hans14914

I am a bit confused (as I have a full licensed seat of SpaceClaim that I purchased personally), but apparently SpaceClaim has released a version for free to the Maker community branded as DesignSpark Mechanical. I have been using the DesignSpark electronic suite for several years, and have found it to be great software. Being that it looks like most of the mechanical program is SpaceClaim, I have to assume this is going to be an amazing product.

Make sure to get your copy now... just in case something changes. I can't imagine that there will be a lot of happy current SpaceClaim customers out there with this release. My recent annual maintenance was around $700 earlier this summer....

SpaceClaim is my go-to modeler, as it is very fast for me to get an idea to a conceptual part.

http://www.designspark.com/eng/page/mechanical

Enjoy!
Hans

hans14914

Well, as a follow-up, I downloaded a copy, and poked around for a few minutes. It seems as though they have restricted some of the import and export file types normally available in the full SpaceClaim software.

You can import a STEP file, but you can not edit the part. You can manipulate the orientation, and use it as a cutting tool, but thats about it. Similarly, the STEP export features are removed, leaving only the "dumb" STL and OBJ formats normally associated with 3D printing.

It is still a great package, and should help get some new 928 ideas launched, but will be interesting to see how to manufacture a design. It looks like the full 2D print functionality is included, as well as the Autocad (2D) and PDF (3D) exports are available.