SpaceClaim Corporation: 3D for non-CAD Users

The "Garden Gate" video submitted Dan White from Keuka Studios has been chosen as the best successful modification entry in the SpaceClaim Challenge for the month of December. 

Congratulations Dan, and enjoy your one year license of SpaceClaim.

I got a kick out of your conclusion:  "To Be Continued (when I get better at this)."  Looked pretty good to me  ;-)

SpaceClaim Corp. is hosting a series of year end educational webinars to highlight what they are calling "The Future of CAD," new licensing options, and year end promotions that the company says is designed to enable organizations to purchase licenses of SpaceClaim 2007+ with their end of year budgets.

The series of 4 year end webinars are being held tomorrow and Thursday.  According to the media release:

"SpaceClaim 2007+ is shaking up the industry by offering affordable tools that augment the current generation of CAD systems to enable a new approach to product development.

MCAD Magazine writes, "...if there’s a system with the potential to revolutionise the industry, SpaceClaim is it." SpaceClaim 2007+ differs from, and complements the current generation of 3D CAD systems by:

• empowering all users involved in product development to more easily work in 3D, not just CAD experts, and
• enabling product development teams to import 3D CAD models and easily manipulate geometry by relaxing feature relationships and constraints, to more fully and easily contribute their expertise to the product development process.

According to Mike McGuinness, COO, SpaceClaim, "Combined with new perpetual licensing options, a free fully-functional 30 day trial download, and year-end time limited discounts of 50% off the list price, the Future of CAD has never been easier to try and buy."

For more information, or to register for one of the webinars, click here.

For more information on the end of year promotions, click here."

For those of you that are participating in the SpaceClaim Challenge, you can get a FREE version of Camtasia to record your video and add a voiceover (not just the 30 day trial).

Josh over at SolidSmack posts the link to the download and the steps to follow here:  http://www.solidsmack.com/free-camtasia-screen-recording-video-software/2007-11-26/

Thanks Josh!

Joe.

No, not crowdsurfing.  Crowd sourcing.

Taking a page from the playbooks of Netflix, Wikipedia, and others, SpaceClaim has launched what it calls the CAD Modification Challenge.

SpaceClaim seems to have struck a chord with it's approach to CAD 2.0, democratizing CAD models so that other participants in the extended development chain can more effectively work with them.   

According to the website:  "We're a young, fast moving company, and we don't want to work in an ivory tower. We welcome you, the engineering community, to help us shape SpaceClaim to be the best it can be. And by helping us, you're ultimately making SpaceClaim better for you and for the entire community."

Having spent two decades working with a variety of systems for CAD, CAM, CAE, expert systems for cost and manufacturability, etc. it's painfully clear to me that the world needs better ways to work with 3D CAD models once they leave the designers' systems.  For the sake of manufacturers everywhere, I do hope this is it. 

Lots of people have been asking questions about the product, if it's really different, and if it will work on their models.  This seems like a great way to give folks a way to try it out, and at the same time garner valuable input to make the product stronger.

So I really do hope the community takes SpaceClaim up on its offer to contribute to their efforts. 

What do you think?

As has been previously published, SpaceClaim has been officially uninvited from attending or exhibiting at Autodesk University (AU), after having been encouraged to exhibit by Autodesk personnel (who know who they are, but shall remain unnamed). And after SpaceClaim accepted the invitation, and prepped demos, logistics, and paid for travel reservations, Autodesk then rescinded its approval to exhibit or attend. In effect, “umm, sorry, we changed our mind.”

What, O mammoth corporation, with over 1 million users and over $2B in annual revenue, do you fear from little SpaceClaim, which promises to make your models more useful to the entire extended product development chain?

Is it fear that better use of the AutoCAD models might enable your users to (according to Aberdeen):

• Hit or beat development budgets 94% of the time?
• Meet goals for product revenue 89% of the time?
• Meet product launch dates 96% of the time?

It amazes me that in this world of complete transparency, where information is just a mouseclick away, that organizations still believe they can control what their prospects and customers can see and do.

So in that sense, I think the official AU banning probably helped SpaceClaim get its message out to the AutoCAD userbase even better than had they attended. According to the company, on Tuesday (the day the news hit) SpaceClaim saw it's greatest volume of website traffic ever, and downloads of SpaceClaim's 30 day trial software rose 400% above the daily norm.

So, thanks Autodesk!

