I am a user of Alibre Design expert for approx 14 years. In all this time I have never felt the need to visit this forum. Unfortunately, since V22 I'm experiencing a significant number of random problems. Version: V22 64-bit [Build 22061] Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19041.0 Processor Information: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700F CPU @ 3.00GHz Number of Processors: 8 Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0.30319.42000 I really like some of the new features in V22 but am getting tired of wasting time getting simple things to work. My typical procedure when encountering something fishy is to save, close and reopen. This works ~ %50 of time. Otherwise, change the order or remodel the feature. Crashes are not uncommon. Revolves through curved surfaces don't work near as good as previous. Sometimes simple straight cuts threw revolves fail. Even though I model with near complete constraints, sometimes flat surfaces that should show as one surface are two causing subsequent problems. Any comments on these questions: Did they get a new internal 3D engine or something? Is Alibre actively trying to fix these issues? Is it ok to build on older Alibre models or should I do them over? I'm not sure if v21 ever crashed on me. v22, nearly everytime I model something. Is this common?
Did they get a new internal 3D engine or something? No Is Alibre actively trying to fix these issues? Not sure what the issue is, exactly. Is it ok to build on older Alibre models or should I do them over? It should be ok, though if you're experiencing weird issues you may want to open an older model and consider it as a backup - do a save as first step so that if your weird issue does something unexpected you still have your older one to rely on. I'm not sure if v21 ever crashed on me. v22, nearly everytime I model something. Is this common? No This kind of thing could be all kinds of things. Maybe a corrupt Windows update. Maybe some random .NET issue. Not easy to diagnose here. I recommend you ping support, or at a minimum be more explicit about what the errors are, when they occur, are they reproducible, etc. with screenshots if it relates to some modeling thing. It is not normal to crash every time you model something. I haven't crashed personally in months. This sounds like one thing causing multiple issues rather than many separate issues. Raise a support ticket.
I have seen quite a number of things mentioned with V22 that are charitably described as "not ideal". Some design choices that are deal breakers, some just screwy errors. I have not upgraded, and I may not go with V23 either, if some things (such as the locked material fields) are not fixed back to what they were a while back. I do not like having to stay back like that, among other things it makes this forum nearly useless, since I can not see ANY of the examples, or answers, so if I asked something, (this has already happened) I cannot view the answer. No use even asking. At least V21, which is a good release, is still working aside from a couple oddities. But, I am simply not comfortable with the chorus of problems associated with V22. That may be part of what the OP here is responding to, in addition to his actual issues.
JST - does the entry for v22 SP2 at Alibre Release History - Alibre, LLC address your material field concern ?
Not at all, it seems to make it worse, but I may not understand it correctly. That is not the only issue, the forum has been peppered with them.
Locking the material fields and forcing use of a pre-installed material which will appear in the BOM. Adds steps to a design, even when not required. Common to edit the BOM to manually insert a material for one part or a quick one-off drawing for something that may be only an illustration of some "quick fixture" to be used once. It appears that now a formal material entry will have to be inserted for anything and everything, and that it will be impossible to put in a "none" entry which can be selected and edited in the BOM for one-off items.
From the page DavidJ linked: Meaning check mark the Custom checkbox in the Material tab, set a density, and then go to the Part Data tab and enter anything you want for material. @Max having a Custom Material Name textbox appear (when checked) right next to the Custom checkbox would be much clearer to users.
I agree. However this was only done to support some legacy cases where a ton of rework would otherwise be required for older assemblies in specific use cases. We are not trying to encourage this behavior necessarily. People should just use the material library. We will probably leave the UI as is until a broader rework occurs over the next 6-12 months.
