Price is a little higher than our local guys, but they are 1 day UPS ground from Ft Worth, Texas to me, and they stock a million parts. They do have a parts library with their part numbers and a BOM function, so it may just be them trying to get makers to use their stuff as well. Maybe it is not as powerful, but so far it has been a good experience with Design Spark. I like it better than Sketchup, although I am still a noob at both. I have not used FreeCad, only tinkerCAD and Sketchup. There are no CAD formats supported (open formats like IGES and STEP or proprietary formats like ACIS, Parasolid).

One other thing that makes DesignSpark stand apart from SpaceClaim is the available export formats. The STL export from a solid will almost always produce a valid file. You don't have those problems when you work with a solid object. That's also the reason why it is so tricky to produce watertight models. Sketchup can work with STL files because it is a mesh modeler, not a solid modeler. STL being a mesh format, it is mostly useless in MCAD. Usually in CAD you don't import STL as it is a purely export format intended for a single purpose: rapid prototyping. So you don't as a rule erase faces because that would destroy your solid model.īut reading a little on DesignSpark, there seem to be a few differences with SpaceClaim.

Just so you know, SpaceClaim, on which DesignSpark is based, is a mechanical CAD solid modeler, that is, its purpose is to create solids.

Designspark mechanical 4