# Page 3 | Alibre Design Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 3 - Is Alibre Design the right 3D CAD solution for you? Explore 181 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/172312/Alibre-Design/reviews --- Alibre Design 4.7 (181) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/172312/Alibre-Design/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 3 - Reviews of Alibre Design ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 51-75 of 181 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use DJ David J. Chief Technology Officer Automotive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Alibre Design Expert Why I use Alibre " August 21, 2024 5.0 Very positive. I had no idea how to work with 3D CAD twelve years ago and now I have designed a patent pending suspension modification. Your payment plan back then convinced me to use Alibre as I had no idea whether investing $3500 would help my crane business then I took a chance with Alibre buying lesser modules on time then finally upgrading to Expert. Keep that in mind its a plus for anyone considering the alternates. Pros Alibre support was always there guiding me through my early learning stages. Their initial training modules (twelve years ago) were most helpful. Today they have an excellent presenter guiding newcomers through the important steps. He has a wonderful soft voice and positive demeanor that shine through his explanations making the complex simple. Cons Its struggles with Geomajic and their ownership. These are past now but unfortunately too much was lost. As an example NYC CNC \[sensitive content hidden\] used to recommend Alibre as their go to CAD program but switched to Fusion 360 where they are today. Fusion 360 compares themselves to Solid Works successfully in their comparison but I do not know where Alibre stands in this comparison. That would be helpful. From what I now know about Alibre you are close to both and most importantly closing the gap. Your ownership model is very relevant for professional users but you need to exploit it better. FEA and motion analysis from Simwise could be a plus in this competition if it were available on a favorable monthly payment plan with training support. Review Source VS Verne S. Owner Arts and Crafts Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "My assessment of Alibre" March 3, 2025 4.0 It's been relatively good but a bit tedious to use. There should be college courses offered like in AutoCAD or Solid works. Technical support is costly but worth it if one needs to have an question or problem with Alibre Pros Relatively easy to use. Most of the functions are intuitive. Cons The help functions don't always address things like "move" where one can move an object using relative or absolute distances. It doesn't fully explain how to use absolute or relative distances by way of examples. Review Source RO Robert O. Engineer Design Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Not Even For Free" September 1, 2024 1.0 Spent four hours trying to do a 15 minute OpenSCAD job. Pros It's free. The price. Forty characters for "free". Cons The UI is slow, heavy, convoluted and "sticky". The draft-based editing is clumsy, limited, and assigns correlations and confinements seemingly at random. Parametric entry is borderline impossible; there are four or five types of lines and whichever one you're defining a shape with is the wrong one. Any promise of defining complicated shapes depends on whether or not you are the giving the sales pitch. Alternatives considered [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/)[OpenSCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/233632/OpenSCAD/)[Gaia](https://www.capterra.com/p/182343/Gaia/)[Blender](https://www.capterra.com/p/167519/Blender/)[AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/) Reason for choosing Alibre Design I suppose I didn't? You're just another in a long list of CAD programs that over-promise and under-deliver. I'm going back to OpenSCAD because all of us, at some point, will eventually die, and my time on this Earth is limited. Switched from [OpenSCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/233632/OpenSCAD/) I'm trying to learn peasant software like draft-based CAD. Review Source MT Mel T. Owner Farming Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "One happy camper" November 17, 2024 5.0 I would recommend it to anybody that wants design anything. Pros Great product at an affordable price. Great customer support, even on Sunday! Cons Little sketchy on troubleshooting yourself but customer support is within a few minutes even seconds. Review Source EW Errol W. Owner Director Civil Engineering Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Alibre Expert Cad" January 23, 2025 4.0 For the price and perpetual licence, It's been great. Pros It's well layout with sane defaults, which makes it a breeze to use. Cons Lack of Multi Body modelling. Constraints take longer to update on changes. Alternatives considered [AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/)[Inventor](https://www.capterra.com/p/236745/Inventor/) Reason for choosing Alibre Design Easy 3d design and price, good after sales support. Review Source TT Timothy T. principal Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Alibre Design review" October 27, 2024 5.0 very good - I use it primarily for 3D printing of custom fixturing for industrial measurement sensors, and it works very well for that. Pros functionality and flexibility - easy to build complex assemblies Cons learning curve can be a little steep - sometimes confusing. That said. the included and online help is excellent. Review Source GC Gareth C. Engineer Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Powerful easy to use CAD with flexible licensing" September 5, 2024 5.0 Pros Powerful and easy to use software / not