I’ve been playing with the Spore 3D Creature Creator for the past couple days and I gotta say it is one of the funnest, most addictive ways to create creatures that I’ve ever seen. Not only that, the 3D controls and manipulation are just amazing. It’s drag-n-drop-n-modify creature makin’ hilarity at it’s best… and it’s…
If I hadn’t gone there, who knows, I may have gotten a few more appendages, but I’m pretty happy with the one’s I have. These links certainly help. Desktopia – Yeah, you can pretty much always go here from now on for cool backgrounds. Upgrade your skill level in 24 hours – That’s darn quick,…
Ok folks, so here it is. The beginning of the end of the mouse and 3D desktop controls. The first I saw of this was a craptastic video back in March of some guys fiddling with a glove and a wiimote to control SolidWorks. Little did I know, a cool guy named Brian put up…
It’s inevitable. A hundred models of a screw and they’re all created a different way. I’m telling ya, it’s an open flesh wound just waiting to get infected. Companies often jump into the 3D modeling fray without laying out an SolidWorks implementation plan. But, even when things are implemented correctly, the details of model creation…
The brand spankin’ new 3D technology magazine, Develop3D, has just gone to print. You’ll definitely want to get your hands on this, because for one thing, yours truly is a columnist for the fine outfit based out of UK. I gotta say, I’m not a regular industry magazine reader, but the way this is laid…
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.
Today is the official Download Day 2008 for the new version of the Firefox web browser. Their mission: to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. Since Firefox will probably be the first browser you use 3D CAD on in the future, you’ll probably want to download it. The…
The SolidWorks Confirmation Corner. That little island in the corner just tempting you to become a more decisive person. One option, to accept the ensuing fate of the changes you’ve made to your sketch. The other, to abandon all the relations you’ve jacked up.
I’ll agree with you, workstations nowadays are just not cuttin’ it. Our desires for widescreen monitors, THX Dolby surround sound, air filtering, light therapy, web cams, and battery backups are diminished by plain old systems that just ‘get the job done.’ NO MORE! NovelQuest introduces… to you… in July… the ultimate in killer workstations… THE…
It’s one thing if you’re just standing there waiting for the subway to come by, it’s a completely different thing if you’re standing there minding your business, maybe reading a paper, and someone throws beans point-blank into your face. These links help the stinging though. Creatures in my Head – The enchanting and wonderful illustrative…
“Son, that boy is faster at sketchin’ some 3D than a greased zebra chasin’ a three-legged yak.” Now wouldn’t you want to be described like that? Well, there’s more to being fast in SolidWorks, than flipping through commands and some fancy assembly tricks. The System Options have a few setting that are not always used,…
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…
The SolidWorks 2009 Beta program that was rumored to launch Monday (yesterday) has just gone live at the customer portal. If you’re a subscriptions service customer, and signed up to be notified for beta launch, you can download it and enjoy the new version till your eyes shoot blood. So, get on board, man the…
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…
If you look over the edge of your coffee cup you’ll notice everything is going 3D. There’s more news about 3D maps, 3D TV’s and 3D games than ever before. Then I see this article from the January 1931 issue of Modern Mechanix about a 17,000 sq. ft. model of what modern day (1980) New…
Right now, everything is in this amazing state of flux. The Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) is kicking off (10AM PST) on the WestCoast and on the East Coast SolidWorks 2009 Beta may be announce (12AM EST). It’s just about more than someone interested in new technology can handle. These two things are obviously not…
Ok, all you crazy SolidWorks people that want to get your hands on the next version of software. Mark next Monday, June 9th, 2008 Noon EST. That programmer guy in the corner’s at SolidWorks Corp. has been unchained from his desk and the ink is drying on the launch e-mail. Make sure you’ve checked the…
I picked’em off one by one, but it was actually the giant multi-headed caterpillars that really made things a mess. Had to use these links to clean up. Spiral Coverpop – Jim Bumgardner can make photos pop-up. These are Spirals from Flickr. Check out the other ones too. DIY Ballistics Gel – You never know…
AMD has just been making all sorts of Duo-core, 64-bit waves with their new mobile ‘Puma’ platform release yesterday. There’s a lot of news, but not much meat about what this chipset will do for mobile computing or 3D, so here’s some key points to start a discussion. Maybe some others, more hardware savvy than…
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…
Sometimes, flipping back and forth between a PDF or AutoCAD drawing is enough to make you start humming loudly and spinning in tight circles. That’s ok… when you don’t have to get a drawing out, but when you need to get some concepts going or figure out how things fit together, you can use some…
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…
Close your eyes. Imagine sending a plain ol’ PDF to someone. Ok, now imagine sending a 3D PDF… got that? Now, picture being slapped out of your daze by the Adobe Acrobat development team and having the ability to send someone all your project files in a single PDF, upload, share and discuss it with…
Look out people, there’s a new breed of CAD in town and it might make you slightly more social. Last week Dassualt Systèmes formally launched their V6 Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform that includes CATIA, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SUMULIA and 3DVIA. If you don’t use CATIA, you probably don’t care too much. However, this release has…
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…