Alibre Acquired by 3D Systems

Today the small formerly independent CAD company Alibre announced they have been acquired by the 3D printing company 3D Systems. It makes sense for a 3D printer to own their own modeler. And right away, the Alibre site is covered with images of 3D printed parts.

Alibre has had a tough go of it, first pioneering web-delivered CAD a decade ago, and fortunately surviving the failure of that experiment. More recently they were known for drastically dropping prices on much of their product line. They have been known as the cheap parametric CAD product that offers a lot for the money, and used by inventors, hobbyists, and amateur CAD enthusiasts. It is probably a brilliant match for a company like 3D Systems just when 3D printing is starting to come down to price where inventors and hobbyists can start to afford a machine of their own. The 3D Systems site is showing a printer kit as selling for about $500.

I was approached just this weekend by people who saw some news relating to 3D printers, and they thought it was a hoax. This is part of the reason why I love engineering as a profession. It makes the possible actual.