subscription based. Cons N/A - my experience has been entirely positive. Switched from [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/) I used Solidworks throughout uni and in my daytime job but could not justify the upfront cost for my personal endeavours. Alibre gives me 80% of what I am familiar with in solidworks for a reasonable cost. Review Source MH Martin H. Owner Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Alibre Design Expert" June 27, 2024 5.0 I am now going on my 3rd year using this software. The technical support is fast and responsive. Each year I receive updates, and many times, during periods of travel between states, my floating license was very convenient, allowing me to set up my workstation on location. Great product, great company. Pros This is quality CAD software at a very affordable price. I have used Solidworks, AutoCAD, ProEngeer. I have been able to do virtually everything I did with those packages at a fraction of the cost. Best investment for a small engineering consulting company. Cons I have no complaints. I am a happy camper with this product. I Alternatives considered [Onshape](https://www.capterra.com/p/164681/Onshape/) Reason for choosing Alibre Design Onshape is good, but its a subscription service. I own my Alibre Design Expert software. I found I was able to perform all the engineering tasks with Alibre. Switched from [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/) I changed jobs and could not afford Soldiworks. I needed an affordable, effective CAD software. I discovered Alibre. I was very pleased with the trial test and decided to make the investment. Review Source AG Alex G. Design Engineer Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Alibre Design just works....very well." August 6, 2024 5.0 I've been using Alibre for 20 years and it's the CAD package I always return too, having had experience with many others more than double the cost. Pros No subscription, cost effective. Feature rich. Stability. Cons Drawing environment can be a little sluggish with large assemblies. Review Source LK LaVerne K. President Machinery Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Ease of use" July 15, 2024 5.0 There are a few 2D sketching functions I'd like, but have always found a way to do what I needed. Pros I moved from TurboCAD 2D and had a very little Solidworks experience, the switch was very easy, Alibre is intuitive, after a couple of easily available tutorials I was making useful 3D models and drawings. Cons That I haven't had the time to learn all of Alibre's functions. Switched from [TurboCad](https://www.capterra.com/p/32368/TurboCAD-Professional/) Didn’t like TurboCad's 3D, I never got comfortable with it, TurboCad was primarily used gor 2D drawings. Review Source FB Freddy B. Engineering Tech Design Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "3D Design User" July 29, 2024 5.0 Pros Functionality, support is very helpful. Cons None, Software is very user friendly. Atom 3D works well for 3D printing. Review Source WW William W. Research and Development Engineer Utilities Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Ease of use with a great feature set" June 26, 2024 5.0 I have been satisfied with it overall. I have been a user since before the whole Geomagic mess and during that period is the only time I didn't support the product. The Sheet metal functions in the Expert version are really intuitive for me to use and there are several projects I could not have completed without them. Pros It has a straightforward workflow for most functions. That makes it makes it easier to learn and more likely that you will use the advanced functions. Cons Sometimes the constraint mechanisms seem to get broken for no good reason, but that has been improving with each version and is not affecting my workflow anymore. Reason for choosing Alibre Design The parametric modeling capabilities. What I had been using before was centered around mesh modeling. Review Source GR Geoff R. Draftsman Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Review title goes here" June 5, 2024 4.0 Moderately painless, with occasional "throw the monitor out of the window" moments. Pros It's reasonably easy to learn, it must be because I taught myself to use it with zero tuition and only minor levels of profanity. Cons It glitches occasionally, mainly when drawing a geometry line where many already exist, suddenly making all the geometry look like a toddler crawled through the middle of it. It also has issues where, in an assembly, it substitutes one item for another and the only solution is to completely redraw the offending item. Also I can't puzzle out the sheetmetal function, mainly because it's easier to just draw a solid and flatten it out than to sort through the menus for bend allowances. Review Source TH Tracy H. HMFIC Arts and Crafts Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "More powerful than free CAD programs, does what I want." July 4, 2024 5.0 I bought Atom 3d 2 years ago, and got fairly comfortable with it. Did not use it for 2 years and had to start all over (same as all other CAD programs that I have learned and then not used for awhile). Pros Ability to edit feature properties, instead of having to ungroup parts to get to the single piece needing modification. Good tutorials. Cons Slight changes to how it works in v28 vs v26 (clicking on activate 2d no longer shows a simple 2d surface--I get a cluttered 3d image that is hard to edit on a 2d surface). Switched from [TurboCad](https://www.capterra.com/p/32368/TurboCAD-Professional/)[Tinkercad](https://www.capterra.com/p/207354/Tinkercad/) Never really liked TurboCAD, TinkerCAD a little too simple. Review Source SC Steve C. Design Engineer Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Software for the Money" April 17, 2024 5.0 Pros So many things to like it would be difficult