When the hood was pulled back, the amount of tentacles spilling forth was overwhelming to the eyes–And with each holding a maraca, the sound matched the sight. You ask yourself what to do in a situation like this. That is until you realize you’re the one with the maraca tentacle face, trying to use the…
What do you do with your pennies? Do I even need to ask? Look, I know everyone loves blasting a few penny out their nose, but like your grade school financial planner told you, “Your nose is gushing blood! You should be saving those pennies!” Maybe saving pennies would be easier if we could do…
Late last week Onshape rolled out another major release. If I was to read into this at all, I would say preparations are being made for surfacing. Reason, to work with surfaces efficiently, you need to be able to work with curves and existing surfaces efficiently – this update adds a bit for all of…
Five times they turned, each time winding up. The top of the peak was in sight, but to go the rest of the way, they would have to use the wing suits. Now, the idea of a wing suit sounds nice, but once helmet fuses itself with the brainstem, the wingframe is grafted to the…
How many times have you looked at your iPhone and wished it was an Android? The opposite? No? Well, what if you had an iPhone and Android together? What lunacy is this, you ask? And what if it included twice the battery life, removable storage, a second 5″ display AND a headphone jack? Well now,…
There are cities inside the massive head of a rotted out celestial being (name it!) but cities inside the partial shell of a small planet? …I dunno, I can’t think of one of those. Maybe that’s why our model of the week is so cool. Jukka Seppänen recalls a concept drawing of a city inside…
Long ago, the wrinkled hands of the oarsmen would take the otter tails by the tips and fling them repeatedly towards the front of the boat. A lone traveler watching the rising mound of otters amidst their tails, playing quite gleefully, asked why they were thrown to the front. They replied as if asked before,…
There’s been plenty on 3D metal printing to talk about over the last few years, but 2017 may be THE year of more metal – more metal printers and more structures printed in metal. I’m ready for it too – ready for a metal suit, a metal house; bring on the metal. CES 2017 saw…
You know what your party DOESN’T have. The ambiance created by a bubble-pooting Deadpool. Yes, folks, this will likely go down in SolidSmack history as either the height or depth of our weekly model feature, but hey, where else can you learn about the coolest design, latest tech AND how to make a Deadpool model…
You know what you do on a rainy day in the Central UK countryside? You sit inside and have a pint. If you’re a massive computer manufacturer, you have a pint and unveil a new workstation. That’s what Lenovo did today at Develop3D Live in Wolverhampton. The ThinkStation P320 is the first PX20 in the P-series family…
It’s been but a few weeks since the last Onshape update, but once again the Onshape team has locked arms, jumped into the air with a collective shout of “FORM ONSHAPE!” and transformed into a giant robot that opens it chests and delivers another round of new features and updates. You can see the history and…
The Alien Facehugger. It seems innocent enough… You know, after it chases you down, wraps its legs around your face, paralyzes you for a few days and falls dead off your swollen gnoggin–after that. We won’t go into the details of what happens next. What’s that? You’ve not seen any of the Alien movies? FOR SHAME.…
There are those last few steps the closer you get to the edge. They are the steps where you have to summon all your power, the steps where time slows for a bit, the camera pans around you, sound expands and the glint of the sun catches the edge of your sunglasses just before you…
Gheee! Are you seeing these? ARE. YOU. SEEING. THESE. This is not the exterior of the [insert name of random sci-fi ship or planet size weapon]. It’s a 3D printed array of sci-fi style diorama tiles that have more applications than Darth Vader’s cape. The sci-fi diorama tiles by Roy Ang are 1/72 scale -…
The old soul trundled topsy-turvy toward a hole in the air. The time bender should have seen that bear cub and butterfly when he first came through the portal. Now it may be his last time through. You see, a mama bear doesn’t think much of time travelers interrupting a family picnic. If only he…
You can stop looking for the endangered animal you want to 3D print, because I found it for you. It’s a Pangolin. “A pango-what?” A pangolin. It’s a small, nocturnal mammal covered in protective scales and native to parts of Africa, China, India and Malaysia. Not only is this a 3D printed pangolin, it’s a 3D…
Sounds of the throngs bent the vapid air. Grey fur and red hues mixed among family upon the large beasts taking them to an unknown land. A horn would sound – you wait for the count. One, you continue moving. Two, you stop and dismount. Three, you attack to the right. Four, you deploy the…
