3D Printing Forum

Anyone here using SpaceClaim?

I just got started with it (evaluation license expired a few days ago, but I should get my proper license within 2 weeks).
I really love it so far. It's a very intuitive but also mighty tool. I'll be making all my models with it from now on. You get a free home license with the commercial one <3

Would be very interested in making a shared parts library!

Never tried -- I am not running Windows, which reduces the choices for CAD programs...

If my memory serves well there are some common parts with the free DesignSpark Mechanical (Which is Windows only as well )

DSM is a free version of SC. Both are windows only, that's true. Well, technical engineering is pretty much windows only anyways. (Please don't kill me for saying that )
DSM seems to be taken from som early version of SC. It's really no comparison to the current version of SC...

jonnybischof wrote:Well, technical engineering is pretty much windows only anyways. (Please don't kill me for saying that )

No reason to kill for that -- that I like it or not, it is a fact.
Although it is mainly historical. Most Autodesk products are now available on Mac as well, Dassault new products are coming on OS-X, ...

I am currently experimenting with Fusion360, which is affordable (free) for hobbyists and so far it has all the features I need (my main requirement is to have a parametric software) -- But I am hijacking your thread here, Fusion would be another topic

I love spaceclaim. I see it as the sketchup that doesn't suck.

I have the hardest time with Sketchup, maybe I'll check this out.
I have the academic version of SolidWorks 2016 but that seems way above my skill set right now

I tried OpenSCAD, Sketchup, and a few others for a while but never got happy with any. From the excellent Layer By Layer videos on the Adafruit YouTube channel I got introduced to Fusion 360 and I have to admit that I haven't touched anything else since I started with it
But I do this as a hobby and not for a living, so I my expectations are different from the ones of a trained CAD person I guess.

Adafruit makes some nice tutorials, i wish they made more tutorial videos tho.

Ow, sorry... Totally of topic but I read spacecake

Products Autodesk surpass, alas. I tried the CAD system from Dassault, and it left mixed impressions. With one hand she looked like the most perfect Audocad208-like, on the other hand its incompatibility with a huge amount of additions and standards does not allow to use it in production mode. But it's about two-dimensional graphics. Directly about 3D, I guess I can't add much, as the successful experience was only in Аutocad

Never tried SpaceClaim but I heard a lot good about it, maybe I should test the trial.

My issues with some of the modern "easy to use" programs are that they lack/hide the classic "datum plane" design philosophy.
While, at first, I did not understand how to use datum planes in a good way, now days I just can't use software without datum planes.
I also really need properly working assembly modes for what I do.

The ancient version of ProE that I normally use has those features for sure but on the other hand is far from intuitive and lacks certain features that would be nice to have, like a general undo-button ..

Definitely get a free trial for SC instead of trying DesignSpark mechanical!
They may have the same roots, but if SC2016 is the present, then DSM is somewhere with the cavemen...

By now I have made some designs in SC, and I really really love it. It can do everything I need it to (my skills are pretty basic, so that might not say very much...) and it's very fast to learn and use.

Here's an example:
I'm currently finishing my "Warthog" feeder. It's a bowden drive feeder that has it's roots somewhere between the UMO feeder and a tiger tank. I don't really trust PLA to take the huge spring force over an extended period of time, so I reinforced most parts with 2mm stainless steel parts. As far as production goes, this style is actually cheaper than printing all the parts, so I won't change anything about it even though it's ridiculously over-kill.
Need some more time to finish up the thing and get it tested in detail, but you can expect to hear more about it by easter (my next holidays..).

/edit:
Besides being better than the other professional CAD systems, SC costs about half as much as Solidworks.
We paid 3000 EUR for our company license incl. 1 year of service & support (825 EUR per year). You need to get the service option initially, but the license will continue to work even when you don't extend the service option. But if you want software updates, you need to keep the service active...

Well, i''m starting to gradually understand the software. I like the functionality, except for the totally strange system of axes.I really miss the possibility to draw a line in the third plane, relative to the current when clamping ctr.

That is true, I sometimes miss that as well. In Spaceclaim it's strange if you've had a different system in the past. But actually it is pretty intuitive and once you get used to how it works, it is great.

What I miss the most (coming from Sketchup) is that I can't just draw a new sketch "anywhere" in the space, but first have to get a plane over there and draw a 2D sketch. But, considering that this is how one's supposed to do such a thing, it is just a malpractice of mine that I have to get rid off