3D Graphics Performance Comparison – Part 3 (SpaceClaim)

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Next up is the SpaceClaim 2010, the CAD system on which I previously bestowed the title “Freaking Awesome” with regard to graphics performance. SpaceClaim co-founder Blake Courter tells me that I needed to adjust only a couple of graphics settings to “make SpaceClaim the fastest“.

He told me to set rendering quality to 3 and turn anti-aliasing off. As it turns out, these are the default settings. So SpaceClaim has its graphics settings optimized for large models by default, unlike some other CAD systems I’ve seen. Let’s see what kind of display quality we get for these default settings.

Click image for larger view

You will need to click the image and zoom to actual size to appreciate it. I absolutely love this. First off, if the imported model does not have color information, SpaceClaim automatically colors parts differently using a dull color scheme that does not hit the eye. This makes it easy to work with as opposed to having a couple of hundred parts all colored in a dull gray like in SolidWorks or Inventor or bright green like KeyCreator. Secondly, the specular reflection is very subtle, almost non-existent. It looks almost like a flat shaded model which is what I absolutely love. Too much of realism and strong reflections distract me as I go to pick faces, edges and vertices to perform modeling operations. The shininess is just enough to highlight curved surfaces so that my brain can easily wrap itself around the model, but not too much jazz that it starts to get confused.

There was no need to create another video since the one from the original comparison one would do. But in this series I intend to do the navigation in the CAD systems in the exact same manner – orbit around the model about the Z axis, first slowly and then fast. So here goes.

Like I said, Freaking Awesome!!

Part 4 >>