Today SpaceClaim announced its newest release, SpaceClaim 2007+, designed to bring even more capabilities to the extended product development team to leverage existing 3D CAD models to more efficiently contribute to the product development process.

Some of the features in 2007+ include:

• the ability to create ad-hoc dimensions and modify them to drive geometric changes,
• the ability to create planar cross sections and modify the 3D geometry by pulling on elements of the cross sections,
• a sheet metal module for importing and modifying sheet metal parts,
• lightweight assembly capabilities for working with large assemblies,
• ECAD integration,
• additional advanced geometry and drawings capabilities,
• support for Adobe Acrobat 3D, Ansys Gambit and Ansys Workbench, and Rhinocerous file formats, and
• development APIs to allow developers to create custom applications, and new interfaces and workflows between SpaceClaim Professional and other systems.

The released product will be generally available on November 15.  

You can download the beta version here, and you can provide your feedback in SpaceClaim's new product forums, here.

The company that invented parametric feature based modeling has apparently recognized that parametric feature based modeling is not the only solution for all people and all tasks. 

“The combination of PTC and CoCreate products will enable PTC to offer the manufacturing industry the flexibility to select the most appropriate modelling software for their business requirements,” explained Jim Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer of PTC.

This acquisition is a clear validation of the importance of history free modeling technology, and the real winner in this deal is the marketplace.  Providing a spectrum of products that allows customers to utilize the right tool for the job makes them more productive, increasing efficiencies, reducing time to market, and lowering costs. 

We congratulate the folks at CoCreate for a nice exit at 3x revenues.  We also give kudos to PTC for acknowledging that there is no “right way” to build 3D models (I’m sure that was no easy feat).

Good luck in your new home, CoCreate.  We have a lot of respect for the impact you’ve made around history free modeling over the past 25 years and we wish you well!

Today, SpaceClaim jointly announced another partnership, this time with Blue Ridge Numerics. In case you missed it, in the past month they've also announced partnerships with:

• Ansys, for engineering analysis and simulation
• Rhino, for industrial design
• xPLM, for PLM and ERP integration

And they're busy working on many more that I hope to be able to announce soon.  True to their mission of breaking down the barriers between systems, SpaceClaim is working hard to simplify integration and enable modifications among all systems, making it easier and more productive for customers to use their preferred, “best-of-breed” systems without penalty.

I've watched in the past as CAD vendors claimed to be “partner-friendly,” then acquired one of their partners in a space, leaving the others to figure out their new role in the ecosystem. A recent example is here, PTC Acquires Leading CAM Software Provider NC Graphics Ltd.  I wonder what this meant for the other manufacturing partners they list on their website.  

SpaceClaim will always be CAD neutral and partner friendly. Why? Because they're not trying to be your one stop shop CAD+FEM+NC+PLM+ (insert acronym here) system. Instead, they want you to be more productive with all the (insert acronyms here) systems you already have.

SpaceClaim has just released a white paper on 3D CAD data interoperability.

"In [a] CADCAMNet survey, 100% of OEMs indicated that they exchange 3D CAD data with their outsourced engineers or their suppliers, but on average, respondents reported that they receive CAD data in their preferred format only 34% of the time. Do the math and it’s clear that there’s a digital disconnect; companies and individuals use systems and formats based upon their own needs and are forced to import and modify incoming product design data to get their job done."

You can download the white paper here.

Sox 4, Rox 0.  Congratulations Boston Red Sox, World Series Champions!

Al Dean just published a review of SpaceClaim in MCAD Online.

"It takes a new player, with new, fresh ideas, to shake things up – and if there’s a system with the potential to revolutionise the industry, SpaceClaim is it."

Check it out.

Sox 3, Rox 0.

Apparently I raised a few eyebrows with yesterday's post announcing a "time-limited time-limited" version of SpaceClaim 2007+, so some clarification is in order.

The goal of the program is to get real world feedback on the new version of SpaceClaim before it gets released, which is why the offer ends when 2007+ is released. According to the company, they are planning to offer 2007+ on a trial basis at some point after it's released.

If you participate in the program, please let them know how the software works for you, as well as your experience with the process as a whole. I think the sooner the process is bulletproof, the sooner it'll be offered on an ongoing basis.

Sox 2, Rox 0.

