PING: Morris - SpaceClaim

[Swingman]

a bit on "SpaceClaim"

[Morris Dovey]

Aaaaah :) It understands solids! I think I really do need to learn more about this. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to search I go...

Thank you!

[Morris Dovey]

I spoke with a salesperson at SpaceClaim this morning. The "Engineering Version" that I thought might be useful starts around US$2500 - a bit more than I can find in my current S/W budget. :(

[Swingman]

Ouch! ... sorry about the bum steer. The lack of any pricing info whatsoever on the web sorta indicated that the chances of it being pricey were good.

Thanks for the feedback ...

[Lee Michaels]

"Swingman" wrote

Yep, when they don't include pricing information, you can count on three things.

1. It is expensive.
2. They need a shiney shoed salesman to sell it to you.
3. The purpose of all marketing materials and webpages is to turn you over to the shiney shoed salesman.

[Lew Hodgett]

Yep, when they don't include pricing information, you can count on three

Naw, it is much simpler than that.

If you have to ask, you can't afford.

Lew

[Robatoy]

that capability are likely to have a competent program already, and are used to doing these Bolean acrobatics /their/ way. It certainly looks like very competent software, but at those prices they are up against a saturated market. I noticed that a lot of engineers I talk to, leave their universities with a serious knowledge of accepted programs like AutoDesk, etc. THAT is where you 'get' them. In schools.

Last thing we need is another $ 2-3K package.

[bcourter]

Hi folks,

I'm a marking guy at SpaceClaim, one of the founders of the company, and a bit of a woodworker. Thought you might be interested to know that SpaceClaim Style is available for around $1000, and it has all the solid modeling capabilities of our flagship product, SpaceClaim Engineer. You can see the comparison here:

've been having a lot of fun working in the shop off of solid models. One technique I use is I'll model my part, and embed it in a transparent version of the stock I'm making it from. Then I print out

1:1 scale drawings of the outline of the part for a face or two and spray-glue them onto my stock. Then I can just band saw or table saw along the outline. Often, I'll have further flat faces onto that I can make views of, print, glue and cut again. (The drawing views need to be made to look onto the face that's touching the work surface of the machine, not the face that your cutting lines are on.) Once you get good at correctly registering your printouts on your model, you can work remarkably quickly.

Here's an example of a kind of rotating peg that had to be a sort of elliptical cone:

I glued up one view, made to cuts, glued up the other view, made two more cuts, and did the rest on the sander. There were two of them, and they came out surprisingly identical. Also notice the dimensioned rectangle around the border so I can make sure that the printer is sufficiently calibrated.

Hope that helps. By the way, our sales folk are generally pretty harmless, and are there to answer questions. I sit with them in the open cubical space so I can see how they interact with our customers. Our engineers are also happy to show you how to do things. Just give us a call. If you prefer, you can ask for me. 978 482 2100. That said, if you can also do business through local resellers or an online reseller such as novedge.com.

Thanks for your interest,

-Blake

Blake Courter Co-Founder SpaceClaim Corporation

150 Baker Ave Ext Concord, MA 01742

[Morris Dovey]

I mostly agree, but I have AutoCAD, DesignCAD, and SketchUp - and I can see the productivity advantage of an SU-like package that understands solids and curves (AFAICT SU appears to only understand lines and flat surfaces, and uses those to approximate everything else).

I guess it's a Morris problem, but I loathe having possibilities limited by /tools/ - and I seem to nearly always be operating at the bleeding edge of tool capabilities. It's fun - sometimes even exciting - but it's also incredibly frustrating.

Agreed - so let's hope that they're able to at least raise the bar a notch or two and stimulate improvements to less costly products.

Well, the price of the package isn't as much a show-stopper as is the fact that I don't have $2-3K to spend on it. :)

[Puckdropper]

"Lee Michaels" wrote in news:00c3c482$0$32008$ [e-mail]:

1. The price changes depending on how much interest you show or how expensively you're dressed.

Puckdropper

[Lew Hodgett]

Who performs a very important function.

Salesman must determine if your project is adequately funded.

If funded, how much will you invest and what you will accept for that investment.

Provide what you will accept, take your money, and go to the bank.

Sales IS the world's oldest profession.

After all if Adam hadn't got that first order from Eve, none of us would be here.

Lew