Before you run out to get one of those rubber balls to sit on, take a look at this concept fro Jian Guan that will have your deep-vein thrombosis taking a long clot-free vacation to the island of comfy-chair bliss. The SmartChair, aptly named, provides a biofeedback system that senses your movement and adjust the…

Man! this is just stingin’ like crazy! I’d think I’d rather fall on top of a bowl of boiling gravy and incredible links. Compfight – The best, and I mean, THE BEST, Flickr search tool. good options and fast as milk. The Drugstore Game – Save hundreds. Seriously. My wife and are are doing this…

The Google I/O conference is in full swing with all sorts of goodies coming out. But, what’s really cool and going to affect how you view the world and map-based web apps in the future is the announcement of the Google Earth browser plugin. No longer will you be isolated to two dimensions of movement…

Yes, it happens to all of us. We’re cruising along with the mouse, clickin’ this way and that, and typing some notes with the keyboard. Life is simple. Then, we take our hand off the keyboard for a sip of coffee or a little stretch and… suddenly our finger shoots straight into our eye with…

If you’re into mechanisms like Theo Jansen’s Creatures, the retro-futuristic Steampunk contraptions or just like to see how things work, you may be interested in the latest SolidWorks genius campaign. It’s Leonardo Da Vinci’s self-propelled cart, taken from parchment to 3D with SolidWorks 2008. It’s a cool look at how the mechanism works and also…

I’m loving what Steven Kempton, from the Ponoko Blog, and his new band of writers (David, Duann, Roy, and Indigo) are putting out. They look at all the different aspects that surround manufacturing, art and design. David posted an item I recognized, the Demakersvan Cinderella table, but hadn’t given much thought to in the past.…

That’s what I called it, and nobody dared challenged me. Being covered in oil, cayenne pepper and these links probably helped. 40 Professional Free Icon Sets – The best darn icon sets I’ve seen the last couple days. Box icons, food icon, and, yes, even some 3D icons. SmallWorld – A 3D Virtual World? Inside…

Yes folks, the CAD industry is alive and well with the raging pulse of an over-achieving band of gypsy circus performers. You won’t see that description in the latest CAD Report from John Peddle Research though. What you will see, is a $5,000 price tag and words like renaissance, combined revenues, emerging economies and my…

Here we go with another installment of mystery tip goodness. Your Question, your post. Here’s why. I get a bit of emails asking questions about SolidWorks and a lot of them are really good questions that I’d love to turn into posts. So, here’s your chance again to have your question answered. First Person to…

Oh, the trials of being a Mac user in the CAD world. There’s just no justice for your simple and elegant character personified in a simple and elegant computer. Who is out there to understand you? SolidSmack has your back and we want to show you how easy it it is to get SolidWorks runnin’…

There’s not enough explodin’ stuff in CAD these days. It’s all sketch this, extrude that. So, when I saw this, I just had to show it to you. Some of the 3D visualization out there just amaze me. But this video, blows my mind. “TSNStudio’s Extreme Loading® is an engineered simulation technology originally designed for…

Every year about this time the International Contemporary Furniture Fair ends and a bunch of trendy people have satisfied their desire for new designs and ideas about contemporary furniture. The rest of us admire it through the websites able to cover the event and hope there will be something interesting that comes of the whole…

Slap me sideways and constrain me to X/Y coordinates. SolidWorks Labs has released a new web app, called BluePrint Now, that allows you to create/edit/save DWG files online. That… is just wild people. Whatcha think the AutoDesk folks think about this. hmmm? Honestly, when I first tried to use it, I felt like we have…

Look, there’s a bunch of things you could do this week, but showering regularly, eating less beef jerky and discovering your unlimited potential for doing cool things with SolidWorks should be at the top of the list, don’t ‘cha think? I’m finding there’s more and more ways of doing things with SolidWorks that have nothing…

Out of NOWHERE, your overwhelming hunger to stack colorful blocks, creating cities and worlds unknown… has been satiated. CubeScape puts the ability in the tip of your mouse-clickin’ finger to build isometric creations, watch replays, and then save it to share your mad creation with others. Cameron Adams of The man in Blue came up…

As if Multi-touch technology wasn’t enough to make you sing and dance through the forest of TechBlogs, two developers have been working with Plasma and OLED technology to make whatever displays will be in the future thinner, more flexible… and yes, spreadable. Flexible Plasma monitor Shinoda Plasma has create a supper-thin (1 mil), super-flexible (wrap-around)…

Maybe it’s not fair, but I thought it would be a little fun to compare the conversation of SolidWorks vs. AutoCAD happening on Twitter. I used an amazing tool that data visualization ar-teest, Jeff Clark, has come up with called Twitter Spectrum. It’s a visualization of the words used in two topics you enter into…

Yes’m, the sky split open like one of them biscuit cans and then my mama takes out this laser shootin’ thing, but these links were downright mean I tell ya. Piel.Skin Contemporary Architecture – An online architechture book, but whats cool about this is the live link to Google Maps that shows where the buildings…

Since the dawn of time, man has contemplated the frustrating effects of the big read error icon and has come to the conclusion that, yes, veins can indeed pop out of your head whether your sitting down or standing in a defensive crouch in front of your computer. Computer errors pretty much feel like being…