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since we went to the first Inside 3D Printing Conference in New York City. At the time, it was the first conference of its kind and covered all the aspects of the products, the services and business of 3D printing. Now, it’s even bigger and still remains…
The mirror’s depth was infinite, reflecting from the edge of the motored hand. A splinter? No. There were more in the gears, beneath the skin and oils, beneath the circuits. It looked as close as it could, prying, picking, to pluck out all these links. Rudy Siswanto – I simply love Rudy’s style and the…
We’ve taken a broader look at Onshape and even talked about some lesser known Onshape features. The company is pouring out an update every few weeks – some big, some little – that, combined together, speak to the agile nature of the company and how they develop solutions around someone’s ability to install and understand their software, but also…
I bet you didn’t think paintbrushes were still hand-made, did you? (I didn’t.) If you’ve drawn, painted or stepped foot in an art supply shop, you’ll know the name Winsor & Newton. They make an array of paper and art tools, and paints but you may be surprised to find out they’ve been making brushed…
I have a notepad and I have a laptop. I’m one of the people who NEEDS a notepad, who looks like a monkey elbow-jabbing a computer screen if you say, “just take notes on your laptop.” CAN’T BE DONE. But ahh, the feel of paper beneath my pen *ahem* So, I have a notepad, but…
Like most somewhat avid outdoorsmen, I’ve gone rappelling once or thrice. After ending upside-down thinking I saw mountain lion preparing to devour me, I did the only thing you can do in that situation… scream while trying to cut yourself free from the carabiner holding you safely 50 feet over jagged rocks. Now, I’m not…
They fought off the abundance of nibbles. From left and right they came, wearing their customized little hats. Should you try to grab one and put it on your head, your fate was sealed. You would be punished unless, by chance, you were able to make your way through them to what they swore to…
Glory be! I’ve always said I wanted a baby quadruped of my very own. Those gang members with knives laughed, but I still kept saying it. After I got them all shirts with a cute baby quadruped graphic on it, they stopped trying to cut me. Just goes to show you Huey Lewis & the…
A Montreal-based startup is about to shake the world of design automation. Vention, a new browser-based machine builder platform, launched in beta today. They provide a social marketplace of industrial equipment for purchase and a 3D machine builder with library of components to construct your own equipment. The platform and 3D machine builder is 100% free…
The isolated stare of the bulging eyes shifted around the bottle glass. Tiny though it was, the suit it wore weighed more. Jets on each appendage, fueled by a small nuclear core, explained the hum, the crack, and the flash as it launched to pursue these links. Jordan Grimmer – Floating ruins, crashed ships, and…
Presented by I know, I know. I sealed off simulation with the 5 reasons I would use Simulation in Fusion 360 months ago. You thought we were all done with that. Well, you were wrong, Mwahaha! After that article, Autodesk released an update to Fusion 360 with so many Simulation features it could make a…
Three dudes from Caltech just designed the first robotic bat. Alireza Ramezani, Soon-Jo Chung, and Seth Hutchinson scored the cover article with their research published in the latest issue of Journal of Science Robotics, detailing the successful construction and flight of the multi-articulating, adaptive flapping of our favorite flying mammal. Modeled after the species, Rousettus…
It’s embarrassing isn’t it? When you get caught in the garage with all the tires off, halfway between blowtorching the lower panels and wrapping tank tread around your freshly welded drive sprocket. Just tell your spouse the smell will dissipate over time. Then, quickly show them RC Speed Tank this to distract them. Sven Drechsel…
The books lined the walls and hallway, some stacked, some shelved, volumes and volumes of pages oiled with time and fingers. We were not supposed to find it there, the vibrating velvet orange volume of verses. Saying it glowed, would be an understatement. Looking at it too long would start you shaking. It wasn’t the…
Our last post on MakerBot’s new print software spurred on some conversation, internally and via email. One consistent concern we get from MakerBot Replicator owners, and questions we ask as Replicator owners considering their new products, are, “Has Stratasys put effort into making MakerBot’s work more reliably and consistently?” and, “Do the new products work…
This is right out of the blue. As of today, Carl Bass is no longer CEO of Autodesk. His 10-year stint as the San Fransisco-based company’s leader ends after transitioning the company to the cloud and subscription based product offerings, launching an open hardware platform, overseeing 30+ acquisitions and building Pier 9 workshop to help…