to list them all. I've used various other parametric modeling software over the last 40 years, and for the industries I work with, Alibreprovides me wtih all the tools I need to run a successful design business. Cons That's even more difficult for me to answer that what do I like the most. There is nothing in this design software that makes me cringe, even a little. Reason for choosing Alibre Design It offers more bang for the buck. In fact for me it was a no brainer after researchig the capabilities and price of the other programs. Review Source JN John N. President Design Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Realistic pricing and payment plans make it affordable to all." April 26, 2024 5.0 Overall Alibre is a very good modeling software and I know that the programmers and future updates and new versions will make this software go from good to an excellent modeling software. Pros First,the cost and payment plan makes this software affordable. Second, all the features you get makes Alibre equal to the exspensive modeling software. Third, the learning curve is easy to get around with the online tutorial videos and support team. Cons When drawing detailed layout's with many shapes the software crashes. The work around is to break up these many shape into groups. After each group is drawn, save and then start with the next group and repeat. I would love to see more tutorial videos on more complex designs. Switched from [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/) The cost comparison with what features you get. Review Source LL Lee L. President Utilities Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product at a reasonable price" May 22, 2024 5.0 Customer service has been excellent. I began using Alibre as a CAD novice, and I became a proficient user fairly quickly. Pros Simple, easy to use user interface. It’s not too complex, but has the needed features for most activities. Cons Converting a file to a DXF is somewhat awkward, but can be done. This comment is for the Atom3d version. Reason for choosing Alibre Design The Alibre product has a good price point, and during the trial version I found Alibre easier to use than the other products I tried. Review Source DW David W. Owner Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Alibre Design Critique" May 25, 2024 4.0 Pros ease of use, the fact that I can purchase and not be tied to an annual subscription is ideal for an occasional user. Cons Can be a bit annoying at times particularly when a sketch is not fully defined other cad programs have a much better "self healing" situation. The sheet metal program could be improved at the moment it's a bit of an afterthought. Review Source AB Andy B. Personal Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Exploring my ideas in the future of Space Travel." April 8, 2024 5.0 My overall experience with Alibre Design is great. I signed up for help service and am working with \[sensitive content hidden\], he has lead me through some tuff areas which took a couple of visits. \[sensitive content hidden\] helped me learn how to complete a simple Assembly by suggestions and advice, Not just doing it for me. My goal us a complete understanding of the program. Pros For me, I started with the 2D Design, this area is very simple. Just a square box and Extruding it to a 3D Viewing. Moving on from there is just a matter a easy learning curve. Then once you complete one or several parts, you can now step up to an Assembly and take each part and Constrain them all into one Primary Assembly/Part for future Assembling into your final project. Cons It goes without saying, every step of a new program is a challenge. Hence, no challenge no fun or completing your ideas. Review Source MM Michel M. Retired Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "An excellent and modern tool for those who care to create with pleasure." February 16, 2024 5.0 I used Alibre for professionnal tasks to fabricate real products, tools and machines, and for my personnal pleasure to create and illustrate dream fantasies. It is an easy and affordable tool in this era of digital creativity. Pros I am an old designer who worked on many cad programs like Autocad, Euclid, Applicon, Versacad, Solid Edge and of course Solidwork. I bought a licence for Alibre Expert in 2006 and upgraded to Professionnal in the same year. And I never left since then. I just feel home with Alibre. Cons Many customers used to ask for Autocad drawings final as-build documents and translating Alibre 2D drawings to Autocad has always been complicated, and I agree that this problem is not easy to solve. Switched from [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/)[AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/) The excellent price and performance ratio. Review Source JK Jason K. Mechanical Design Machinery Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Perhaps it will work for a hobbyists." November 22, 2023 3.0 Pros The Cons out-weigh the pros. The one pro being low cost. If decision were mine, I would be using Solid Works. Cons Under utilization of computer power and graphics cards. For all intents and purposes no ability whatsoever to manage project files, creating an impossible mess on your hard drive that you can't fix because it will break all of your assemblies and require hours of re-locating files in their new locations. Reason for choosing Alibre Design Management wanted a low cost product. Alibre is a low cost product. Review Source Response from Alibre November 27, 2023 Thanks for your feedback, Jason. It sounds like your primary issue is the current lack of PDM for data management. While many businesses are using Alibre Design today without issue, certainly some have higher data management requirements. To that end, we've been busy making a fully native PDM solution set to launch early 2024. That solution