We are nearly done with OneSpace 2008 development and plan to enter stabilization and QA after Christmas. If you missed the CoCreate 2007 events, you may not know what’s on the horizon.

For our ongoing development of explicit modeling, we plan to continuously extend the modeling capabilities and push the intuitiveness and ease-of-use of our system, so you can master complex modeling challenges effectively, flexibly, and simply.

Blends
Blending provides a good example of added simplicity in OneSpace Modeling. You no longer need to understand and explicitly control the creation or insertion of blends. The new, unified blend creation command now automates much of the work with optimal user guidance and also extended creation and modification capabilities.

Radial offset and move
Radial Offset helps you easily modify multiple selected axial faces in one step with automatic detection of the axial surfaces, while Radial Move helps you easily modify multiple faces or recognized features in one step with an offset direction radial to a common axis.

Patterns
Also look in the 2008 release for a new approach to patterns of user-defined form features such as sets of faces building a boss or a pocket. Once defined, a form feature can be applied to the model repeatedly, for example, you could position several instances equally in a circular arrangement. You can also unshare features from the pattern for individual modifications. A feature can also be modified and the modification used in other features shared in the pattern definition.

Freeform faces
OneSpace Modeling offers many flexible ways for the controlled definition of freeform faces. To support designers who have to respond to unexpected change requests, we offer new methods to conveniently, but precisely, modify existing surfaces. Drag & drop operations on the surface-defining curves combines ease of use with strict control over the result, automatically honoring tangency or coincidence situations.

Relations
OneSpace Modeling offers relational capabilities as additional explicit modeling tools for fast and flexible design. Relations options honor your conditions in model modification operations. For 2008, we’ll extend relation definitions for full coverage of even the most intricate modifications.

Sheet Metal
Sheet Metal will sport some interesting new capabilities that improve working with imported geometry as well as reacting to “shop” changes. Material thickness and bend information can be assigned to imported models, turning them into ‘real’ sheet metal components in OneSpace Modeling. Changes in tooling and process data adjust the model accordingly and check it for manaufacturability. For instance, OneSpace Modeling will adjust bending reliefs if material thickness has changed. The system will then report conflicts and required changes to further help you create robust designs.

Annotation
Our advancements in Annotation enrich classical 2D documentation, not only by allowing you to add images or supplementary, OLE-embed, documents to the drawing, but also by bridging the 2D and the 3D world through the inclusion of shaded views into the drawing. Among other customer-driven improvements, an additional highlight will be 64-bit support for Annotation, overcoming current limits in handling of large assemblies.

There is much more, of course. We’ll talk about that once we officially introduce the 2008 version.

 

OneSpace Model Manager
OneSpace Model Manager is key in the 2008 release, too. The energy with which we continue to develop OneSpace Model Manager – the indispensable companion to OneSpace Modeling for true team design – focuses on two major areas. We’ll:

1. Continuously improve the ease of deployment and use.

2. Extend the essential model management capabilities required for effective and efficient product development.

When our customers design complex machinery products they typically use existing product modules and load these subassemblies into the overall design. However, these product modules might have been created under different conditions, for example, using older versions of certain components. This can lead to a situation where different versions of the same part are loaded from OneSpace Model Manager into OneSpace Modeling.

We have invested significantly in a staged approach to optimally support these challenges. The 15.50 version of OneSpace 2007 already delivered the first step, so you can specify the part version, thus controlling the automatic sharing with already loaded parts. OneSpace 2008 will provide the next significant step, allowing you to save assemblies that contain parts loaded successively as different versions. Today, such an assembly would be locked for saving, but this limitation is going away soon. We will continue development to provide the final, third step that will allow you to load assemblies that contain different versions of the same part within a single load operation.

Extensions for the automation and integration of process steps with Task Agent are another example of how we are strengthening OneSpace Model Manager. We’ve completed the standard set of model conversion tasks and are also opening the door for easier file-based loose coupling with external systems.

2008 and beyond
We’ve worked on many more improvements in different areas, all contributing to the goal of outstanding first-time experience and further improved deployment and usability. That’s why we think you will agree that the 2008 version will be one of the strongest ever OneSpace releases. Look for customer shipments in spring 2008.

Beyond 2008, you’ll see more focus on simplifying the user experience, extending the capabilities and intuitiveness of explicit modeling, sheet metal, and Annotation. Extended OneSpace Model Manager concepts we plan to provide include managing different levels of versions, inseparable assemblies, e.g., for purchased modules, or design derivatives like semi-finished products.

This is just the start. We’re excited about the next release, and remain dedicated to our commitment to maintaining, enhancing, and further developing your OneSpace products. Take a look at our OneSpace 2008 in Development webcast.