greg Jackson, CEO of Tormach LLC. "With Alibre CAM, the team at Alibre is showing a strong commitment to making powerful 3D design and manufacturing technologies that were once exclusive and ‘high-end’ available for everyone, even the individual.”

Alibre CAM runs only inside of the Alibre Design user interface and can be purchased as a bundle with Alibre Design, or as an add-on to a previously purchased version of Alibre Design.

The Alibre Design product family includes four versions:

Alibre Design Xpress (Free),
Alibre Design Standard ($995),
Alibre Design Professional ($1,495) and
Alibre Design Expert ($1,995).

3-axis horizontal roughing

Alibre CAM products provide a wide range of milling operations including profiling, pocketing, facing, v-carving, engraving and hole and thread milling, as well as a variety of roughing and finishing operations such as horizontal, parallel, and radial. Hole making operations such as drilling, tapping, boring and reverse boring are also supported, along with animated toolpath simulation. All Alibre CAM products come with numerous post-processors as well as a custom post-processor generator. The Alibre CAM product family consists of the following four products:

Alibre CAM Xpress; Add-On Price: Free - The entry-level version of Alibre CAM providing basic 2 ½- and 3-axis milling that is being made available free to a select group of manufacturing professionals who can then invite others to obtain the product. Alibre CAM Xpress was formerly known simply as Alibre CAM and was bundled only with Alibre Design Expert.
Alibre CAM Standard; Add-On Price: $1,000 - Industrial-strength 2 ½- and 3-axis production milling system integrated with Alibre Design. Toolpaths are fully associative to your Alibre Design models.
Alibre CAM Professional; Add-On Price: $2,000 - Includes the features of Alibre CAM Standard, adding 4-axis milling and advanced simulation operations for higher productivity and more complex shape machining.
Alibre CAM Expert; Add-On Price: $4,000 - Includes Standard and Professional features, and adds 5th axis indexing (3+2 indexed machining) and many advanced machining operations and toolpath generation strategies for demanding production environments with sophisticated machining requirements.

For more detailed listing of the features in each product available at the Alibre web site click here.

About Alibre

Alibre, Inc., the Personal CAD/CAM Company, develops and markets Alibre Design, the fastest growing 3D parametric solid modeling software for mechanical design and manufacturing. In addition, Alibre CAM extends Alibre Design to offer integrated parametric 2½- to 5-axis CNC machining. One-fifth the cost of comparable software, Alibre Design and Alibre CAM are easy to use with rich functionality and world-class support and training, making 3D CAD/CAM accessible to every engineer, machinist or inventor, similar to office software like Word or Excel. Alibre also offers Alibre Design Xpress and Alibre CAM Xpress, the industry's only true 3D parametric modeler and integrated CAM system available free of charge. Alibre products are available in fifteen languages and distributed worldwide. Founded in 1997, Alibre Inc. is privately funded and based in Richardson, Texas.

For more information on Alibre, or for a free trial of Alibre Design, please visit www.alibre.com.

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