While Micorsoft’s Surface is kinda cool, but also like the Pac-man console at that pizza place, the newly debut Microsoft Touchwall puts it all in perspective and drops an ax on what it would take to get multi-touch technology into your tech-grubby hands. All this uses is a couple hundred bucks of readily-available, rear-projection hardware…

My brother, who is trying to shed the hooks of life on dry ground for a life at sea, shared this site with me. It’s a giant repository for details of old boat plans that includes everything from row boats to ski boats and even a few sail boats. Ah, to escape to the islands,…

I’m liking this topic, so we’re gonna keep going with it till it breaks into a million tiny pieces. Here’s why. I get a bit of emails asking questions about SolidWorks and a lot of them are really good questions that I’d love to turn into posts. So, here’s your chance again to have your…

Yesterday my copy of SolidWorks Surfacing by Matt Lombard arrived in the mail from Amazon! My boy likes all the colored images in the book… and I like the colored images in the book. We discussed boundary surface and debated lofting conditions. From first glance, this book is full of insight that will get you…

Oh to have ways of creating models faster. Moving your mouse around really fast-like doesn’t help, gripping your neck and squeezing real hard doesn’t help much either. Sometimes, it’s just what you have in your bag o’ tricks that can get you moving along… or in our case, a library of tricks. In SolidWorks, you…

I know, it’s only Tuesday and you’re saying, “Yeeeeah, I typically take my inspiration on Fridays – Thursdays at the earliest to knock some of thoooose projects out over the weekend, m’kay? thanks.” But folks, this just can’t wait, I tell you, and will probably get you through the week completely distracted by your potential……

Well everyone, look at that. We have completely plundered the riches of the web and have a big ol’ bag of incredibly useful tips and information. SolidSmack.com is officially one year old today. (See first post here.) You all are completely incredible and make this so much fun, I can’t even explain it. I seriously…

You’ll want to read Wiring Up an Event if you’re interested in the least, what is starting to come about in the the CAD world as it relates to the Web and the realm of social media. You’ve seen my post about Why I like Twitter and while Blogs and RSS are still a mystery…

Yes, it was very tiny and I don’t think it had any eyelids, which made it all the more creepy. I’m glad you have eyelids, they look good on you with these links. Thomas Doyle Miniatures Art – Tiny but not necessarily cute. Miniature people in odd and surreal situations. Addictomatic – The is what…

Right now, I’m really glad I ate breakfast because I just watched the video of the new PlasmaBlade from Peak Surgical. Peak Surgical, out of Palo Alto, CA, uses SolidWorks for their product design. They don’t quite fancy the slice, burn and wipe of traditional surgical methods so they’ve introduced plasma technology with this tiny…

I received an email recently that had the above graphic in the footer. The time is drawing neigh, my friends. The wolves are howling in the distance and travel mugs are being imprinted with the SolidWorks Logo…be warned… ok, here’s some links you’ll want to keep an eye on. SolidWorks Beta Links SolidWorks Beta Site…

It looks like something that doesn’t exist except in the movies. Since the Ironman Movie launched last week I’ve been trying to get my hands on some video of the stinkin’ cool 3D holo-CAD user interface he uses to design the MarkIII he goes kickin’ butt in. If you’ve seen the movie you already know…

It looks like a pre-programmed bunch of flippy things making your phone look cooler than those plain jane iPhones, that’s what it looks like. The HTC Touch Diamond is the next amazing 3D interface stuffed into a tiny 2.8 inch display to make you strap that drool-cup on again. Sure its tiny, but you can…

Well, last weeks mystery tip about PhotoWorks DOF. I get a bit of emails asking questions about SolidWorks and alot of them are really good questions that I’d love to turn into posts. So once again that’s what we’re gonna do. First Person to Ask a Question The first person to asks a question about…

It’s new and shiny and doesn’t hurt, plus… The conversation is happening there You find out stuff before anyone else You have access to people you normally wouldn’t I’ve meet a lot of people and a lot of SolidWorks users I’ve found new CAD related and SolidWorks Blogs (see below) It’s pretty amazing when you…

If you’ve been using SolidWorks 2008 for any length of time, you’ll notice that the RealView setting, along with other view settings, are front and center on that dang on-screen toolbar. Do you like that toolbar? I know there’s lots of opinions both ways about it. I actually don’t mind it too much. For one,…

“Yeah Josh? Ya know, what could be more boring that looking at trends?… especially ‘interweb’ trends?… la..ame. Move on!” I kinda agree, trend watching is a bit DULL, but they can be oh so revealing when it comes to technology. Here’s the golden egg, Internet Trends are technology adoption trends. That’s key, cause those people…

Indescribably small and cuddly, the albino water dragon can suddenly turn on his owner, devouring him and unleashing the fury that are these snazzy links. Cool Web Characters – Just think, one day you could be an illustrated character online. Something to aim for anyway. XSketch – an online social pictionary-type game. Highly addictive and…

I’m seriously about to crawl out of my skin waiting to see the IronMan movie. It comes out in alot of theaters today although it’s slated for May 2nd. Ever since I saw the first trailer months ago, I geeked out to do a SolidWorks model of it, but just haven’t had the chance to…

Hold on people, we’re about to tear the fabric of uncool unicycle transportation into a million tiny bits. Ben Gulak has created the first production-ready, gyroscopic- powered, bi-wheeled motorcycle. The aptly named “Uno” has two wheels right next to each other making it look like the coolest half of a crotch rocket you’ve ever seen.…