Last week, while Josh was in a travel-weary coma, I went through his wallet and found his login to SolidSmack. (Your wallet, Josh? That’s pretty lame, man.) I choose to abuse my new found access to the SolidSmack media empire by writing this rant… directed towards Wacom.

A big, fat SolidSmack congrats to our friend Deelip over at Deelip.com. His real job, his real business, SYCODE, which develops software and plugins for just about every CAD program in existence, just announced that SYCODE has been acquired by 3D Systems. This means Deelip now has a boss and that he needs some employees.

I’m not one to get excited about point releases, but for a new product like tsElements, I’ll make a very large, symmetrical point poppin’ exception. TsElements 1.1 is the first update for the new surfacing tool which allows import of.obj and T-Spline Rhino surface files directly into SolidWorks. I swear they’ve mixed magic with mathematics…

It’s all about the information… kind of. It’s more about not succumbing to twisting apart LCD screens and keyboards because you can’t find the information. Inforbix is here to address just that – finding data… anywhere. As I’ve said previously, the difficult part is often the finding. Now, for the first time, you’ll be able…

Wow. SpaceClaim. Wow. It’s truly hard to find the words for what I’m reading. You always wonder who it’s going to be. Who is the company bringing new breath to the process of stacking geometry on top of geometry to form our ideas. I think we have the answer. I’ve pasted the full story sent…

Thunder! Thunder! The beckoning came. Long had anyone known how the skies engulfed the flames. Save for on small boy with a dog and a peach, setting out on a quest in a search for these links. Alex ChinYu Chu – See sketches strewn about the finished work of environment and vehicle excellence. South Dakota…

Names. They usually end up on lists we create of those who have offended us in some way or on lists of desired nicknames we hand out to people in the office. Somehow, though, I imagine names like Sketch, Schematic and Simulate are not on those lists. For PTC, it’s different. They have a list…

Back in January, just prior to SolidWorks World, you may have heard rumblings about T-Splines for SolidWorks. Well, those rumblings are actually magical jolts of surfacing joy hitting you straight in the eye. There’s a bit of a catch, but there’s a bit of a glimpse (and hope) of what is to come.

You, and whatever you like to feed extruded bits of colored grain to, now have even more incentive to pour the tasty bits and a gallon of milk directly down your gullet. Nestle and Dassualt are teaming up to bring out a new augmented reality (AR) game based on the new computer-animated film from 20th…

Three different versions of a free 2D CAD program made for three different operating systems, doesn’t exactly make a program 3D, but times are lean and we’ll take what we can get. If you’ve been gnawing the meaty bone of Windows or Mac OS hankering for the fatty goodness of open source drafting, you’r 2D…

Seldom do we see the spark that ignites the brain butter of an idea. But, every so often we do. Take for instance, Mr. Alexander Graham Bell – the man who brought communication into the modern age with experiments in speech and voice. Yes, the telephone is his pride and joy and the sketch which…

Sometimes when the sun is shining and there’s a light, misty acid in that air… you run screaming, jump into a barrel with your friends and push yourselves down a hill to escape the skin melt. Inevitably, the conversation in the barrel turns to the edgy discussion of Direct vs. Parametric modeling. For good reason…

What’s a Paper Engineer? Only the most pulp-tastic job on the planet, that’s what. Basically, it combines the art of paper folding and the mathematical precision of awesomeness. Matt Shlian knows the intricacies of such a task and exactly what it takes to fold paper like time and space itself. Starting with a computer generated…

Unfortunately, “beetle larvae” is not an option you will see in this survey. You could add that answer, but then you would likely disrupt the most serious survey in all the world of engineering software. COFES ( The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software) is coming up and part of the festivities include a…

Ah, SolidWorks World 2011 has come to an end. Yet, the superbly pungent taste of a three day SolidWorks shellacking and a San Antonio Riverwalk feasting still lingers. Here are a few of the highlights which encapsulate a wee bit of what made up the General Session at SolidWorks World 2011. Add hours of talking…

Yes, you read that right. SolidWorks Live Buildings, not Dassault Live Buildings. SolidWorks. Live. Buildings… as in the kind that you design and layout in 3D, as in the kind that is usually dedicated to programs like Revit, AutoCAD, ArchiCAD or other AEC software packages. SolidWorks is officially in the market and it’s all happening…

Regular size balls of processed beet spread wouldn’t do. For if anyone was going to learn the importance of how to put their entire body through without destroying the outer membrane, they would have to be larger balls, infused with the pulp of these links. Nivanh Chanthara – A small array of mech and mural…

Earlier today, after sliding down a few escalators head first, I caught up with SolidWorks Product Manager, John Ellsworth, and the team responsible for introducing you to the first tool you’ll use to share, store and manage your SolidWorks data in a collaborative environment. You’ll see it first inside SolidWorks later this year, on the…

So, we were able to escape the urge to wander out into the warm San Antonio sun and spent a few minutes with the CADFaster boys to see more on this cool, new 3D mobile app tool. which makes us wonder why no one else seems interested in developing more for the mobile.

