Alibre Atom 3D 101 Training Course Feedback Thread

[rf3designParticipant @rf3design]

Hello!

 

I’ve created this thread for feedback on the Atom 3D training course (there are a few MEW members working through it at the moment).

 

I have had a few comments already, so I will include the answers here as these may also be helpful to others.

 

1: Changing the interface settings to make the interface easier to read:

To get into the settings go to the ‘Utilities’ tab, then click on ‘System Options’

1A: Increasing the size of the design explorer: This is under ‘All Workspaces’ (you may need to click arrow to expand all the options), ‘Design Tree’. The default settings is Small, change this to Medium or Large to scale the text and icons in the design tree up. This is especially helpful on laptops with high DPI displays.

1B: Increase the thickness of the reference planes: The settings for reference plane thickness is located under the ‘Parts / Assemblies’ – ‘Design Viewing’ section of the options menu (note you will need to scroll down to find the setting). The default is set to 1, change this to 2 or 3 to make the reference planes stand out more.

1C: Changing the size of nodes and constraints in the sketch environment. These can be found under ‘Parts / Assemblies’ – ‘Sketching’. The node size is controlled by a slider, whilst the constraints have 3 options like reference planes.

 

2: Updating colour settings to make things more readable for people with Red / Green colour blindness:

The colours for all elements in the main 3D workspace can be updated through ‘Color Scheme’ section of the ‘Display’ section of the system options menu. The default scheme Alibre uses includes red and green elements which might be problematic. The ‘Default 2016’ scheme mainly used shades of blue so could be an improvement (this can be found under the ‘Scheme’ drop down). It is also possible through this section of the menu to customise any element of the interface as needed:

The only thing the color scheme settings don’t control is the main ribbon interface. From within any workspace (i.e. start a new part, assembly or drawing), the ribbon colour settings can be found under a drop down located at the very top right of the window:

Click on the drop down then select one of the options and the ribbon colour scheme will update immediately. The ‘Dark Mode’ scheme might provide better contrast.

 

3: The reference planes aren’t visible: This appears to be an issue with the latest build of Alibre Atom (Build 28227) that on first launch the reference planes aren’t visible. If you encounter this problem, enter the part workspace, click on the ‘View’ tab, then turn the reference planes off and then on again using the ‘Toggle References’ button located to the right hand end of the toolbar. Planes should be visible from then on:

 

Thanks,

 

Robert

[rf3designParticipant @rf3design]

Based on further feedback, I’ve put together some instructions on how to modify the colour scheme to make it more readable for conditions such as red / green colour blindness:

 

To define a custom colour scheme, navigate to the Display – Color Scheme section of the System Options menu.

Click on the ‘New’ button:

Choose one of the existing scheme to copy from (for example the ‘Default 2016’ scheme):

Then type a name for the new scheme and click OK:

To make changes to the colours, first select the Category you need to edit on the left drop down:

Next choose the element of the UI you wish to change the colour of by selecting it from the Field drop down:

Next click on the Color swatch to bring up the color picker, then choose a new color and click OK:

(Note: You can choose more colours and set specific values for Reg, Green and Blue by clicking on the ‘Define Custom Colors >>’ button)

Below is an example where I have changed the Background Top and Background Bottom colours to white (making both the same removes the gradient effect which can help make the interface more readable):

 

For Red Greed colour blind users I suggest starting with the ‘Default 2016’ scheme and then making the following changes:

Category – General:

Fields:

Background Top – White

Background Bottom – White

Preview – Medium Blue (Red 0, Green 128, Blue 192)

Cosmetic Threads (Alibre Pro / Expert) – Black

 

Category – References:

Fields:

Planes / Axes / Points – Medium Grey (Red 128, Green 128, Blue 128)

Surfaces (Alibre Pro / Expert) – Light Blue (Red 201, Green 247, Blue 252)

 

Category – Sketch:

Fields:

Fully Defined Figures – Black

Magnitude-Defined Figures – Blue (Red 0, Green 0, Blue 255)

Non Magnitude-Defined Figures – Light Grey (Red 192, Green 192, Blue 192)

Inference Lines – Yellow (Red 255, Green 255, Blue 0)

 

Category – 3D Sketch (Alibre Pro / Expert only):

Field:

Elevation Guidelines – Cyan (Red 0, Green 255, Blue 255)

 

If anyone finds better colour options that these please feel free to add them to this thread. We are currently talking with Alibre to hopefully get a red / green friendly colour scheme added to the default options for future releases.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Robert,

I have based my scheme on yours, but have made the changes shown below:

I found the all white Background a bit too bright and made it a very light grey.