Use Onshape? Well, there’s a reason why, today, your coffee is tasting especially good, why your underwear seems to fit a little better, and why you don’t have to pretend Onshape has sheet metal tools anymore… because now THEY DO. Onshape just announced sheet metal. They’re out at the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show where they’re previewing…
I love me a good desktop computer, but there’s something particularly exhilarating when new laptops hit the shelves. If you’ve been jabbing your salivary glands over the thought of a 15″ or 17″ mobile option with 64GB of memory and 2TB of storage with Thunderbolt 3 transfer speeds and touchscreen capabilities, Lenovo has not left you…
He was a small man with a light complexion. Always wearing that hat. Always walking down the same street with that cane, and a jug of ice tea and a pocket of change to toss in the 172 fountains he would pass on his day long walk. A day long walk, in search of these…
Grass grew long between the entrails of the building’s walls torn by the blasts and jumpjets from a millennia past. Many went there for the quiet. Others to salvage any metal remains of the defenders. We hadn’t seen any since, but once in a while the ground would quake and you’d try to convince yourself a machine would reveal…
Who needs a creepy, baby tree creature sidekick on their desktop? Oh yeah! I see those hands going up. I do too, but not just any creepy, baby tree creature. I needs me a BABY GROOT up in har! Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is hittin’ theaters May 5th, so that gives you plenty of…
The box flaps were open, but only slightly. The air was silent, but you could see them vibrate. Normally, you don’t look into something with vibrating box flaps. This was one of those times. We would only find out later after regaining consciousness, that millions of tiny toes exploded from the box. Toes, of these…
Presented by Throughout all the years (decades? yeow!) I’ve use 3D modeling software, I can’t think of a time where I didn’t use some type of in-context assembly design. Not building out a design like that gives me the shakes – I honestly can’t grasp how to get accurate fit and function without it. “That…
You know when you’re comfy as a lark in your castle and all of a sudden AN ARMY OF THE UNDEAD ATTACK. I agree, kids in this generation just don’t know how to defend against an occurrence of that sort. Your not gonna text your way out of that one! Oh, yeah, get a selfie…
Once you’re running full-bore with fists extended, there’s no decision left. You may think of stopping, you may even glance from the corner of your eye–this way, that way. But, no. You ARE going to penetrate that wall of orange Jello. You’ll do it, or face the wrath of these links. Tan Zhi Hui -…
Yeah, you see kids frolicking about in their Velcro buckle shoes and remember when life use to simple and carefree. No wonder the international sign for frustration is a unlaced shoe. It’s not? Well, IT SHOULD BE. There, I feel better now. Fortunately for all of us who can’t bend over to tie a shoe, don’t…
If you work in manufacturing or have your own resin casting operation, you’ll know the all too familiar sound of pressure pots or tanks being bled and the subsequent look of agonizing pain as blood prepares to spray from the earholes… maybe it’s not that bad. Yeah, yeah it is. Ear plugs always get lost or…
Little by little augmented/mixed reality (AR/MR) is slipping past the surly bonds of consumption with more and more imagining, nay DEMONSTRATING, what 3D design could be like using devices that are, at least, sure to give us chuckles at the possibilities and, at most, completely take over our every waking hour. Exanaview is a very,…
I don’t know when you last played Super Mario Bros. 3 for 87 hours straight… what’s that? Last week? Well, after that you probably had that nightmare where you’re running through Mushroom Kingdom being repeatedly pummeled by massive concrete THWOMP blocks, right? No? Ok, just me. Still, those were one of my favorite obstacles and…
Remember when life was nothing but eating large amounts of pasta and disassembling engines? Yeah, that was the best! Especially the time you shot noodles out your nose and into the crankcase – that squirrel didn’t even know what was coming. Ah, simpler times perhaps. Though some would question their ability to launch noodles from…
They came from his arms. Cannons more like. With such a snow falling, it wasn’t hard to see the mass firing yule logs repeatedly with a yell that deepened and shook the earth as he shot. One after another they hit the edifice. Soon, the wall would crack and we would feast, feast upon these links.…
On the ankle-veins of Autodesk announcing they are shuttering T-Splines, they’ve also announced that they’re bringing the family of 123D Apps to the end. Here’s what we know. The 123D apps are being consolidated into other Autodesk products and 123Dapp.com is being shutdown. Outside of specifying “early 2017” and “access and download your content from…
Who needs a rocket engine? WHO DOESN’T?! And a 3D model of a rocket engine? Well, just think of the possibilities… You could place it randomly in the model of your new product and have a good laugh when everyone starts questioning it during a design review. You could 3D print it, set it on…