Lookout. SpaceClaim is doin’ it, doin’ the thing. I think we could have called this one. In fact, I think we did at some point. We knew SpaceClaim was pushing (and pulling) geometry-filled envelopes when they had the first truly multi-touch 3D modeling, 3 YEARS AGO. Granted it wasn’t a production ready feature, but it was there. Now, they’ve upped the ante taking on the cloud with plans, laid out plainly on a whiteboard, to deliver a fully collaborative 3D experience over the web.
SpaceClaim “Connect”
Codenamed SpaceClaim “Connect”, the plan is this–make simultaneous interaction with 3D models possible between multiple people, no plugins required, and make it hella fast and hella fully-interactive. Frank DeSimone, VP of Software Development, points his finger at such ideas to make it absolutely clear. See?
Here are two more money shots from the video:
We received a preview of their blog post and the video yesterday, which brought up all sorts of questions. How are people using this? Is it via a browser? A SpaceClaim application? And where does the data truly live? Access from any device from any location is nice, but what about offline access? They didn’t want to reveal too much (and didn’t have screenshots to share) which left us skeptical, but they are promising a beta program coming in ‘a few weeks’ and Frank was kind enough to tell us:
“We’ll be sharing more technical details soon, but to answer your first question, the clients are browser-based with nothing to download or install. That way we could directly control the degree of immersion provided, while addressing important customer concerns about the cloud such as data security and interactivity. We were amazed by how fast we could go, and how simple we could make the experience, and we were happy we spent so much time thinking about how to incorporate true multi-touch to enhance the user experience.”
In a sense, it reminds us of a GoToMeeting session, but with simultaneous mouse control like Screenhero. It would certainly address some of the security concerns some have with putting the data… who knows where. We shall see. SpaceClaim has been making some bold moves as of late, with a recent partnership with RS Components that brought about the birth of Design Spark Mechanical, which is basically a free version of SpaceClaim, with a fancy site and community aspect to boot. You’ll want to check that out, but right now, we’re more interested in what you think about this, CAD in the cloud, SpaceClaim in the Cloud–the first we’ve ‘seen’ with PC-based host and interconnected browser-based clients, instead of an independent application that has a browser-based component with the geometry living on one or the other or both. Are you (and your 3D data) ready?
