I don’t care what people say. There are not enough well-designed office chairs in this world. From stumps of wood and rubber balls to cockpit office consoles that come with a 5,000 page manual, we’ll always need some way of looking ultra-efficient and ultra-stylish while our butt and legs slowly blend into two slender columns…

Two weeks ago, GrabCAD launched Workbench. It’s not the worn countertop in your Grandpa’s garage. Rather, it lives on the internet surrounded by the warmth of Amazon’s S3 secure server architecture. More specifically, Workbench is the revamped version of GrabCAD’s project collaboration platform that adds a new interface, viewing of all major CAD file formats,…

What would you do if you love lasers, 3d modeling and had an obsessive-compulsive knack for software development and uber-functional design? You would design and launch a 3D scanner that made all other 3D scanners look like shop-class throwbacks. We like the cost of DIY scanners and the resolution and scan area of some high-end…

I know a lot of people who would let out a blood-curdling scream if you told them a ‘Mantis’ was on their shoulder. Especially, if their shoulder was being pinned down by this massive beast. The Mantis Robot is the creation of designer Matt Denton. It’s no ordinary robot and he’s no ordinary designer. Matt…

There’s so much news coming out on 3D Printing this year, it’s becoming difficult to both cover it all and separate out the wheat from the chaff. With printers being announced every other week, new materials and reports of acquisitions, it’s no surprise that 3D printing is getting the coverage it has. Throughout all of…

Do you ever imagine a day where you won’t have a computer tower tucked up under your desk? Cords wadded in the corner next to a year-old corn chip/skittle/dust bunny mass that escaped the reach of the occasional vacuum cleaning. Granted, the box creates a cozy, warm home for your feet during a cold winter,…

They shone like a blazing sun! Five partridges in gleaming suits of orange, born with the ability to crack a nut at 50 paces. Surely, they were powerful enough creatures to take on these links. Eddi Del Rio – A handful of bots and beautiful scenes in the painting and illustration of this California concept…

That roaring tiger head coming out of a lattice work structure? That’s Shapeways. On their blog and at the Inside 3D Printing conference this week, they announced a $30 million round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon. He’ll be joining the executive board and, you better believe it 3D shop-makin’, material-bakin’ fiends, Shapeways is…

You all know Jeff Bare. We interviewed him on EngineerVsDesigner (Episode 5!!) About a year ago, he started working with a new watersport company named ZUP. It’s like ‘Up’ with a Z or when you punch your homey in the face and say, ‘wha ZUP.” They’ve developed a whole new product that makes skimming across…

This is where I really appreciate the facility of having a 3D printer in the home. Instead of chocking up a couple hundred bucks for a semi-pro steadi-cam or building another make-shift camera holder with off-the-shelf parts, print the major components and bolt them together. We just couldn’t wait to put this on Cool Tools…

Pretending there was time, he shook the dust from the vest. It wasn’t as if the tentacles provided any additional power, but they did have a nice effect against the setting sun, whilst rocketing through the air in a face-off against these links. Raku Inoue – What better way to present something in 3D than…

Well, peel the skin off my heels! That’s probably/exactly what you said as you were pulled down the street in your bare feet whilst discovering a new episode of Cool Tools of Doom n’ Stuff–like a healing salve for seriously sensitive road rash. Ya know what? We love our SolidSmack readers! Have something cool you’ve…

Remember Alibre? That’s what people will be saying after today (or may have already been saying.) Alibre is the company and makers of Alibre Design 3D modeling software that was acquired by 3D Systems in July of 2011. As of today, Alibre is combined with Geomagic, the makers of Geomagic Studio 3D scanning software (and…

Wondering how the future of cloud-based 3D CAD is developing? More and more services are coming online with cloud-based offerings and Autodesk is certainly leading the way in both offloading processing for simulation and having complete access to your software and data via a web connection–it’s the whole anytime, anywhere scenario and they just announced…

Right now, at this very instant, I’m listening to Moon Chon Chayoh (Zombie Disco Squad Remix) by Munnibrotherz. I am of course tapping my feets to the beats, gritting my teeths as I sits in my seats (or something). For the past three years the MIT Media Labs Design Innovation workshop at PESIT in Bangalore…

He was an interesting blob boy, filled with dreams, ambitions, ideals of sitting in a chair without sliding out. It wasn’t until one day, where he accidentally ingested 40 boxes of toothpicks, that he realized he could push them out his exterior with a single belch, allowing him to both adhere to smooth surface and…

When it comes to 3D printing, there have been a lot of ‘first’ printed this and ‘World’s only’ 3d printed that. But when it comes to sports gear, the fabbing has been few and far between. It’s for this reason that I (in my mind) ran cross-country to Dave Lee and Jeb Ferria of Signal…