Today, SolidWorks announce a new product to take your design collaboration dreams to the next level of web-based immersive interaction. Post3D allows you and others located around the world to simultaneously view and interact with 3D content in an online setting. It’s not full on augmented reality, but it definitely hints at what’s to come.…

What’s simple, carries no obligation and only cost $49? No, not a massive black tarp to wrap yourself and fear of curdled mayonnaise in. It’s the new CAD service portal from model grabbin’, resource addin’ GrabCAD. You may know of their web based library one can use to share, discuss and download 3D models. Now,…

What do banjos have to do with the 7th release of SpaceClaim’s namesake product? Only everything. You can model a banjo in SpaceClaim, 4 of 5 bluegrass groups recommend SpaceClaim (unofficially), and Blake Courter, cofounder of SpaceClaim, who gave us a demo of 2011 and it’s multi-touch capabilities, plays the banjo (proof at the end…

Next week is SolidWorks World 2011. If my inbox is any evidence of what it’s going to be like… well, I’d say it’s shaping up to be a week of total insanity. You saw the CADFaster news and there’s more tech being shown I can’t speak of yet. SolidWorks will have some announcements no doubt…

I’m not sure how many of you would be crazy enough to use a 3D CAD program on a Mac. I mean who uses Apple stuff anymore? amirite? Well, a lot of the companies developing 3D programs are developing for the popular platform. PTC not excluded. Here, Mike C. with his bad self running things,…

3D model viewing is about to get way more interesting. Just a little over a month ago, we featured a group of developers out of Finland aimed at shaking up the web-based CAD collaboration scene, CADfaster. They’re not disappointing at all. Today, they release the news of their mobile applications for iPad and iPhone that…

How does Tyco Electronics spell direct modeling power? SpaceClaim, that’s how. Over a year ago, Tyco decided their Pro/E users needed some direct modeling capability. Some simple designs were just taking too long in Pro/E. Could direct modeling be the answer? Well, after an in-depth productivity analysis, an equally in-depth feature comparison and ROI study…

Oh, hot bowls of shape slappin’ fun. There’s nothing like the 4th release of a free 3D modeling product to make the speculation run wild. It’s like pouring napalm on a brain made of fire, and after drinking plenty of coffee that taste like it’s been made with gasoline, I’m convinced that’s highly possible. 3DVIA…

Can you believe there’s hardly a minute that passes without someone thinking about pushing a button and eating a bag of corn chips while running a benchmark? It’s true. Even if it only takes two minutes to run the benchmark… two minutes, bag open, bag of corn chips… GONE. I’ve tackled the hardships of doing…

We’re just not going to let that “Kill SolidWorks” thing die… ahem. One comment from former SolidWorks CEO, Jeff Ray is all it takes for a firestorm to start whipping our sanity. What most people do not realize is that the is about creating a better product and providing some more options, not about violently…

The small cottonwood shook. Opaque rays of orange splintered through the branches as the air stagnated with the mechanical whir of the creatures arms extending. And that’s when it happened, when the sky around us exploded with light and these links shot forth from its joints. John Park – “Can I just draw awesome pictures…

You see that face? Get ready to see it on an infrequent basis and perhaps in your head as you lie awake at night. That is the new face of SolidWorks. The new CEO, Bertrand Sicot. Executive power has been shaken up in Dassault Systemes much like a whale launching itself from the deep while…

Sometimes when you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can throw mashed potatoes through a propeller blade. Or, you can throw propellers through a wall of mashed potatoes. Other times, you can sit down for a few minutes and model up a propeller in SolidWorks while eating mashed potatoes. Azim Hamid did just that, although, in his…

No, don’t look away. It’s not scary at all. However, the awesomeness may cause the skin to tighten across your face as the excitement in your teeth push you jowls back over your head. If you have teeth. If you don’t, don’t worry, because we can sculpt some in and render them gold faster than…

