New SpaceClaim 2009 Improves on 3D Direct-Modeling Concept
19 Feb, 2009Supporting conceptual engineering, analysis, and product styling, the fourth release aims to drive broad adoption of 3D.
SpaceClaim this week announced the fourth release of its 3D direct modeling products, SpaceClaim Engineer and SpaceClaim Style. The company calls the products the most significant technology advancement in 3D engineering in more than 10 years, having been created from the ground up to give engineers and industrial designers the freedom and flexibility to capture ideas quickly, edit solids models regardless of origin, and prepare designs for analysis, prototyping, and manufacturing.
Regarding the difference between SpaceClaim’s direct-modeling approach and that of conventional, feature-based CAD solutions, the company explains, “Feature-based CAD products are very powerful and perform well for detailed design work, [but] they are not appropriate for conceptual design, engineering analysis, and simulation-driven design. SpaceClaim is easy to learn and use, cost-effective, and very accurate, enabling digital 3D conceptual design by engineers and driving improved innovation and collaboration.”
Chris Randles, SpaceClaim president and CEO, said, “There is a vast market of engineers who will benefit from access to 3D tools that are CAD neutral, powerful, accessible, and cost-effective. With deep experience in 3D design and CAD software, the founders of SpaceClaim addressed these challenges with a fresh perspective on 3D direct modeling. There’s a growing recognition in the engineering and product design communities that direct modeling brings 3D capabilities to the entire engineering workflow. With powerful products, a growing customer base, and a strengthening distribution network, we anticipate continued solid growth this year.”
SpaceClaim enables upfront analysis and complements and leverages investments in existing CAD tools. It supports standard data exchange formats ACIS, STEP, IGES, ECAD, Rhinoceros, DWG, DXF, STL, OBJ, XAML, VRML, 3D PDF (requires Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended) and includes interactivity with Bunkspeed HyperShot. With add-on modules, SpaceClaim Engineer can import and edit Pro/ENGINEER, Autodesk Inventor, CATIA V4 and V5, VDA, Parasolid, SolidWorks, JT, and NX native files. Additionally, SpaceClaim allows the extended design team to work concurrently, finish projects at a fraction of the cost, and accelerate time to market.
SpaceClaim Engineer
SpaceClaim Engineer is a fast, simple, and powerful 3D direct modeler for top-down design, 3D layout, conceptual engineering, and model preparation for simulation and analysis. Unique capabilities include intuitive Pull, Move, Fill, and Combine tools for robust model editing, as well as straightforward 2D and cross-section modeling.
SpaceClaim Engineer interoperates with major CAD systems and with many analysis tools, providing a solution that bridges the gap in typical design and engineering workflows. SpaceClaim works seamlessly with ANSYS Workbench and GAMBIT, ALGOR, CFdesign, and many SpaceClaim customers use COMSOL. Analysis often occurs at the end of a detailed design process, further delaying the design cycle, escalating costs and slowing time to market. SpaceClaim Engineer is designed to relieve these issues by ensuring collaboration, thereby accelerating the pace of innovation.
SpaceClaim Engineer broadens access to 3D models and data across the engineering team and helps build consensus by sharing concept models. This capability enables CAD teams to build detailed models right the first time, requiring fewer costly iterations.
New features in SpaceClaim Engineer include
- new model preparation tools to detect and repair problems with imported designs and to simplify models prior to analysis;
- increased surfacing power for highly-stylized designs;
- enhanced analysis tools for industrial design visualization and manufacturing validation, including curvature display, zebra striping, draft analysis, and sophisticated draft creation;
- improved translators to open and edit 3D PDFs and open tessellated formats such as STL;
- expanded international language support that now includes Spanish.
SpaceClaim Engineer starts at $1,995 per seat.
SpaceClaim Style
SpaceClaim Style brings 3D solid modeling to industrial designers and product stylists and enables them to work collaboratively with clients and the entire development team. With SpaceClaim Style, users get a rapid creation environment that enables flexible design capabilities and converts hand-drawn, 2D, and surface data to accurate solid models. Benefits include faster design ideation, easier design manipulation, and reusable deliverables. SpaceClaim Style starts at $895 per seat.
See What's New in SpaceClaim 2009 to review more details and watch videos demonstrating the new and improved features in SpaceClaim 2009.
