3D Collaboration is back - with Spaceclaim.

[Mibe]

Spaceclaim is now claiming the space that Alibre left some years ago (sadly) - 3D Collaboration.

Despite their talk about how unique and cool this is (Alibre did this +10 years ago) they have a point. I miss this functionality and hopefully it will return one day.

ALibre Inc. (now 3DS) has the patent, will Spaceclaim infringe on it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiws3S5uko0#t=48

 

[Lew_Merrick]

Mibe,

1) Unless renewed, a patent has an initial seven year life. It would be specific to a technique for data-sharing and could, almost certainly be gotten around by anybody with enough financial backing. Patents, at least here in the U.S., are primarily a contest to see who has the deepest pockets.

2) Having been doing design project collaboration through the internet since the mid-1980's, it is more a matter of organization and procedures than anything else. I do this with great regularity. Today I am likely to use DropBox.com, Box.com, or one of the other file sharing services to accomplish that end. I recently ran a (SolidWorks-based) project that included designers working across the U.S. and Canada as well as designers and managers in the U.K. and Spain. The trick is to have somebody acting as project focal point who takes the uploaded files from each player, integrates it into the master file set and then provides copies of the appropriate file set with commentary back to each of the players.

It only becomes a problem when different CAD tools are being used. Thanks to the destruction of the National Bureau of Standards and its replacement by the National Institute of Standards Technology, we lost our chance to have CAD system independent data! Until that Charlie Foxtrot gets fixed, we who do the work will continue to be held to unreasonable demands.

 

[TylerDurden]

When you share work with Spaceclaim, is it then in the Public Domain?

 

[Lew_Merrick]

When you share work with Spaceclaim, is it then in the Public Domain?

I doubt that is the intent, but such claims have been made elsewhere (which is why I removed all my content from ScribD after its takeover). It is certainly a possibility, if not today, as ownership changes.