So, PTC has launched Creo elements with full-blown Creo 1.0 to come out Summer 2011. It’s replacing Pro/E and the smorgasboard of other programs you’ve mastered over the years, so obviously there are bound to be a few questions. Now, I typically don’t put spoons anywhere near my ears… or open fans. That’s just dangerous.…

Actually, these guys would fill two space helmets and then some. You may have been a small child when the Apollo 13 spacecraft launched, you may have been non-existent, or you may have just recently learned of the space mission on a TBS re-run of the film starring Tom Hanks. No matter your age, you’ve…

I’d like to say that what you’re about to read might be the most interesting things happening at AU2010, but I won’t… because they ARE the most interesting things happening at AU2010. You may have seen some of the Autodesk projects and programs coming out. They’re exploring the options of product development software and giving…

Autodesk University 2010 is off to a design romping start and there’s already been a massive skull buttering of product announcements, tech previews and tid-bits of information coming in from all directions. Autodesk has no qualms about mentioning hybrid modeling approaches, cloud computing or delivering software over the web. Mostly because, well, they’re already doing…

Ahhgg!! the AGONY. It’s like I’ve been wearing the same pair or socks on my eyes for the past few years. The SolidSmack Logo, the fanciful one with three cubulars in the site header, yeah, that thing… is getting kicked to the far reaches of space. We’re coming upon a new year, and what better…

You’re in the city. Your watch stops. Your car breaks down. A flaming tub of pudding lands in front of you. No worries. You have on a 686 tool belt. It’s stylish, it’s debonair and it may just help you fix the car.

If you pour PDF’s on your shredded wheat in the morning, you may know that Acrobat X was officially released Monday, but that sour taste in your mouth… it’s not the milk. That ‘X’ stand for version 10. However, it’s got a little more significance to those who use Acrobat to create 3D PDF’s. Adobe…

I’ve been on site earlier this week at the Dassault Systemes Customer Conference (DSCC) where Dassault was serving up ‘life-like’ scoops of web-based CAD and PLM. Part of the “What’s your dream” theme and conference highlights is a soon to be launched software, a collaborative web environment just for you, your team or your entire…

If you’ve been wondering what’s going on with SolidWorks, this is your day. Deelip Menezes was fortunate to have the ear of Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks, for a good amount of time and got his thoughts on a wide array of topics, from cloud computing to the future of SolidWorks.

Are you ready? Really, you may want to cancel the cheese squeezing party you’ve been planning and instead plan on squeezing out some extraordinary 3D models. There is but one reason for this. You have till Friday, November 26th to submit your model for the GrabCAD 3D Printing Challenge. It couldn’t be more simple either.…

Here’s where it happens. Where the surly bonds of history-based design slip off into a miry pool of sketch-driven constraints. Ker-plunk. Yes, watch them sink… down, down, down. It pains one who has built models feature-upon-feature to see the control, the order, give its last fleeting breath. As it happens though, Siemens hasn’t quite let…

So, last week PTC announced their future Pro/E-CoCreate replacement, Creo. There were two bits of functionality that made me grab my jaw and yank hard. They had subdivision modeling happening within the history-based modeling environment, with the ability to drive it parametrically alongside the other geometry. They also featured an AnyRole app to take on…

People are cruel. They sit around all day creating this and that, saving it here, copying it there and finally emailing it to everyone… multiple times. I’m one of those people. We pretty much all are… except that guy in the corner with the typing speed of a dead squirrel. We create, we store, we…

This seals it. There’s just no end to the ability you’re being given to create stunning 3D renderings that suck the eyes clean out your sockets. But you know what? Getting the lighting just right can still be a tedious task. HDR Light Studio changed that with previous version of their HDR creation program. Today…

What’s everyone saying about Creo? From other CAD vendors to Pro/E power users, there’s a wide range of sentiment. Here’s a round up of what the buzz has everyone talking, screaming, taunting and joking about.

If you’ve been waiting to see what PTC’s next move is, your wait is over. If you’ve been waiting to see what direction product development tech is taking, stop. Nearly every CAD vendor has shared their vision of what the future of product design is going to be like. Thursday was PTC’s turn. Thursday, October…

Update: Just an update… I’ve got the overview with my thoughts up on what project lightning turned into… PTC Launches CreoWhatcha think now? There’s a peculiar odor of CADmospheric ions in the air and all the blustery bits of activity are swelling up over the US East Coast. Tomorrow, October 28th, PTC will reveal their…