I'm happy to report that you can now download the release candidate of SpaceClaim's upcoming version, SpaceClaim 2007+. The goal of the program is to gain feedback from you, the engineering community, on how SpaceClaim addresses your particular needs. The software is good through November 27th, at which time the software "times out."

According to the folks here, they're now at the point where they have enough experience with the product and they can provide the proper level of support for a trial program.

I think it's a good first step. I'd like to see the company come out with more things like this for the community, such as implementing forums on the website where you can share your ideas, your experiences with the product, and your needs with the company and with each other. I'd also like to see an ongoing trial program that doesn't end on 11/27.

But this is a good first step, for sure. And I hope many of you take SpaceClaim up on the offer and provide feedback. It helps them help you :-)

As some of you know, I'm a big believer in the benefits of Web 2.0, the wiki economy, and things like crowdsourcing.  Stay tuned...

Go Sox.

Aberdeen Group has just released a report titled, Beyond Engineering, New Applications of 3D Drive Top Line Growth which quantifies the performance differences of organizations where the downstream processes leverage the 3D design data and those where they don't.

According to the report, “Overall, the Best-in-Class hit their targets at 89% or better. Laggards, meanwhile, hit the exact same targets at 59% or worse. There is a direct correlation between these performance measures and how a company leverages 3D design data. For example, reusing 3D design data instead of starting from scratch cuts down on the time needed to create nonengineering product deliverables. Subsequently, the Best-in-Class were one-third more likely to launch their products on time. The Best-in-Class also use 3D design data to create interactive and more descriptive quality deliverables and so are twice as likely to achieve their product quality goals. Meanwhile laggards, by not reusing 3D assets, are twice as likely as to overspend on their product development budgets.”

This morning I asked one of the founders here about the name of the company.  Space Claim is an engineering term that's used (when there are lots of participants in the project) to define design volumes to be partitioned among the various participants. 70% of the Boeing 787 is outsourced. How many tier one and lower tier subcontractors working on the 787 get a design volume that constrains the space they can occupy? How is that volume defined and accurately communicated to the subcontractors? How does the OEM make sure that they can accurately import the designs from their partners, change as needed, and then (accurately) communicate those modifications back to their partners?

It struck me as a great name for this company.

A software entrepreneur named Deelip Menezes recently wrote a paper about CAD 2.0. Whereas CAD 1.0 is about tightly structured processes, proprietary file formats and content creation by highly trained CAD specialists, CAD 2.0 is about enabling all participants in the product development process to easily contribute to the design without requiring adoption of a single CAD tool, or struggling with one of the neutral file formats like STEP. CAD 2.0, claims Deelip, is the best solution to date for solving the thorny problem of collaborating in a heterogeneous multi-CAD world.

Why call it “CAD 2.0?” Because it’s directly analogous to “Web 2.0.” Whereas Web 1.0 was about online content being controlled by a relatively small number of content publishers, Web 2.0 enables everyone to participate. Web 1.0 is worldbookonline.com. Web 2.0 is wikipedia.org, where lots of people can make changes to the entries to rapidly make them better and more complete.

CAD 2.0 is not about the next generation of CAD, it's about the “democratization of CAD.” There are lots of folks that need to work with existing CAD models. Don't make them all learn the equivalent of a complex Content Management System, or javascript, or PHP, or Perl. Instead, give them tools that let them edit CAD models and communicate their ideas as easily as editing an entry on Wikipedia.

The collaboration economy is becoming pervasive in all disciplines, in part because the tools now exist to make it a reality. For example, in the new bestselling book Wikinomics, the authors describe how Boeing is “embracing mass collaboration – handing suppliers control over a large proportion of the thousands of features and components that make up its airplanes in a bid to control costs, improve innovation, and get new planes to market more quickly.” (BTW, if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. There is an entire chapter on “The Global Plant Floor.”) In one example, the authors contrast production of the Boeing 777 with the 787. For the 777, the spec that Boeing sent to an electronics supplier was 2500 pages long. For the 787, it was only 20 pages. For the 777, “there wasn’t a lot left to their imagination. We told them exactly what we wanted in excruciating detail,” commented Mike Bair, who heads up the 787 program for Boeing.

What was the result of shortening the spec by a factor of 100? Was the process for the 787 less efficient as a result? Nope, just the opposite. According to Bair, “they know better how their factories run, and to think that we can design a part that not only serves our needs but is also the most efficient for them to produce would be pure guesswork on our part.”

And just like the way that the democratization of the Web makes content better, the democratization of CAD will make the products we design better.

