SpaceClaim Finally Gets It

After managing to get (only) about 100 customers in the first seven months, SpaceClaim is finally letting the cat out of the bag. Howie Markson, Sr. Director, Marketing at SpaceClaim Corp, tells me that they are now letting anyone download a time limited trial of their new version, SpaceClaim Proessional 2007+. It is actually a Release Candidate which expires on 27th November, 2007. You can register here.

SpaceClaim Corp. considers itself as a "leading provider of CAD-neutral modification solutions to the extended product development team". The keyword here is "modification", which implies that the target company already has a CAD system that has "created" their models. In my opinion, spending $1700 a year for a software license for a downstream engineer or marketing executive to make "modifications" to the models "created" by designers may be a bit steep for most companies. And it turns worse when you cannot even try the software with your own models, unless you dish out the cash first.

SpaceClaim Professional 2007 is a kick-ass product. I have seen this new version. It kicks even bigger ass. I have yet to see a more intuitive and easy to use CAD system. As I suspected earlier, keeping it under wraps did not do them much of a service.

I believe it will not be long before they come up with a cheaper stripped down version. $1700 a year for a tool to "modify" 3D models is just too much. Actually it adds up to $2000, thats $300 more for the 3D Data Exchange Package, without which SpaceClaim cannot read Parasolid, ACIS, CATIA V4, Pro/Engineer, NX, Inventor and SolidWorks. For CATIA V5 it is an additional $500. Without the Data Exchange Package SpaceClaim is quite limited in what they call a "multi-CAD environment", where it is trying to find its place.