Core77

We had the good fortune yesterday to be contacted out of the blue by 3D software company SpaceClaim, with an offer to interview their new CEO Chris Randles. Over the past year, SpaceClaim has become perhaps the clearest signal that a small revolution in 3D design software is on its way, in the form of highly accessible explicit modeling tools, and the interview gives us a good excuse to talk a little more about it.

For the uninitiated, explicit modeling (also called direct modeling and non-parametric modeling) is a method of 3D construction similar to parametric solid modeling -- a la Pro/E or SolidWorks -- except that it has no feature history. That means no ordering of features, no tangled webs of relations, no crashing models when a change is made early in the stack and then propagated through. While this eliminates some of the functionality of the model for engineers (a feature stack can be a godsend if, for example, you need to automate the creation of several dozen different sizes or configurations of a particular part), it also takes much of the complexity out of the design process, and flattens the software's learning curve. It also means that file interchange becomes much less of a headache: when there's no history to lose, shipping a "dumb" file between one package and another is no big deal.

It's worth noting that explicit modeling is nothing new. The pioneer in the field is CoCreate, a package first developed by Hewlett-Packard in the 80s, and recently acquired by Pro/E parent company PTC (the fact that a non-parametric package has been purchased by a company with Parametric in its name is an irony not lost on the CAD blogging community). In the conversation with Randles, however, it became clear that SpaceClaim is attempting something similar to what Rhino did with surface modelers and SolidWorks did with parametrics: address an existing technology, with a long-standing, specialized customer base, and re-build it from scratch for a broader audience at a lower cost.

"3D parametric modelers are essentially overdeployed," remarked Randles, acknowledging that many industrial designers are putting massive effort into learning engineering tools like SW, Pro/E and CATIA, but primarily using them for concept development. He's quick to point out, though, that "I don't think we're any threat to SolidWorks...what we really have is an opportunity to expand the market." Considering the close association SpaceClaim has with SolidWorks and PTC -- the founding team is largely derived from veterans of those two companies, and SpaceClaim's headquarters shares a parking lot with SolidWorks in Concord, MA -- it's a diplomatic statement, but also well-founded.

Randles is the first to admit SpaceClaim is not a full CAD package; owing to its relative youth on the market, it lacks much of the specialized functionality required by a serious engineering staff, prompting some reviewers to refer to it as "SketchUp on steroids." It is, however, just the thing for the underserved population of designers and product developers who need a tool with more engineering function than a surface modeler, but with a short learning curve and low ownership cost.

To that end they're offering a product starting under $1000, and feature words like "natural," "streamlined," and "intuitive" prominently on their site. They've also made some alliances with ID-friendly partners like Rhino and Bunkspeed, splitting out the surfacing and rendering parts of the job, respectively, to packages with established credibility in the design field.

>>ID-oriented demo video (with early 90s-sounding corporate soundtrack) here.