SpaceClaim Online Help

Advanced options

Modify how your design changes are displayed in the Design windowArea in the user interface that displays your model or assembly. Also known as Workspace., whether tools and hints are displayed, enable background loading, change the language, customize the SpinTool used to re-orient your design in any direction, allowing you to view it from any angle., Select, and Undo tools, reset the layout of the panels, and adjust the license warning.

To set advanced options

1. Select SpaceClaim Options from the File menu to display the SpaceClaim Options window.

2. Click Advanced in the navigation panel on the left.

3. Modify the options on the page.

   You can click Reset all user settings to adjust all settings back to their default states. You may need to restart SpaceClaim.

4. Click OK to save all your changes and close the window.

If you try to enter a value that is out of the allowed range in the Options panelArea of the user interface that enables you to modify functions specific to tools. or the SpaceClaim Options dialog, you will see a red exclamation mark icon next to the field. You can hover over the icon to see a tooltip that will explain the valid values for the option.

General

Animate changes to view projection: Select this option to animate the steps when you select a view.

Show previous selections with pre-highlight hint: Select this option to highlight all the geometry you last acted on that includes the selected vertex, edge, or face. If you click again with the Select tool, the previously selected group will be selected for you with that one click.

Auto-extrude/revolve sketches in Section modeSee Section: Select this option to automatically extrude or revolve in section mode. As you sketch in Section modeSee Section, lines that begin on an existing edge are extruded to form surfaces, and closed surfaces form solids. If the line begins on a solid, the line is finished automatically when you click another point on the solid. To automatically revolve, the sketch must be attached to a revolved face.

Maximum undo steps: Type the number of actions you want available for undo. We recommend that this value be set to at least 50. To enable your changes, you must restart SpaceClaim.

Language: Select a language from the menu. The SpaceClaim user interface and online help display in the selected language.

Reset All User Settings: Reset all modifiable user settings to a default state. To apply the updated settings, you must restart SpaceClaim.

Export User Settings: Export a SpaceClaim user.config file (XML format) for editing and/or future import.

Import User Settings: Apply non-default, customized selections that are unique to an individual user. A valid SpaceClaim user.config file (XML format) must be available for import. User.config file location can vary depending on SpaceClaim installation, but generally, this file type is stored in your local AppData directory. Once you locate theuser.config file you want to import, or, enter the name of the user.config file in the File Name text box, click Open to import the file.

How to create a universal user settings file

1. Create an environment variable called SpaceClaim_ADMIN_CONFIG. It should point to a fully qualified file name which may be on the network, for example: SpaceClaim_ADMIN_CONFIG=\\dell_server\shared\rob\admin.config

2. Begin by creating your own user.config file as described below.

   • Open SpaceClaim and go to the Options menu.

   • Change the settings any way you want.

   • Click the Export User Settings button in the Advanced options page.

   • Save as "user.config" or any other name you want with the ".config" extension.

   • Place in the location which your Environment variable points to.

3. Test that your settings have exported correctly as follows.

   • Close out SpaceClaim.

   • Locate your user.config file.

     1. Go to Computer>Local Disk

     2. Click in the Path panel at the top of the window.

     3. Type: %APPDATA%

     4. Double click Local.

     5. Double click SpaceClaim

     6. Select all the settings folders and delete them.

4. Open a new SpaceClaim session and see the results of your user.config file.

Notes about the universal settings file

• The name can be anything - 'admin.config' is just an example.

• This file will be used by SpaceClaim  instead of the local user configuration file.

• To use the settings you created, make sure you clear out your local settings before you start SpaceClaim. You should only need to do this once.

• Users may need to delete local settings to get SpaceClaim to use the central config file the first time. This is because SpaceClaim checks the file dates and uses the newest of the two files.

• After the first time, you should not need to delete local settings again.

• When you do a new install on a machine with the Environment variable set, the admin user settings will be used without needing to delete the local settings.

• Once a user has a specified central config file, any changes they make will persist. However, settings within tabs restricted by 'panel.config' cannot be overridden.

Restricting access to specific user settings

You can prevent some tabs in the SpaceClaim Options panelArea of the user interface that enables you to modify functions specific to tools. from being overridden by a user. This is done with the 'panel.config' file that specifies which tabs to disable.

There is an example panel.config file in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\SpaceClaim \

This file is simply an example to work from and currently does nothing.

Unlike the 'admin.config' file, which can be named anything, 'panel.config' should not be renamed.

How to create a 'panel.config' file

This example will disable the 'Popular', 'SnapConstrain to objects, angular and linear increments, or grid points while you are sketching or editing solids. You can customize the snapping behavior in File>Options. Pressing Shift while dragging snaps the tool based on your snap settings. You can use the Snap to grid tool to constrain or lock all drawing to grid points only.', and 'File->CATIAModeling engine by Dassault Systèmes. You can import and export CATIA files.' options.

