Delcam PowerSHAPE 2010

This post is a summary of the seven part Delcam PowerSHAPE 2010 series. Given below are links to each part along with a brief description.

Part 1: The difference between solid and surface modeling and where they are preferred.

Part 2: The reasons why Delcam chose to add the Parasolid modeling kernel to PowerSHAPE 2010.

Part 3: Why I believe an easy and simple user interface is critically important when convincing prospects to try out a CAD system.

Part 4: Creating a very simple Lego block using solid modeling.

Part 5: Editing the features of the Lego block and understanding how PowerSHAPE organizes and builds features.

Part 6: Modifying the Lego block using surface modeling.

Part 7: “Personalizing” the Lego block using mesh modeling.

Disclosure: Nobody from Delcam asked me to write this series. I do not even have a license of PowerSHAPE 2010. Throughout this series I used the free version called PowerSHAPE-e 2010 (you can download your copy here). Well, PowerSHAPE-e is not exactly free. You can model all you want but need to purchase a “voucher” from Delcam if you want to export your work to a file format other than “.emodel”, PowerSHAPE-e’s native file format.

The voucher system is a per-per-use system for Exchange, Delcam’s data exchange solution. You can get more information on the voucher system here. Basically, you buy a voucher costing £34 (about $56) for each .emodel file which can be of any size and can be exported any number of times. Half way through this series, Al Dean from DEVELOP3D connected me to Peter Dickin, Marketing Manager of Delcam. Peter offered me a no-cost Exchange account. But I ended up not using it as nothing I did with PowerShape-e needed me to export a model.

So I guess I don’t have much to disclose after all.