SpaceClaim has a distinct advantage that it can import and export files of almost all CAD formats. This lets us import CAD assemblies already available at websites like GrabCAD and use it in SpaceClaim. In this tutorial, we have done the following:

1. Imported a Solidworks assembly of Backhoe mechanism in SpaceClaim, which we got from GrabCAD.com (By Babak)
2. Defined Assembly Conditions/Constraints between different parts
3. Start SC-Motion inside SpaceClaim, which is a completely integrated addin for motion and dynamic simulation.
4. Brief overview of SC-Motion user interface
5. Set Joint Translation (Simple Harmonic Motion) to three linear actuators
6. Set/View Mass and Inertia properties of parts (The tutorial was recorded for SpaceClaim2011, which did not expose mass and inertia properties through its API for us. The values were entered manually. Starting from SpaceClaim 2012 version, they have been exposed. So, in SC-Motion 2012 version, these values are populated automatically, which can be modified for a manual input.
7. Define Gravity for dynamic simulation
8. Perform Dynamic Simulation and see the animation.
9. View and analyse plots of the forces required at the actuators to achieve this motion (This is called inverse dynamics). By doing so, we can get an idea of the maximum force that is required at each actuator and accordingly suitable actuator from the market can be used in actual.

We hope the tutorial would be useful for people to get started with Dynamic Simulation inside SpaceClaim.

 The video tutorial can be downloaded here