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[Abigail Tyrie]

This is my first post, so any help would be appreciated. I downloaded and installed the student Spaceclaim 2023 R2. It works very well and allows me to save each file that I start. My planis to use it to create 3D geometry for 3D printing, or as a reverse-engineering software, which usually is based on some 3D scanned item, and importing the scan file into Spaceclaim, then building a model in the same space as the scan file. Good news, that all works perfectly.

Bad news, after creating new geometry, or reverse-engineering a scanned item, although I can save the file, I cannot export the new file in any format. My preferred choices would be stl and then step files. This is simply not an option on the student version of Spaceclaim. I tried 17 ways to Sunday.

So, is there any known way to make the student version export any files ? I called Ansys, and they said get in touch with my university, as they may have some agreement with Ansys to allow the software to fucntion fully, and export. But I really don't think my school has such an agreement.

One possible workaround I thought of is; make a solid object in Spaceclaim student version, and see if somebody has the fully licensed verson to hopefully open my file, then export parts. Problem is, I'd have to find someone who has the full seat of Spaceclaim 2023 and the patience to export for me.

The free Student license limits exporting the SpaceClaim document in a neutral format. The intention of providing free software is so students can learn to use the software. Obviously, if Ansys provided full functionality in the free software, few people would pay for a license.

Many universities have purchased a Research or Teaching license which has no such limitation. If you ask at your university, you may find a computer in a lab on campus that has that license installed. It is true that if you take your .scdoc file from the Student version, you can open it on that computer and export the neutral file.

Just a comment on Peter's last sentence. If you are using the Student software commercially please re-read the T&Cs and then get in touch to discuss getting the correct licences: there are options for start-ups too.

OK, Plan B (or is it C ?), If I create a file in Student Spaceclaim, is there anyone at the Ansys company who could open my file and export the solid parts I've created? I'd assume that there would be a fee involved.

And last, since the student version offered on the Ansys website is 2023 R2, would a full commercial license of 2021 open the 2023 student file ? Or would it have to be the most up to date software, say 2023 ?

Start Workbench 2023 R2
Add Steady State Thermal analysis
Import the SpaceClaim file into Geometry
Open Model
Mesh the geometry

Right click on Mesh to Export to STL and save the file.
Open the STL file in SpaceClaim to verify.

There doesn't seem to be s student download called "Workbench." I had assumed you meant that this student software could be used to export stl files from the student Spaceclaim. Am I missing something ? Thanks, Tom.

Wow. Finally. Nothing about that was intuitive for me. I finally hit enough buttons and options to find a way to export an stl file of my simple cube sample model. I imported it into Rhino to verify that it actually worked.

Last general concept, is there any way to export a step file of a solid part that I model in Spaceclaim? If it requires 42 steps, plus the blessing of the Pope, I'm willing to learn. And once again, thanks for all your help. Tom.

I open Ansys and import the file, then I open the Static Structural modul, and start going through the steps. I once more import the file through the geometry tab. Then I go to Model, right click, and choose edit: I get here two error messages, the first is related to Licenising: Capability CAD Interface - Parasolid does not exist in the ANSYS Licensing pool, then a second message comes from Workbench: Unable to attach geometry to file. I thought the student version should be able to handle parasolids and IGES files, as per the description under the product.

After this I go back to Geometry, right click and open the Design Modeler. My solid object appears all right, but I get a third message about exceeding the allowable geometry limits. My model has about 5000 faces, but to my understanding the student version has a limit of 32000 elements.

Are all 5000 faces critical for your analysis? Looks like you will have an extraordinarily hard time meshing your body or applying boundary conditions. The 32,000 element limit for the student version refers to meshed bodies (mesh elements), not initial geometry imports. Can you heal the faces (into spline surfaces) and try re-uploading the geometry?

I have some experience simplifying bodies like this, and I have full licenses available to use. Please export an ACIS or Parasolid file from AutoCAD (is it Inventor?). Then create a zip archive of that file and Attach the .zip file to your reply. The zip file must be < 120 MB to attach.

