3D Direct Modeling for Engineers

By DE Editors

SpaceClaim Engineer 2009 from SpaceClaim Corp. (Concord, MA)  is the SpaceClaim 3D direct modeler designed specifically for enabling engineers to create concepts and prepare 3D designs for digital prototyping,  analysis, and manufacturing. SpaceClaim Engineer, says the company, “is especially suited for engineering professionals who need a simulation-driven 3D engineering tool for conceptual engineering, conceptual analysis, model preparation, and manufacturing engineering.” SpaceClaim Engineer includes sheet metal capabilities as part of its standard package.

SpaceClaim Engineer enables engineers to interact with CAD geometry by allowing them to conduct analysis, real-time design evaluation, and optimization up-front before the detailed design phase of the product development cycle. Without demanding CAD expertise, engineers can edit 3D models, conceptualize on-the-fly, and communicate changes with their design,  prototyping, and manufacturing collaborators quickly, compressing the time required to finish projects.

3D design capabilities include such features as Pull, Move,  Fill, and Combine tools as well as the ability to create multi-discipline concept models for engineering collaboration prior to detailed design. With SpaceClaim you can perform what-if studies by editing designs, regardless of how they were created. It offers direct integration with such leading engineering analysis products as ANSYS and CFdesign as well as GAMBIT and COMSOL. For model clean-up and de-featuring, SpaceClaim Engineer provides such features as advanced round removal with automatic termination; round splitting for sophisticated removals;  and such detect and remove tools as missing faces, gaps, inexact edges, split edges, and improper tangency.

SpaceClaim Engineer’s model preparation features also include an Extend tool that automatically detects and fixes areas that need to be extended to meet each other. Provided tools include Spot Weld; a Simplify tool that fixes unnecessarily complex geometry; an Imprint Edge tool for creating contact regions; and a Volume Extract tool for creating fluid regions inside assemblies. Also available are a Midsurface tool for creating midplanes of thin geometry and a Stitch tool for merging disjointed faces.

Analysis features include surface normal, surface and edge curvature, dihedral angle, and draft analyses. Visualization abilities include tools to manage placed image transparency, the ability to wrap images on surfaces, and the ability to insert movies and wrap them on surfaces.

  SpaceClaim Engineer’s sheet metal capabilities include automated bend relief and unfold as well as the ability to work in 3D and flat pattern simultaneously. You can assign sheet metal properties, wall thickness,  bend radius, and K-factor. And SpaceClaim Engineer’s sheet metal also recognizes imported thin-walled models as sheet metal parts and works with them as if they were native SpaceClaim models.

SpaceClaim Engineer lets you reuse models from major CAD systems and integrates with many leading CAE and CAM tools. It works with such popular common formats as ACIS, STEP, IGES, ECAD, Rhinoceros, CGR, DWG, DXF,  STL, OBJ, XAML, VRML, and 3D PDF. Optional modules include data exchange packages for CATIA, Inventor, NX, Parasolid, Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks, and VDA;  a TraceParts library; and a module to allow Bunkspeed HyperShot interactivity with SpaceClaim. For full details, go the SpaceClaim Engineer web page.

See a short video on model cleanup and preparation with SpaceClaim Engineer.

See how SpaceClaim Engineer’s Midsurface and Stitch tools operate.

Here’s a video on SpaceClaim Engineer’s Sheet Metal tools.

A brief video on SpaceClaim Engineer’s analysis and visualization features.

Click here for more information on SpaceClaim 2009.

Download the SpaceClaim Engineer datasheet.

Sign up for a free trial of SpaceClaim Engineer 2009.