Viewing STEP files with PowerSHAPE-e

PowerSHAPE-e is the free version of Delcam’s PowerSHAPE CAD program.  It has all of the functionality of the PowerSHAPE program, except that you can only save files using the encrypted PowerSHAPE-e file format, which cannot be read by any other CAD software (including PowerSHAPE).  You can use the Delcam Exchange program to save in another file format; I believe the cost is £200 (~$300) per file.

The Exchange software provides CAD file translation for a very large number of CAD file formats.  Importing the files is free, but exporting to another format costs money (currently £34 (~$50) per file for non-PowerSHAPE-e files).  The Exchange software can be run stand-alone, or from within PowerSHAPE-e.

You can set a variety of import options when directly importing STEP files using Exchange; there are no options when importing using PowerSHAPE-e.  However, you cannot measure parts in Exchange.

You can drag and drop STEP files onto PowerSHAPE-e.  One nice feature are all the pre-defined views – just click on the icon to spin the part into that orientation.  However, I had to look up how to manually rotate a part: you have to hold down the middle mouse button.  Part manipulation speed is good.

You use the calculator to measure.  When measuring, PowerSHAPE-e seemed a bit behind where I wanted it to be; it might need a faster system than my Athlon 2800 + older Quadro card

Viewing HD26M connector with PowerSHAPE-e

Related posts:

1. Viewing STEP files
2. Viewing STEP files with CAD Exchanger
3. Viewing STEP files with CoCreate Personal Edition
4. Viewing STEP files with IDA-STEP
5. Viewing STEP files with Alibre Design Xpress