Some very good points made here, thank you .
First a bit of History. I was in with Alibre from the start when they announced a free version called Xcad and then renamed it Alibre Express and gave away 10,000 licenses. A lot of people were not pleased over this and accused them of a bait and switch because they didn't get the full version, only express ??
A lot were on about taking a class action out over the bait and switch routine but I stood up for Alibre and said "Fine you will get back exactly what you have put in - nothing. " Their CEO at the time Greg [ name escapes me ] emailed me and thanked me for sticking up to them and as a gesture of goodwill gave me a few extra's on the free license.
Later on when Express was dropped and PE came out I paid the upgrade and these features were carried on.
I must admit I never got round to using the program other than a few tutorials, recently I came to re-install V11.2 and got into a loop saying the computer name and site key were invalid and couldn't get out this loop.
Got a print out of license numbers but no way to enter anything as the program wouldn't run, just this loop.
Emailed support in the US where I bought it from and they sent me a new license number which was the same as one I already had. Emailed them back and sent screen shots of the loop screens and just got ignored which pissed me off.
Later today I was contacted by the UK reseller, Mintronics who now informs me that v11.2 will not run on W7.
Nowhere on the install screen does it say it will not run on W7.
So state of play is I can pay to upgrade to V2012 and my extra features will still carry on and in all fairness to Mintronics they have been very helpful which is more than I can say over Alibre, TX.
Because this original post was posted on 3 forums and this same reply is going to all three i have been given a few leads in the price bracket I was looking.
I don't need this for business, it's purely a hobby concept it's needed for hence not wanting to outlay for full commercial software.
Cons for staying with Alibre is the large user base, local support if bought in the UK and extra features.
Against is this reliance on being internet based, something that is making me look elsewhere.
Over the next couple of weeks I propose to look at Viacad, ZW3D, Varicad and then make a decision.
John S.