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Feast your eyes upon this odd lookin’ chair. Some products you can just look at and know it was designed with SolidWorks. The The Dreeben Billet Chair is one of those. It’s as if you are looking right at the model and recognize the features used to create it.
Micheal Dreeben is the designer and was recently one of the winners of the Design Within Reach M+d+F show for his Chaise style version of this fine chair. Much more comfy lookin’ don’t ya think?
The Billet Chair was designed a few years ago with the aid of Todd Courtois, an independent designer and engineer. Micheal Dreeben himself is an independent furniture designer.
The Ponoko Blog has an excerpt from a recent interview with Dreeben about the design process from sketches and prototypes to CAD and CNC. It’s a must read, if you are interested about the dynamic life of independent design and what materials are used to make it happen.
Continue reading ‘Michael Dreeben Billet Chair Designed in SolidWorks’
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I’m telling ya people, robots are taking over the world and SolidWorks is doing their part to aid in the onslaught of automated fulfillment like you wouldn’t believe. SHOES. The robots are in control of our footwear and it’s all starting at Zappos, perhaps the most brilliant shoe store you’ll ever find.
Kiva Systems has just done a full-up implementation of their ItemFetch robot army system, just four months after Zappos made the decision to have the tiny orange robots automate orders at their Kentucky plant.
Continue reading ‘Robots Designed in SolidWorks Will Send You Shoes’
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Despite the fact that it looks like a very large, very colorful, yet well designed, doily, this is one of the winners of the lucrative 2008 Red Dot Design Award. This year alone 3,203 designs were entered ranging from textiles, like this fancy rug, to technology and just about anything else that spans product, conceptual and communications design.
MohoDesign from Poland is the outfit behind these unique rug designs, and yes, they are made from 100% pure wool pile.
Making a rug in SolidWorks.You gotta be kidding.
I know, a futuristic electro-mechanical trap floor with automated balance control and sensory absorption relays would be much cooler, but what I found interesting about these rug designs in particular, is how simple the idea is and how easy (and fun) it can be to create something like it in SolidWorks. Want to know how to do it?
Continue reading ‘Inspired to Design: Could You Create A Rug Like This in SolidWorks?’
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Designing a door seems like the simplest thing you could attempt right? A panel, some holes, and a bit of glass. Contemporary door design makes it even easier with all the straight lines. These doors from Swedish designer Snickarper caught my attention though.
It’s not so much the style, but the way the elements are located and how simple it would be to create really unique door designs quickly in a parametric 3D modeling program like SolidWorks.
Continue reading ‘Product Design: Could You Design A Door?’
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What incredibly functional complex designs could you possibly think up if you only had fabric, sheet metal or wood to work with? More than you could do carpet scraps and hot glue I imagine.
Design can be interesting, but it gets downright inspiring when you see common flat panel materials used in different areas you would never imagine. Here’s three absolutely amazing design ideas that use materials that start flat and proceed to make your mouth gape open.
Continue reading ‘From Flat to Cool: Three New Twist on Product Design’
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SolidSmack has been around for just over a year and I’m lovin’ every bit of every juicy 3D/Tech/Design/SolidWorks Tip post I put up, but last night in the wee hours of a foggy night I wondered, “What the heck do all the wonderful people that visit SolidSmack like (not like) about the site?”
So, the fate of SolidSmack lies in the click of your mouse button, any comments you want to add, and my ability to totally ignore anything bad you say about me or the site.
I hope you have fun and I hope you provide some really detailed ideas or offer me money to stop blogging and finish my home renovation. Oh, I’ll still be your friend even if you say something mean. 
What would you like to see on SolidSmack?
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We’ve seen some really sweet cars partially designed in SolidWorks, but the new Falen concept from Dowdeswell and Hardie has the unique pleasure of being designed completely in SolidWorks.
The design team, nestled between the glens and highlands of Perthshire, Scotland, plans to debut The Falen at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2009. This full carbonfibre monocoque beast will house a 800-hp, V-10 Judd GV5 S2 engine and rip the air at… yet to be determined speeds.
Check out the site for an animation of how the ‘cockpit’ opens and a shot of the fine-looking interior.
Via Core77
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Out of the 50 or so things I fear the most, one of the top is, not flying or crashing in a plane, but being hit head-on by a plane, and even more, by a GyroPlane. The one you see here just happens to be designed in SolidWorks.
These planes typically look like a small motor, rotor and wheels strapped to a chair… that get strapped to a human. This one has a little more flair and a very nice protective shell to fall in and out of. I’d have to say, if I was ever going to get a GyroPlane, this would be the one I’d buy.
Of course, you would have to add some P40 lookin’ shark-teeth decals on the front, some flames shootin’ out the back… and some turret guns.
More info at the SportCopter GyroPlane Site and a podcast (mp4) at SolidWorks.
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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 padding to provide the most focus-enhancing comfort a desk-jockey could ask for in a chair. No more getting on your knees to adjust the angle and height. All the controls are completely accessible from an on-board touch-screen that allows you to pitch, roll, rock and flatten through endless hours of tedious work.
Price? The Herman Miller Aeron chairs still ranges around $800 US, so you can imagine the SmartChair wouldn’t be the cheapest item in your office. However, once something like this is available, the temptation of ultimate comfort will make that extra laser printer or rude employee seem… not so valuable.
Jian Guan via Coolest Gadgets
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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. Once you realized it’s a creation of CAD and CNC, you either think, that’s impossible, or dang… what else could I make.
The Cinderella table, featured in a MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) Exhibit a couple years ago, is an artistic approach to what is possible with CAD and CNC. This table was created from sketches of furniture scanned, turned into 3D geometry and cut from 57 layers of birch plywood. When you see the 360 view at the Demakersvan site you’ll understand the complexity… but also an amazing simplicity.
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