Alibre News October 2008

A message from Paul Grayson
Chairman of the Board, Alibre Inc.

"It's the Economy, STUPID!" was a phrase widely used during Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign. In order to keep the campaign on message, the Clintons hung a sign with this phrase in their Little Rock campaign headquarters. The economy had recently undergone a recession and "It's the Economy, Stupid" became a filter for everything that the Clinton campaign said and did.

This phrase is gaining political and cultural currency once again, as the US economy appears to be slipping into a deep recession and Americans are about to go to the polls to elect a President. In fact, I believe that "It's the Economy, STUPID" is fast becoming the watch phrase by which businesses and consumers alike are filtering their financial and purchasing decisions.

Frugality is Fact

Two months ago I wrote about how Frugality was suddenly becoming fashionable. Well folk's, it's not just fashionable anymore, it is FACT and that hard, cold reality is proven daily by the drumbeat of bad economic news.

Frankly, people are scared. Their 401K's are down 40-50% and they face vanishing jobs, shrinking paychecks and nest eggs, and slumping home values. Sales at the nation's retailers fell with a thud in September, dropping by 1.2 percent, the most in three years. Uncertainty about the economy -- and their own financial fortunes -- probably will force consumers and businesses alike to hunker down further, spelling more problems for the already troubled economy.

According to a recent Fortune Magazine article, even Google is going frugal: "Gone are the search giant's free-spending ways… The prospect of a severe economic slowdown has forced Google to act fiscally responsible." Suddenly, businesses and consumers have gotten religious about the impact of the economy on themselves. No longer is it just something that is affecting other people.

Read the rest of the post here.

 Paul Grayson

With Alibre Design V11, the entire code base for Alibre Design has been migrated to the .NET platform, resulting in easier installation, better graphics device support, performance and stability. The .NET platform is preinstalled with all versions of Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows XP. Previous versions of Alibre Design (V10 and earlier) were based on the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM).

The Microsoft JVM was a proprietary Java Virtual Machine computer program first made available for Internet Explorer version 3. Microsoft discontinued it in 2001 because of a lawsuit from Sun Microsystems from whom they had originally licensed the intellectual property rights for JAVA.

The .NET platform was created by Microsoft to provide an enhanced replacement platform for the JVM. Both .NET and MSJVM are based on the concept of a virtual machine model that hides the details of the computer hardware on which their programs run.

The Microsoft JVM reached its end of life on December 31, 2007. Alibre Design V10 and earlier customers are encouraged to move away from MSJVM quickly as it is now considered obsolete, with Microsoft no longer supporting it. MSJVM is no longer available from Microsoft and there have been no enhancements to it since 2001. Microsoft has already retired or replaced all of their products that included the JVM.

While Alibre will continue to support Alibre Design V10 for customers with active maintenance contracts, effective March 31, 2009, we will not offer Support assistance regarding issues stemming from problems related to MSJVM.

In addition, Microsoft has announced that all applications dependent on the MSJVM will be incompatible with Windows 7. This means that no versions of Alibre Design prior to V11 will be able to run on Windows 7 when it ships in 2009.

Alibre strongly recommends that all customers using versions of Alibre Design prior to V11 upgrade to Alibre Design V11 as soon as possible.

Looking to flex your 3D design muscle? Show off your best product idea?

How about putting an extra grand in your wallet?

The on-going Alibre Design Contest pits your best design work against other contestants for a chance at cash and other prizes. You can submit an entirely original model or dig into your existing archives - as long as it was built using Alibre Design, it's fair game. There are different contest categories available and all Alibre users (even Xpress!) are open to enter. Check out the winners of our last contest if you're looking for some inspiration.

Due to customer requests the contest deadline has been extended to February 1, 2009 - that's a few extra months to create or polish-off a winning entry. Click here for a detailed rundown of contest requirements and dates, or e-mail our contest inbox if you have any questions.

Here's your chance to grab bragging rights and cash for you or your company. Good luck!

Our latest product, Alibre Vault by M-Files^®, is a modern tool for organizing documents. Documents are saved in a single location, and they are easily accessible and retrievable for the entire organization at all times. This intelligent application greatly simplifies day to day workflow - particularly when you need to share data with colleagues, or access documents from multiple offices or home.

The ability to access both current and accurate electronic information quickly and easily is absolutely critical in today's business environment. The Alibre Vault offers completely integrated data and process management for your files and workflows. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, the Alibre Vault will satisfy your data management needs.

Alibre Vault is an outstanding Electronic Document Management System that offers a host of innovative features. Alibre Vault allows users to customize how vital electronic documents are stored and control how crucial digital information is collected, updated, and corrected. And it is not just for CAD files, all corporate documents are easily managed with the Alibre Vault.

Integrated as a virtual drive within Windows, the Alibre Vault is as easy to use as browsing your Desktop. It is instantly familiar to anyone using Windows, and enables direct opening and saving from all Windows applications, supporting all file types, including Office, PDF, and CAD files.

File check-out and check-in eliminate simultaneous changes. Automatic versioning tracks revisions, and keeps a change log with usernames and timestamps, easily rolling back to a previous version. And meta-tagging capabilities and the use of a single virtual data repository lets you store documents quickly and efficiently, minimizing wasted disk-space and data redundancy.

Find files faster with instant searching of file contents and meta-data. Organize file views any way you choose, for example by project, by client, or by department, and make any document available in multiple folders without creating copies.

With flexible security settings, you can hide sensitive documents through user permissions. Alibre Vault is also compatible with Active Directory, and can create scheduled backups of all data.

Powerful workflow tools create automatic e-mail notifications for things such as a document being modified or a process being completed. Advanced workflow modeling for business processes such as the engineering change order (ECO) process or user-defined approval loops make business happen faster, and follow a process you define.

The Alibre Vault is included with Alibre Design Professional and Alibre Design Expert and is also available separately for use as a departmental or company-wide document management system. The Alibre Vault is easily extensible to all organizational members regardless of physical location including remote suppliers. It is extremely affordable, starting at just $199 per user.

Often you will need to create 2D section views that require several of the parts be represented in an un-sectioned fashion. Bolts, rods, spindles, shafts, and other similar items frequently require this representation within a section view. In Alibre Design, it's a quick and easy process to get the representation you are after.

Un-sectioning Parts in 2D Views

Here's a little extra content provided courtesy of Design News. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Want to turn on your home's heating system before you arrive? Would you like to double check your home alarm from your car — or your car alarm from your home? Alvaro Mautone created a gadget that allows you to use your cell phone to control appliances and alarms from a distance up to 500m. Mautone uses the serial port in his cell phone to create SMS (short message service) messages to electronic devices to turn them on, turn them off or simply check their status. And he's able to create this handy device while spending less than $50 in components.

Control Your Gadgets Remotely