Speed Up Your Reverse Engineering Process with SpaceClaim 2016

Published on March 2, 2016. Written by: Tangie Motley

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While featured-based CAD software is great for complex applications, most of the time a direct modeler like SpaceClaim gets the job done a lot faster and simpler without the fuss. Our technical team depends on SpaceClaim as the go-to tool when we want to design a part, prepare a model for downstream applications, or reverse engineer from a STL file with a faster and a more direct approach to geometry creation and scan data editing capabilities.

ANSYS recently released a new version of SpaceClaim CAD modeling software. SpaceClaim 2016 delivers workflow improvements and new tools to empower you to get designs and ideas to market faster than ever before. It’s definitely worthwhile to give these new features a look.

New Reverse Engineering Tool

Especially noteworthy to mention for SpaceClaim 2016 is the newly developed Skin Surfacing tool added to the reverse engineering workflow. The tool enables users to be more effective in organic modeling, even for highly complex freeform shapes. It’s just one button, but it contains several built in workflows. You can now quickly define surfaces on STL models without the need to first dissect the model into planer sections and then project guide curves. This new function is a real time saver. 

Additional features to the Skin Surfacing tool include:
  • Creating accurate surface geometry from any faceted file
  • Leveraging simple facet selections to automate surfacing
  • Creating a blended solid model from cross sections
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Accurate surface creation for organic surfaces, from scan data (left photo) to solid CAD modeling (right photo).

The Skin Surfacing tool is easy to learn and command functions are limited to only those necessary for you. Additional steps that used to be needed to convert 2D models or STL files into solid models in previous SpaceClaim versions are now eliminated. Design time is reduced. In combination with its existing tool sets, SpaceClaim has become a leading reverse engineering software that gives engineer, designer, and machinist the power and flexibility to create CAD models with ease from mechanical parts to organic surfaces.

Get a preview the New Skin Surface tool:

Keeping in mind that no software currently available on the market can truly interpret the original design intent from scan data, software like SpaceClaim empowers users with the tools needed to make intuitive decisions and complete reverse engineering projects faster without breaking the bank.

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