Do people still wear watches? Yes, yes they do. Perhaps you have a massive watch strapped to your wrist bone. Maybe it’s diamond encrusted or touch-enabled or can survive a trip through your digestive system. However, it probably doesn’t have a liquid-filled watch face or three dials on a rotating dial which also rotates with…

Yes people, that image is a 3D printed shoeburger. The bun portion… obviously. So, what does it have to do with digital fabrication? Only everything AND the Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo. The two day shindig kicks off April 22nd in New York City. Whether you’ve been thoroughly following this growing industry or are…

Prepare the defibrillation paddles, for this little device of paper clamping simplicity is more than what it seems dear friends. The eClip is both a paper clip and a USB storage device. And those tick marks on the side? That’s a metric ruler–a wee one. We talked with Derrick Frohne, creator of the eClip, a…

Once there was enough mud caked around the post, we sent in the diggers to do their thing. It wasn’t long before the eruptions started–not from the ground… from the backs of the diggers. Tentacles shooting out from them all, tentacles of these links. Ben Mauro – He’s a graduate of ACCD in Pasedena and…

There are guitar cases you want to completely cover in stickers, then there are guitar cases you want to build a dedicated shelf for in the focal point of your living room. This case is the later. You know we love covering the details of beautiful design behind musical instruments. The Bowoo Guitar case is…

Some people go around mixing things that shouldn’t be mixed, like macaroni and ketchup, loafers and capri pants or violins and Metallica’s greatest hits, but every once in a while the mix of two objects with completely different functions makes a whole lot of sense. Take for instance The MULTI. Capital letters are warranted for…

When you run around the office projecting your arm flabs in a wave-like motion toward people’s computers, you may believe you are bestowing unknown performance gains upon the PC’s of your coworkers. You are in fact, simply burning calories and injecting a small amount of fear into their workday. When you do return to your…

It use to be that when you leave kids to their own volition, you would get various reenactments of Lord of the Flies or, at the very least, flour and eggs sprayed across the kitchen floor. Nowadays… well, you still get that, but with all the activities, online communities and things to make, there’s a…

Many times, when sifting wheat outside the barn, you’ll come across a finger. You’ll look at one hand, then the other, wondering where that finger came from. When suddenly, you feel a tap-tap-tap on your shoulder. Turning, you see another finger. Then looking up, thousands more, flying through the sky, trying to escape the wrath…

I know you’ve had all you can take of the magical background music and gentle voice-overs coming from that Disney fairy app. It’s time to delete the horror that is dressing baby Tinkerbell (don’t ask me how I know so much about this) and give your children a good dose of science, tech, engineering and…

It’s not everyday you can bring up Youtube and learn about eliminating poop splash… well, maybe it is. You can also learn about fire tornadoes, muzzle flashes and why you didn’t die at birth thanks to the unique perspective of an Alabama Rocket Scientist. Smarter Every Day is a Youtube channel that takes a try-it-yourself…

Moniker Guitars of Austin, Texas make some of the most beautiful (and unique) solid body electric guitars I’ve ever seen. Plus, they allow you to customize your very own guitar through their online configurtator–Keeps you from gouging yourself with a carving knife trying to whittle one out of that maple stump. These guitars are high…

I am devastated, DEVASTED I tell… yet also quite hopeful. A bitter-sweet day for all. The most advanced web-based 3D modeling site and, really, the only great hope for 3D creation on the web, at the moment, has announced they are closing shop to pursue a new venture. In place of models created by users,…

Tapping your fingers on the edge of your desk in rapid, chaotic motions may typically annoy your cube mates, but if you’re all users of one of the two Autodesk Design Suites or Simulation tools, it may prompt a head-bobbing sing-along. Autodesk just announced the release of the 2014 Design Suites and with it, they…

Cracking your knuckles after a cup of Starbuck’s strongest may shoot vibes of professionalism across the coffee shop, but there’s one thing all 3D pros need more than a 6am caffeine fix… a decent portfolio. Options abound across the web and if you’re savvy, you can even create your own website or app. However, if…

Their arms were the strange parts. Each one of them filled with orifices shielded by an impermeable membrane. It all seemed safe, their emotionless faces even seemed somewhat welcoming, as if to say, “Don’t worry, if you come within five feet of us, our arm orifices will not open and blast you in the chest…

If the site of a Gantt chart makes you run through the plate glass window it’s taped to, you’re not alone. Often the faux project management appearance of multiple tasks, color-coded by personnel and priority, fraught with the markings of yellow, pink and chartreuse highlighter to show the importance of one item over another, gives…