General

Background Top – Light Grey (Red-200, Green-200, Blue-200)

Background Bottom – Light Grey (Red-200, Green-200, Blue-200)

Hover – Yellow (Red-255, Green-255, Blue-0)

Selected –   Olive Green (Red-128, Green-128, Blue-0)

Category – References:

Fields:

Planes / Axes / Points – Purple (Red-128, Green-0, Blue-255)

 

Category – Sketch:

Fields:

Non Magnitude-Defined Figures – Orange (Red 255, Green 128, Blue 64)

 

It would be good to hear from any other Red/Green colourblind users to see how they get on.

 

Colin

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rf3designParticipant @rf3design]

Hi Colin,

 

Thanks for the feedback! Here is the full set of changes to make incorporating your updates…

 

Create a new scheme and copy from the ‘Default 2016’ scheme and make the following changes:

Category: General

Field: Background Top – Light Grey (Red-200, Green-200, Blue-200)

Field: Background Bottom – Light Grey (Red-200, Green-200, Blue-200)

Field: Hover – Yellow (Red-255, Green-255, Blue-0)

Field: Preview – Medium Blue (Red 0, Green 128, Blue 192)

Field: Selected – Olive Green (Red-128, Green-128, Blue-0)

Field: Cosmetic Threads – Black

Category: References

Field: Planes / Axes / Points – Purple (Red-128, Green-0, Blue-255)

Field: Surfaces – Light Blue (Red 201, Green 247, Blue 252)

Category: Sketch

Field: Fully Defined Figures – Black

Field: Non Magnitude-Defined Figures – Orange (Red 255, Green 128, Blue 64)

Field: Inference Lines – Yellow (Red 255, Green 255, Blue 0)

Category: 3D Sketch

Field: Elevation Guideline – Cyan (Red 0, Green 255, Blue 255)

[George RayParticipant @georgeray48079]

Hi I have just tried to open ALibre this evening and have an unexpected error which wont allow me to do anything. Has any body else been running the ME trial version for more than 30 days which was what was stated in the original message that I got when I downloaded the trial. I am very disappointed as I was just beginng to make sense of how to acheive what I was trying to do.

[George RayParticipant @georgeray48079]

I understood the trial was for 6 months but it looks like alibre dont think so.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Did you enter the “Partner Code” when you first setup Alibre. If this is not entered you get the standard 30day trial. David or Robert shoud know if it can be entered retrospectively.

Until the partner code is entered Alibre have no way of telling if you are a reader of the article and entitled to the extended trial or anyone form around the world who has just decided to download a trial and would therefore would just get the 30day one.

I can’t say what the partner code is here as everyone and their dog will see it and use it.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

George, an unexpected error doesn’t sound like the trial expired.  Raise a support ticket with Alibre, send in details of the error.

https://www.alibre.com/alibre-customer-support-ticket-entry/

 

[George RayParticipant @georgeray48079]

Thanks for the replies. I am sure I entered the partner code because at the top of the screen it has the numbers of days remaining as 147. However I’ve just looked back at the email I received from Alibre and that refers to a 30 day trial. That was the reason for the question. I will contact support tomorrow to see if they can help.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

George is now back up and running.  The symptoms of the problem were very unusual, and the cause of it is not yet fully understood.

If anyone else finds their Atom3D extended trial suddenly stops working before expiry date – contact Alibre support immediately to get the issue investigated and resolved.

[rf3designParticipant @rf3design]

Hi, a quick update regarding the Alibre Atom 3D 101 training course. I have had feedback from a few people who already own older versions of Alibre Atom 3D, that the example files provided with each lesson don’t open – these require Atom 3D V28 (the current version) to open.

 

I have now created a set of V25 example files which are included as a download link in Lesson 1. These will work for anyone running V25, V26 or V27.

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