<PanelsToDisable>

<PanelName>Popular</PanelName>

<PanelName>SnapConstrain to objects, angular and linear increments, or grid points while you are sketching or editing solids. You can customize the snapping behavior in File>Options. Pressing Shift while dragging snaps the tool based on your snap settings. You can use the Snap to grid tool to constrain or lock all drawing to grid points only.</PanelName>

<PanelName>FileOptions_CATIAModeling engine by Dassault Systèmes. You can import and export CATIA files.</PanelName>

</PanelsToDisable>

All of the option panel names are listed below. Use them to customize panel.config as you like. Place the file in the same location as the admin.config where your Environment variable points.

Popular

Detailing_General

Detailing_SizeAndFormat

Detailing_ModularGrid

Appearance

SnapConstrain to objects, angular and linear increments, or grid points while you are sketching or editing solids. You can customize the snapping behavior in File>Options. Pressing Shift while dragging snaps the tool based on your snap settings. You can use the Snap to grid tool to constrain or lock all drawing to grid points only.

Units

SheetMetal

Navigation

Advanced

FileOptions_General

FileOptions_ACISModeling engine by Spatial Corporation. You can import and export ACIS files (.sat and .sab).

FileOptions_AutoCADSoftware application for 2D and 3D design and drafting by Autodesk, Inc. AutoCAD's native file format is DWG, its interchange file format is DXF, and its format for publishing CAD data is DWF.

FileOptions_CATIAModeling engine by Dassault Systèmes. You can import and export CATIA files.

FileOptions_IGES

FileOptions_JTOpen

FileOptions_OBJ

FileOptions_ParasolidParasolid geometric modeling kernel. You can open and insert parts and assemblies and export parts and assemblies.

FileOptions_PDF

FileOptions_ProEngineer

FileOptions_Rhino

FileOptions_SketchUp

FileOptions_STEPStandard for the Exchange of Product model data (ISO 10303). Defines a methodology for describing product data. You can select the STEP protocol when you export designs.

FileOptions_STL

FileOptions_VRML

SupportFiles

Customize

AddIns

License

Resources

SpaceClaim Labs

Pull Tool

Select Automatic, Add, Cut, or No Merge to set the initial state of PullTool used to distort or deform geometry. Use the Pull tool to offset, extrude, revolve, sweep, draft, and blend faces; or to round, chamfer, or extrude edges. When converting a sketch to 3D, pulling a line creates a surface and pulling a surface creates a solid.. The Automatic option selects by default.

Animate Full PullTool used to distort or deform geometry. Use the Pull tool to offset, extrude, revolve, sweep, draft, and blend faces; or to round, chamfer, or extrude edges. When converting a sketch to 3D, pulling a line creates a surface and pulling a surface creates a solid.: Select this option to animate all the steps when you select the Full Pull option to revolve, sweep, or blend your design.

Behavior

Preview before modifying: Select when you want interim calculations performed when modifying solids from the menu. If this option is turned on, the preview of a change is displayed as a rough wireframe model rather than a rendered, 3D model. If you work with very large designs, a wireframe preview can be faster than doing the calculations necessary to render the change as a shaded 3D model. Select:

• Auto to allow SpaceClaim to determine when to render the preview based on the size of the component and the capabilities of your graphics card.

• On to always display changes as rough wireframe previews rather than rendered previews.

• Off to always render the preview instead of displaying it as a wireframe model.

Enable geometry convergence: Select this option if you want SpaceClaim to help you when you are moving solids together so that the edges (such as rounds) converge perfectly. If this option is enabled, when you are moving solids together, SpaceClaim will display a progress bar as it performs the convergence steps.

Show cross sections in sketch: Select this option to display cross sections of solids with hatching. You might want to disable this option if you are working with complicated cross-sections.

Show coaxial face groups: Display faces that share an axis with blue shading.

FillUse the Fill tool to simplify or clean up geometry by extending surrounding faces to eliminate a selection. The selected region is filled in or healed with the surrounding surface or solid. cross section: Controls the visualization of a cross-sectioned solid in Section modeSee Section. If this option is on and you view a section through a body, the body is filled with color.

Show arc centers: Select this option to display small crosses on the sketch grid at the center of circles, ellipses, polygons, and arcs.

OffsetDistance an edge, segment, or curve is moved or copied. edges by geodesic calculation: With this option selected, all the points on the offset edge are the same distance from the initial edge. In the examples below, the original edge is highlighted in green, the regular offset is shown in orange, and the geodesic offset is shown in blue.

Top view direction: Allows you to change the top view to Z or Y. This setting is saved with the document and only applies to new documents. You may want to change this setting when you import drawings from other CAD applications that use a different upward direction. This option is automatically set to Y when you run SpaceClaim with an ANSYS license. This gives your design the same orientation in SpaceClaim and ANSYS.

Examples

Extruding while sketching in Section modeSee Section