Spaceclaim first impressions

Posted by adam on Sep 14, 2008 in Blog | 4 comments

Spaceclaim is one of a number of new “direct modeling” applications that use feature-recognition technology to allow the user to make edits and changes to geometry, regardless of history or parametrics. The mindset is very compatible with the Rhino workflow, and I believe that the software will make its biggest impact on the Rhino world.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet with the SC guys more than once, and they’ve been very gracious in receiving our feedback. They are a prime example of why I love using new software from small startups: the customer service is unbeatable!

What is it?

The basic idea with Spaceclaim is that there is no “history” per se, the magic of SC is its feature-recognition algorithms. Dumb-geometry from Rhino works just as well as parametric geometry from Catia, provided that the surfaces are all clean and watertight. I’ll leave it up to you to watch some of the miriad YouTube videos to get a feel for what happens next; I think you’ll be impresse and surprised by what can be done without a history tree.

Spaceclaim and Rhino

The software is still in its infancy. It has a ways to go before I could consider it useable in its own right, but as a companion to Rhinoceros it becomes much more formidable. The guys over at Spaceclaim have done something really smart: not only is SC compatible with Rhino’s 3dm format, they’ve created a plugin that allows the user to click a single button to send selected geometry back and forth between Spaceclaim and Rhino.

For example, say I’m working on a hinge design in Rhino, and I realize that I need to make a global change. All .5mm radii need to be changed to 1mm. Rhino would make this very difficult. But never fear, Spaceclaim is here! I just click my “Rhino to Spaceclaim” button, and voila; SC opens, and my geometry appears. I make the edits I want, go back to Rhino, and click the “Spaceclaim to Rhino” button. Suddenly my geometry is back in Rhino with the solid edits in place. It’s simple, elegant, and powerful.

Conclusion

Take a look at Spaceclaim. Get a demo and take it for a test drive. At the moment the license is only $1200, which makes it a great bundle with Rhino; the two packages combined still don’t add up to one SolidWorks or ProE seat, and the resulting workflow is powerful and elegant.

If you’re working with large and complex assemblies with interlocking relationships and parameters, this software is not for you. Likewise, if you need to share your data with a team who will need to make changes to parameters for their purposes, this software is probably not going to be a big help to you. On the other hand, if you find yourself working primarily with other people’s data for quick prototypes and development efforts, Spaceclaim’s toolset is a refreshing addition to the Rhino-hack-and-slash mindset.