will solve each of the data management challenges you list above, and more. It will have Where Used, versioning, roll back, check in / out, locking, easy moving / duplication / renaming of files without breaking anything, really robust searching, and a lot more. We're looking forward to the release since this has been requested a lot, and we're very excited to be able to solve this market need some of our customers are experiencing. We hope that after you are able to use it, you might reconsider your rating if you find it has solved your issue. Cheers, Max Freeman CEO | Alibre, LLC Rick O. Owner Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Exceptional value for money" November 28, 2023 5.0 As a user of SolidWorks at work, I wanted a system that I could use at home with similar capabilities; SolidWorks did not offer a suitable license for this purpose. I discovered Alibre around 2013 and was surprised to find that it closely matched the performance of SolidWorks at an affordable cost, and even more surprised to find that it ran well on my home computer. I used it for parallel work to my day job, for exporting Alibre models into SolidWorks, and for other work on my own account. When I retired in 2019 and set up a small home business, I added a CAM add-in and used Alibre to model products and generate toolpaths for their production on a small CNC machine in my garage; it has paid for itself many times over. Pros Having used SolidWorks at work since 2000, I have found Alibre to be capable of virtually the same performance at home at a small fraction of the cost. - In addition, it runs well on my basic home desktop PC, and it can import SW native files (though without retaining the feature tree). For someone who is comfortable working in SolidWorks, ProE, etc, Alibre is very much the same at lower cost. - The Alibre license is permanent, unlike other CAD systems. You can subscribe to maintenance support, but if you decide to let that lapse your system license is still good - you lose the maintenance but still can continue to use the software. - Alibre's customer service has also been consistently very good, every question receives careful attention and an immediate helpful response. Cons This is not really Alibre's fault, but the discontinuation of a CAM add-in called AlibreCAM 2020 (as I understand, this was not actually an Alibre product but made by MecSoft) around 2021 was unfortunate - it was excellent and seamless in Alibre and critical to my work. In order to retain this discontinued product, I have not updated my system to the most recent version of Alibre. Switched from [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/) Lower cost, lower hardware requirements and permanent license Review Source Adrian F. King of my shed Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Easy for a CAD noob" November 7, 2023 5.0 Absolutely easy to work with lots good tutorials good forum. Mature software! Pros \-easy -software is yours no saas -good tutorials -good forum -nice people Cons \-no real hobbyist license -bad cam there are better choices Alternatives considered [Onshape](https://www.capterra.com/p/164681/Onshape/)[FreeCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/167527/FreeCAD/) Reason for choosing Alibre Design The ease of use. The affordable price and the clean ui Switched from [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/) Unclear license too costly and I don’t like to rent software I like to own it Review Source MR Michael R. President Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Alibre- best value and best performing 3D CAD/CAE tool I know" September 17, 2023 5.0 I use other expensive tools that came before Alibre with various features.....but frankly the Alibre team have reproduced and improved the features of other tools.The design environment is clean. It NEVER crashes and I have built seriously massive 3D models that worked fine where other tools would have choked. Pros As an electrical Engineer more than 10 years ago I invested in Alibre because I wanted to learn 3D CAD\\CAE , 3D printing and CNC CAM. Alibre has taught me so much and has widened my capabilities beyond my wildest imagination. Well done, professional easy to Learn training videos got me started.....and the experience has augmented my inventive imagination like no other tool I have learned. Cons I really cannot think of anything at this time. Any shortcomings over time have been fixed or improved. Reason for choosing Alibre Design Frankly it was cost of ownership and training that started this choice. But after using Alibre for years now, the quality, performance and capabilities stack up against other tools very well.When I purhased it, It started as a learning excercise ...I took a chance....but over time my organization has grown to standardize on all engineering with Alibre. I highly recommend it to any company regardless of size. Review Source SS Steven S. Machinist, Draftsman Machinery Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Most powerful CAD system for small companies." January 4, 2024 5.0 We have had excellent customer service and support any time we have needed it. Also we look forward to Alibre updates every year because Alibre gets better and better every year. Pros Alibre meet our price point to bring 3D CAD to our small machine shop. Over the last 10 years Alibre's software has got better and better, giving us a very powerful design tool without the big expense. Cons For the cost, we don't really have any cons. Alibre gets the job done for us day in and day out. Alternatives considered [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/)[AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/) Reason for choosing Alibre Design Price! Alibre had all the features we needed in a CAD program at a price that meet our needs. Review Source Similar Products Featured