The new Onshape app will support live 3D editing of CAD models, with design changes updated in real time through the Magic Leap device,” notes Hirschtick.“This is far more powerful and impactful than being able to merely view static, already-completed designs. And using our modern CAD system’s real-time collaboration tools, even team members based in different parts of the world will instantly see each other’s updates.”

“Offering Onshape’s cloud CAD system through the rich, immersive view of Magic Leap will one day seem as natural as designing on laptops, phones and tablets,” he adds. “We’re proud to be ahead of the curve by giving engineers access to the latest tools they can’t find anywhere else, tools that will help them push their creative limits, and ultimately design better products.”

What Is Spatial Computing?

Spatial computing was mentioned prominently in the Onshape/Magic Leap announcement, but what is it?

Spatial computing is a broad term used to denote the way we interact with computers in our surroundings. In spatial computing, machines are no longer contained to a single location, but instead occupy the space around us.

Spatial computing involves a radical change from how we have interacted with the large, static computers in the past. Technological advances have now made it possible for us to operate computer technology in a host of new ways, and have opened up computers to new contexts and applications. Today, it is commonplace for us to speak to our devices via voice, use gestures in virtual or augmented reality environments, and carry technology around with us in wearable gadgets. This all encompasses spatial computing.

Freeing computers from the confines of immobile hardware has incredible potential for technological developments in the future. For example, spatial computing makes it possible to interact with mixed reality 3D models, as in the case with Onshape. Slowly but surely, we can expect to see the integration of computers into our natural environments and social contexts. Some machines will alert us to their presence, but others will work autonomously in the background, getting on with important tasks.

In some ways this could be seen to be a goal of spatial computing: the seamless integration of technology into our physical and virtual spaces to such a degree that we don’t even know it is there.

How the Different “Realities” Compare

According to Victor Agulhon, co-founder of TARGO, put simply, spatial computing is the use of space around us as a medium to interact with technology. It’s the purest form of “blending technology into the world.”

This interaction is precisely why spatial computing is a real game changer: it’s taking the function over form debate to the next level. Spatial computing makes the hardware disappear. Not physically, but digitally: we only have the output of the machine, nothing else. The trend of making the hardware fade away to let the software take over has been on the rise for a long time. The most blatant example is phone design in the last decade: from big bulky plastic boxes to the slick black screens. In spatial computing it’s the same: the hardware is purely the engine oriented toward the display/world. Nothing more. Nothing less.

As the physical object to design almost disappears, the most significant part of the design to create a meaningful experience is the software but a new kind of software: spatial software. The UX/UI we know on computers fit a 2D screen, but with spatial computing, we can bring new interactions. Copy-paste what we’ve learnt in 30 years of 2D software design to spatial computing would not be appropriate, new ways can be explored.

As the physical object to design almost disappears, the most significant part of the design to create a meaningful experience is the software but a new kind of software: spatial software. The UX/UI we know on computers fit a 2D screen, but with spatial computing, we can bring new interactions. Copy-paste what we’ve learned in 30 years of 2D software design to 3D spatial computing would not be appropriate, so new ways are being explored that better accommodate 3D.

Magic Leap Technology Available Now

According to TechCrunch, if you are dying to get your hands on the Magic Leap  hardware, you have better options today as opposed to the past.

At the company’s developer conference this week, Magic Leap announced they are opening orders of the Magic Leap One Creator’s Edition headset to the 48 contiguous states of the USA. If you’re in Hawaii or Alaska, well then, you’re out of luck for the moment.

Previously, you had to be in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, or Seattle in order to get your hands on it. Also, if you had previously ordered the headset in one of those cities, someone would come to you, drop it off and get you set up personally. That service is expanding to 50 cities, but you don’t need to have someone set it up for you in order to buy one now.

It’s worth mentioning that the device costs $2,295. The company offers a financing plan with Affirm so that buyers can spread the cost of the device over 24 months.

It’s called a Creator’s Edition, but it’s definitely geared toward the developer crowd. There are a few apps available for download in the Magic Leap World Store, but this isn’t anywhere near consumer-ready and that’s why they’re getting developers (including Onshape) to start building out some cool stuff while they get their ducks in a row and further hone their pitch for a post-iPhone vision of computing.

The announcement that Onshape made this week with Magic Leap marks a real advancement for product design on what could be regarded as a new development platform that combines mixed reality and CAD. Onshape has been at the forefront of cloud-based design, but the announcement this week shows that they may really be on to something that truly sets them apart in a space that is becoming increasingly crowded with “me-toos.”