Thanks for your reply! Well, I am not very familiar with 3D modeling, although I have been exploring it a bit lately. So I am not really sure what you mean by spline surface, but I will have a look into it, to see if it will help.

Thanks peteroznewman for your answer. My surface is quite complicated, so I am a bit afraid that 300 faces might not be enough to accurately represent the object. I am not using Inventor, only have AutoCAD, and also use Meshlab. As I said before I am not very familiar with 3D modeling, so can I do what you have asked in those softwares too?

Some programs can take 5000 faces that are very small facets, and replace them with 50 smooth faces that follow the contours of the original geometry very accurately. This is now a common feature in many geometry editing programs because of the prevalence of 3D scanning software that creates STL files made up of small triangular faces that follow curved geometry. CAD and CAE programs prefer to work with a small number of faces but can now also work with imported facet data.

I don't use AutoCAD or MeshLab, but there may be other members who have used them. MeshLab is Open Source so anyone can download and use that, but it is strictly mesh-based. It can put a coarse mesh over a fine mesh to reduce the number of faces, but that is losing the resolution that is in the fine mesh. You need a spline as etc59 suggested.

I've recently downloaded the Educational edition of Creo 7.0 in order to attend mechanical design classes in my collage. During the installation I had the Ansys Simulation product available so I checked the box and installed it as the rest of the apps and extensions.

Thanks for your quick answer Alex, So as Ansys Simulation is not available, do you know if I would be able to take a 3D model created with the educational version of Creo and then go to Ansys Student and analize it there? Would there be compatibility between both educational versions of Creo and Ansys?

Instead of converting to a step file and opening in ANSYS workbench, could you install the associativity link using ANSYS CAD Configurator and import a model into ANSYS workbench (vers. 212) directly from Creo (7.0). Apparently this should work normally (not working for me). Unsure whether the student version retains this functionality???

I got a question from a school asking if it is possible to only download the ansys SpaceClaim modeller instead of the whole package, because students are complaining that they cannot install it because of the harddisk space Ansys Discovery Student and Ansys Student needs.

I got the following feedback from Academic team. They said that their intention is to make sure students use our core and latest simulation technology by solving the problem from start to end. Students should view SpaceClaim as an integrated geometry tool to solve the problem instead of using it as a standalone tool.

ANSYS Student is our ANSYS Workbench-based bundle of ANSYS Mechanical, ANSYS CFD, ANSYS Autodyn, ANSYS SpaceClaim and ANSYS DesignXplorer. ANSYS Student is used by hundreds of thousands of students globally. It is a great choice if your professor is already using it for your course or if you are already familiar with the ANSYS Workbench platform.

• ANSYS Student is downloaded directly from ANSYS and comes with a standalone license, meaning it does not need to access a campus license server. This means that you do not need to be connected to the internet to run ANSYS Student.
• The license has a set end date based on the version. For instance, no matter when you download it, 2023 R1 comes with a license that is valid through 31 January 2024.
• You can not extend the license, but you can return to the ANSYS Student site each year to download the newest version with a new expiration date.
• The ANSYS Student software has certain simulation size limits. See the "Problem Size Limits" section at the ANSYS Student website for specific details. If you need to run larger problem sizes, you can use the main ANSYS software.

ANSYS recently announced a free version of ANSYS Student. ANSYS Student is an introductory software package for engineering students who are interested in learning the fundamentals of simulation while gaining exposure to state of the art ANSYS Workbench simulation workflow, pre-processing, post-processing and solver products.

ANSYS
Type: Finite Element Analysis
Scope: Student version of ANSYS available for install on student personally owned computers.
Contact: NACOE IT (coei...@montana.edu)
ANSYS Student Download
Note: This is a 4.05 GByte download so allow time for download depending on network speed. Version 2020 R2 will be installed in student computers labs on campus Fall 2019.

Autodesk Software (eg AutoCAD)
Type: Computer Aided Design
Scope: Available at no cost to all students. Autodesk 2023 versions will be used in College of Engineering computer labs and global student labs fall 2022. Autodesk does have more software available to students than is installed in College of Engineering and global student labs.
Contact: Autodesk
Further Information

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