Alibre Design and YoYo Design

A Google alert on “Alibre Design” led me to this discussion thread at YoYoNation.com. The thread is titled “What can Alibre Design do?” and is about novices seeking information about CAD and CAM. I was about to close the browser when I noticed a long and detailed reply explaining CAM and even a introduction to Rapid Prototyping. What surprised me was that the username assigned to that particular reply was listed as “gregmilliken”.

Now, to the best of my knowledge, Greg Milliken, the CEO of Alibre, is not the kind of a person to spend his time on a web site like YoYoNation.com and reply to questions like “Can someone explain how a CNC lathe works?“. So I pointed Greg to the thread and asked if it was really him, although I thought I already new the answer.

His reply floored me, “Yeah it really was. I actually have a really good discussion with a number of the guys there going now. Not that yoyo design is the next big thing but I find reaching out to folks in all manner of industries provides valuable feedback.”

Wow! It sure looks like Alibre is going out of its way to put it’s “Personal CAD” message across with it’s free Alibre Design Xpress.