Lasers vs. plastic extruders. We all know laser cutters are superior to 3D printers. Mostly, because you can’t put plastic extruders on sharks (or any other sea creature) to make them even more vicious. It also turns out that laser cutters are a tad faster at fabricating certain items…. as long as it’s flat and…

When you’re thinking sleek and sexy materials, concrete probably isn’t the first thing that crosses your mind. High-density foam and corduroy–now those are some right sexy materials, amiright? Nonetheless, more experimentation to take concrete beyond the foundation and into fashion (??) should be happening… we think. IVANKA is a Budapest-based design studio and concrete factory…

Microsoft just put on the transparent face masks, lined up the sensors and released an updated version of the Kinect SDK. To the high-pitched squeals of (some) developer’s delight, Kinect for Windows SDK 1.7, along with an updated developer toolkit and new Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), is available on the Kinect for Windows website. It’s…

Are there not enough 3D creation, development and collaboration apps on the web? No sir, no there are not. Especially apps that take an approach that combines both the block-addicting fun of Minecraft and the web-modeling ease of Tinkercad. BrickItUp plans to take on the feat, they’re almost there and they have a Kickstarter campaign…

The shadows of the glass pane broke against the faces pushing through the blades of thick, matted grass. But the face of man they were not. Out of the soil they rose, massive albino porcupines encased in blazing orbs of blue fire, fueled by the quill-blazing power of these links. Nivanh Chanthara – New work from…

You’re sitting at the computer waiting for an analysis to run. Suddenly a three-armed garden gnome with a smug look and a Garfield “Compute this” t-shirt offers to take your analysis pains away. He directs you to Rescale.com, grabs your luke-warm coffee and half-eaten cookie, then disappears. Rescale is probably not a company you’ve heard…

When you saw it moved from the main Google toolbar, you knew it was inevitable. Google has announced that it is officially powering down Google Reader. But don’t worry, if you’re not aware of them already, you have options, options that actually make the feed consuming/organizing experience much better than Google Reader.

Back in the day, SolidSmack was this close *makes pinchy fingers* to becoming a music site named ShellacSmack, covering news of the people creating interesting melodies with the resin secreted by the female lac bug. Fortunately for you, there are very few, if any, people doing that. There are, on the other hand, people creating…

There’s an interesting infographic exploring the Depths of Cloud Storage put out by 3DVIA. It’s framed from “a 3D Designer’s perspective” or rather, from the argument in favor of cloud storage. It’s a great illustration and nothing that’s directly pushing 3DVIA products or services, but it brought up a question… What in the wide, wide…

When high-school students get bored it can only lead to one thing… The design of a new, fully-articulating prosthetic leg made from bike parts that cost a fraction of a professionally manufactured leg. Parker Owen’s Saturday night boredom turned into looking at picture on the Internet… pictures of bicycle schematics and prosthetic design. Now, he…

You recall Makerbot’s Shapeshot that grabs shots of your cranial casing and meshes it in mere seconds for you to print? Well, low and behold, Makerbot has now announced their desktop 3D scanner, the Makerbot Digitizer. Bre Pettis announced the news of the prototype on stage at the keynote kicking off this year’s SXSW event,…

Rockets. There just are not enough of them escaping the clutches of our atmosphere. Fortunately, we have people interested in making more rockets happen and open source websites–or rather movements–like DIY Rockets to give rocket development and learning a boost. Now, Sunglass and Shapeways are meeting at the launch pad with DIY Rockets for a…

There’s nothing like a little electronic art to get the heart pumpin’. This doesn’t do that, but it does make your eyes jitter and cause the people in the coffee shop to stop talking bad about their friends for a few minutes. Michael Chang is a designer, programmer, game creator and a master of three.js,…

If you’ve been scratching at the wall and printing out miniature convention centers in hopes of one day attending a 3D printing event, your wait is over. This April Inside 3D Printing is coming to New York City, boasting a huge line-up of Who’s Who among the 3d print industry educators and elites. I must…

Today, if you happen to be browsing apps whilst using the bathroom (we all know that’s where it happens), searching for CAD apps on iTunes, you’ll see an update to one you may have tried out in the past, the GrabCAD app. Version 1.7 is out now and available for both iPhone and iPad. It’s…

I know it’s bound to bring on the arm spasms, causing you to fall from your chair, spilling your coffee on your workstation tower and frying the Quadro GPU you already have, but that’s ok, because NVIDIA has gone and done the unthinkable, nay the unimaginable–they’ve released a new line of Quadro workstation graphics cards…