PV & CAD.... the denouement?? Sorta....

Awl --

Well, I'm still laptop-less, and CAD-less....

Well, ackshooly not totally cadless, as I DO have the full 1985 edition of CadKey 3, with documentation, 1998 Visio/Intellicad, AND.... a SW trial disk, good for *5 mos*! Holy shit.....

I've had the SW trial disk for quite a while now, but without the balls to open it, and in fact, now I cain't find it, but it's around someplace.....

It's just that a number of people scared the bejeezus out of me, regarding the $10,000 laptop I'd need to run SW -- not to mention the PE (Proctological Evisceration) waiting for me when the trial SW disk times out.... holy shit....

But, it turns out that any decent laptop will run SW, according to one who runs it, when I get the laptop (shortly), AND find the SW disk, I'll be set -- for 5 months, at any rate.

So what's decent laptop?

Turns out that for somewhere between $650 and $750, you'll get 4 gb ram, 500 gb drive, and some combination of the following: 15.4-18.4 screen (dats right, 18.4), the AMD Turion to the Intel i5, and ATI Radeon to basic Intel graphics.

I've seen 17" laptops -- BIG! And someone pointed out, you need a very big lap for an 18.4" laptop -- almost 10 pounds. Carrying cases are also hard to find for this size, but are out there. If you look up the reviews on the 18.4" Toshiba P505D-S8000 on amazon, a couple people mention the cases they got, for mebbe $50.

The reviews on amazon seem legit, not stacked, but then who really knows.....

I was really leaning toward that 18.4" toshiba ($699), but after I saw the

17", and some 16", I think I'll just go with a 16" screen and better chip combo, and find my SW disk.

Turns out most of the pyooter retailers -- J&R, newegg, tigerdirect, B&H (which is local to me -- support your local Hassidim, I say), microcenter, mebbe a cupla others, are all very close price-wise, with many offering free shipping, and some mail-in rebate deals where you get a cannon pixma 560 printer for a net $30. Cheap ink, too, non-oem.

I've read that these mail-in rebates are a calculated scam, that you WORK for that rebate, ergo they wind up not having to honor a lot of them. Oh, and the "we-never-got-it" scam.... BUT, it's like a $130 printer ( $85 on amazon, nextag).

If you build a Dell from the Personal group, you come out under $750, but build it from any other group, and it's more.

I nearly went with Alibre, had an "inneresting" experience with them. They have a new CEO (Paul Grayson) from when Novedge interviewed the first one (Millikan?) some time ago, and Novedge interviewed this one as well.

Kinda of tricky to find Franco Follini's interviews, but they're still there, including Jon Banquer's, whose interview is now subtitled "CAD Troll"... fuknHilarious..... Follini must have one sense of humor to keep DAT interview up.....

I'm thinking of emailing Franco, suggesting he change the subtitle to "Unemployed CAD Troll"....

Inyway, Alibre is in some kind of price flux, where there entry-level stuff (which was acutally pretty robust having been lowered from like $1,000 to $100!!) is essentially gone (really dumbed down), but some of the higher-end stuff has been brought down to under $500.

But man, what a cluttered and murky industry, like a big black box filled with hundreds of smaller black boxes.... AND, what a chess game these companies play.... holy shit.....

Did you know the Google SketchUp Pro is $750 ?????? Holy shit......

My BIL did some dynomite 3-D drawings of some parts for me in the free sketchup, but don't know, from just a presentation pov, how they would compare with SW et al. They compared very well to some stuff BB did for me, and took about the same time. BB suggested I go with Sketchup, as you cain't beat the free price!

Inyone use sketchup for anything? Free or pro??

So, ahm pretty much set -- barring any egregious errors in the above -- except for where to actually buy the laptop. Iny shopping tips are always appreciated.

Heh, Amazon sez Kindle is their best selling roduct.... people still read? Books???? Hard to believe.....

Reply to
Existential Angst
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Wife loves hers, get classics free download from Amazon.

Reply to
noneya

If I were you, I wouldn't spend the money on Solidworks. You'll be paying for a ton of stuff that you're not going to use. For the type of work you're talking about doing, I'd just get Alibre or Rhino.

formatting link

Reply to
Joe788

Rhino works really well. It is a joy to use.

No commercial connection, just an ecstatic customer.

:)

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

Suggest you pay attention to which operating system it's compatible with before you get the notebook.

I presume the trial doesn't do something unpleasant like the acadamic version does? (Any models created with the academic version are permanently branded with a hot iron to show a little mortarboard and watermark the drawings in big black type.. and cannot ever be converted to legit models. A PITA if you take a Solidworks course, since the school will probably have the academic version for students.

AFAIK, the only way out is to redo from the beginnning that which was created on the academic version.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Alibre is in the middle of a pricing game again. I purchased Standard for less than advertised but way more than the 100 bucks they started selling it at a month or so later.

Just upgraded to expert, the top level for 500 bucks since they are moving features around and I just know I'm working ot in the next few weeks. Now I wonder what the new game will be. Increases in maintenance, development pushed into another level that doesn't exist, or some other marketing trick.

Alibre is working a niche, their market is those that can't justify Solidworks or another high end solid modeler. That niche included broke dick machinists / entrepreneurs like you and hobby shoppers like me. (You have no idea how hard I had to work to find the spelling for entrepreneur)

If interested in a solution that isn't in SW territory, you might want to make a decision soon.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

or so later.

What were they doing before? (:

Seriously, Alibre *always* has some marketing gimmick going.

features around

new game will

or another

Alibre may not be Solidworks, but it's saved me thousands of dollars since I've started using it. And I'm pretty much ok with the marketing silliness. As long as I can keep an up-to-date 3D modeler and 2D drafter on my desk for under $200-$300 a year, I'm happy.

I'm hoping for a similar value in lathe CAM software, but somehow I doubt I will find it.

a decision

Reply to
Jim Stewart

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