Thanks Deelip. “CAD 2.0” is exactly the right term. I only wish that I thought of it first J.

We applaud Dassault’s acquisition of CAD-neutral documentation vendor Seemage into its growing 3DVIA line.  According to Bernard Charles, president and CEO of Dassault, “This marks another major step towards our mission to democratize 3D product-related data…” 

Dassault clearly recognizes that we live in a multi-CAD world.  Even companies that have “standardized” on a single 3D CAD system are using different systems inside the firewall for CAM, analysis, etc.  And outside the firewall, well, that’s far from a single CAD environment. 

I’m happy to give Dassault the benefit of the doubt:  that they’re truly interested in providing tools to help their customers become more efficient in the multi-CAD world in which we live, by providing tools to better leverage 3D models from disparate systems throughout the entire product development value chain.

In case I’m wrong, though…  To the folks at Seemage:  Congratulations on your new home, and please don’t forget your CAD agnostic roots.

When my friends here at SpaceClaim asked me to take a look at their new system, I was both excited and hesitant. Excited, because I knew this team well (these guys are the real deal IMHO) and I wanted to know what they were up to. But at the same time, even though I had been watching the CAD industry from the sidelines for a few years (after spending the previous 17 in the industry), even I knew that the world didn't need another CAD system. How was I going to tell them?

My first visit to SpaceClaim earlier this summer reminded me of the first time I saw Pro/E (back in 1988 at a trade show) and I asked the A/E giving the demo to change a bolt hole circle from 3 holes to 4 holes, and the bolt hole circle actually changed from 3 holes to 4 and the spacing changed from 120 to 90! This was unheard of in CAD at the time - intelligent changes that caused new features to be created. Next thing I knew I was employee number 72 at PTC.

With SpaceClaim, it turns out my excitement was justified, and my hesitation wasn't. Why? Well, much to my relief, they aren't trying to build the “world's next great CAD system.” Instead, they are trying to solve a very specific problem: import any CAD model from any system, and then easily take it into any new direction, unconstrained by the features and parent / child relationships in the source model, and make it easy for regular people to use.

I am excited that these guys are solving a very real problem. And I'm happy that they aren't trying to convince (me and) the rest of the world that their way of building CAD models is the “right” way to do it.

Universal import and modify might just be the new holy grail. I think this is a pain point that the entire industry feels. We live in a heterogeneous CAD world. There are a ton of use cases both for simplifying and iterating on models for downstream processes like FEA, CAM, collaboration and real time changes at design reviews, etc. It's also a nice tool for the “dedicated CAD users” to have in their toolbox so they can get “unstuck” when they're in the occasional jam.

So what do I think SpaceClaim is doing right?

Import. They've got direct native translators for just about every system and format.

History free. I don't believe that history free modeling is the right approach for all tasks. (In fact, I personally prefer parametric feature based tools for building models from scratch. Throw in a couple of family tables and it becomes a no-brainer call for parametric modeling.) But for modifying existing models? This is very cool and powerful stuff.

UI. SpaceClaim is clearly not trying to be a replacement CAD system. Look at the commands. Things like Pull, Move, and Trim. There is no Feature/Create/Protrusion. This is a tool that was built for modifying models. The UI is very slick. I really can see non-CAD folks using this thing.

Dynamic modifications. Unlike “regen, wait, repeat,” when you pull on the geometry, the full representation of the model in its updated state is dynamically generated in real time so you can pull until you like what you see, then release it.

Pricing. At $1700 / year, they've priced it so that it's reasonable for this to be just another tool in your toolbox. To unstick a model. Or to simplify your models for FEM. Or to run at design reviews. Or for a design manager to keep on his laptop.

So there you have it. I think this is very cool, and very needed.

What do you think? I'd love to know...

About me:  I am actually a big proponent of parametric feature based modeling. Throughout the 1990s I was a pretty strong Pro/E user. I knew most of the tribal secrets of modeling, for instance, I knew to build a few features and then flex the model to make sure the features would update with the changes. I'd make sure there were no tiny surfaces and edges. I'd be smart about references, using common datum planes and axes wherever I could. When I was done, the models were usually very stable and would respond well to the changes I'd planned to make. (But of course, if changes came from left field, or I had to make changes to a model built by someone else, well, that was another story.)

Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant hired by SpaceClaim to help out with a few projects for a few hours per week.