One of the trends in additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is an acceleration of useful tools that capture data more easily and convert it to 3D CAD data, for later build on a 3D printer. One of the more interesting recent releases is from Geomagic®, a global company providing 3D technology for digital reality. The company just recently announced the release of its new 3D scan and CAD design software, Geomagic® Spark™. This 3D software combines a live 3D scanning interface, built on Geomagic’s 3D point and mesh editing platform, with a comprehensive direct modeling package, built on the SpaceClaim® platform. In addition, it includes powerful assembly modeling and 2D drawing capabilities for an intuitive and powerful product that will allow CAD experts and CAD novices alike to create models for conceptualization, prototyping, manufacturing or documentation – easily and in one complete package.
Said Evan Yares, Senior Software Editor and Analyst, Design World magazine, “Geomagic really has something here. Spark has a “just right” combination of capabilities that makes it amazingly adept at creating clean and editable CAD solids from average (or even lousy) 3D scans. Given a run of the mill scanner and Spark, an engineer with minimal CAD skills can reverse engineer even complex parts surprisingly fast. It’s really a killer app for the 3D scan/transform/print process.
Geomagic Spark’s direct modeling CAD environment relies on a gesture-based user interface, a simple push/pull toolset, and a familiar ribbon-based GUI. You can skillfully create accurate, manufacturable solid models and assemblies using scan and CAD data in the same application within minutes, even from partial scan data. Companies in the automotive, electronics, industrial design, consumer goods, tooling and aerospace industries can accelerate product development, facilitate better communication between teams, simplify design processes, and increase reliability in scan-to-CAD operations.
“Geomagic Spark delivers a truly transformative integration of scanning and design – for every level of user,” said Ping Fu, founder and CEO, Geomagic. “Combining Geomagic’s scanning expertise with an innovative direct modeler allows designers and engineers to realize their creative inspiration, from basic reality capture applications, such as reverse engineering, to product design and modification. Geomagic Spark is powerful, affordable and capable of finishing a product quickly.”
The software is built on the SpaceClaim API, allowing Geomagic’s scanning technology to seamlessly integrate with the direct modeling capabilities of SpaceClaim. To model, users easily move between scanning and editing tools, and the platform also enables the integration of many third-party add-ins built for the SpaceClaim software, including CAD translators, CAE, CAM, rendering and more.
Geomagic Spark’s integrated package begins with a live scanning interface, which currently supports Faro®, Hexagon® and Creaform® scanners, and also includes the ability to load existing scan data from other scanners. Designers can choose from a range of automated editing tools used to convert and edit data into a polygon mesh: sampling, noise reduction, wrap, mesh simplification and more. Within seconds, designers can transfer the mesh into the direct modeling CAD environment. Using intuitive solid modeling tools – like one-button extraction of curves, surfaces and solids – simplifies the process of creating solid geometry from the mesh. You can then quickly perform a mesh-to-solid comparison and prepare interactive 2D technical drawings, annotations, dimensions and more.
Geomagic Spark natively lets you import and export a range of MCAD-specific and industry-neutral (e.g., PDF and STEP) file formats, and separate data exchange modules are available for additional supported formats (e.g., CATIA and JT). This powerful combination of 3D data processing and CAD functions ignites process efficiency in reverse engineering, production-focused manufacturing, prototyping, concept modeling, rendering and documentation.
Available in English, German, Chinese (simple and traditional), Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Czech, Geomagic Spark is available now as well as part of Geomagic’s new Enterprise Bundle, which also includes Geomagic Studio® 2013 and Geomagic Qualify® 2013. The Enterprise Bundle offers significant savings for those who require a full suite of 3D scan-to-CAD capabilities, advanced point and mesh processing, and cutting-edge metrology applications to leverage their 3D scanner investments.
To see more information, or to receive a free trial of Geomagic Spark or other exciting new Geomagic 2013 products, please visit Geomagic.
Geomagic
www.geomagic.com
