You know when you’re walking in the park and a pigeon flies straight into your face? Autodesk University is not like that at all. It’s actually rather like a flock of pigeons flying into your face, without the pain… or trauma, which just so happen to be filled with everything you’ve ever wanted to know…

The process? It is thus. You close all the doors, the small furry ones stay contained. the humpbacked ones scoop up the furry ones and these links take care of the rest. Alex Ries – You deserve to have your imagination attacked by squid EVA and furry beaked bipod illustration. Loma BlackForceOne – 783 ponies…

In one week we’ll be smackin’ ourselves (and you) with some Autodesk University coverage. Why would we do that? Well…for good reason party people. 1) product dev tech 2) Las Vegas 3) ponies 4) they invited us. We’re probably excited. In fact, we’ll probably give some awkward high-fives to people we hardly know. What else…

No, you didn’t get snapped in the eye with a hand towel. SolidWorks is pasting the paper to poles with a year-end promo to scream at your boss about. If you’re in the market for a shiny new seat of SolidWorks, you’re getting an upgrade worth two knee surgeries and some morphine, or $4000. The…

I’m so glad you’re sitting down crushing red tomatoes and generally feeling pretty happy about life. You know why? Because you need to prepare yourself for what you’re about to see. It’s THE first episode. The first episode of whaaaaaaat? MechanicalMashup.tv… that’s what. The star of the show is the Ben Eadie of SolidMentor, SolidJott,…

The level of my customization for something that needs the standard ‘ugly’ removed is typically slapping stickers all over with a little spray paint. It just doesn’t get any more ‘ROCKIN’ than that… in my opinion. SolidWorks Labs has got the same idea for the Presentation Studio app we reviewed last year, and guess who…

Look out Photoshop aficionados, the dev team over at 3DVia has been drinking their milk, running laps around the Dassault campus and has just launched the mother of all 3D plugins to ease your graphical design pains. It’s 3DVia for Photoshop. The plugin that allows you to bring 3D models from 3DVia directly into Photoshop…

I’m sorry if you bit off two of your fingers with delight while reading that headline, but believe it. PLM and simple in the same sentence, along with a completely obscure red glove metaphor? How can that be? Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is renowned for it’s complex implementation and lengthy training period. So, what if…

She looked, drawn and dazed at the weary traveler. Nothing had been said once, at any point in all of time, that captured this one moment she felt him gazing back. Hey! Hey!!! Noooooo, not that kind of drama people. CAD Drama. As in, our CAD is dang better than your CAD, or as we…

I know the number one thing you are wondering as you tumble down a rocky cliff on your snowboard is, how the heck am I going to get back up there to do this all over again. Problem solved… at least for Ken Block it is. He, along with Rally America and a handful of…

It started with a buzz and a jitter, then five of them flopped like wet onions onto the launch deck. Then it got scary. They started singing and shooting liquid cheese and these links from their eyes. BearFoot – Robots, ships and wicked cool 3D is just a small part of what Neil Maccormack does.…

Well, gone are the days where you just go off willy, nilly and make a samurai costume out of hole-ridden, lead containers for nuclear waste. That’s right, the dems in the US Senate and House are busy correcting your mis-use of material for electronic component design by drafting up legislation that will provide grants via…

I know what you’re thinking. Pretty much anything free these days has something to do with throwing beets. That, or eating them, and who wants to eat beets. So, this is big news. You can get into SolidWorks World 2010 for free and all it requires is the use of your hands and your wit,…

Shalacka Smacka! Guess what? The SolidSmack Facebook Fan Page is finally up and running. That’s HUGE news… considering it only takes a click and 5 minutes to set up. So yes, we should have done this a long time ago to share in the excitement of all that important social interaction. The wait… is over.…

You may enjoy running at a tree full speed with your mouth wide open, but when it comes to really embedding a detailed assembly tree structure into your forehead… or your project, you may actually find SolidWorks Treehouse to be a little less painful. Nearly a year ago, we looked at 5 Ways to Use…

Can you just smell the sizzle of fusion happening? I can. The MCAD atmosphere is beginning to get a little bit warmer and a tad amount crispier than last week. Why, you ask? Autodesk slipped their fresh slab of direct modeling tech back into the ovens to broil and today they have released it upon…

Goodbye Adobe, Brushes, Layers and anyone else trying to dominate the iPhone Sketch app market. AutoDesk just release the 1.1 update to their Sketchbook Mobile app. I just upgraded and tried it out. If you were not convince from the earlier Sketchbook Mobile Review and Comparison to other apps, this time around you will be.…

Get your silicon mitts on boys and girls, SolidWorks 2010 has been precooked, sizzled, put out for garnish and is now… available… for… DOWNLOAD. Of course, this is taking everyone by surprise. A new version? of SolidWorks? Mid-October-ish? UNHEARD OF. Lucky for you, a bunch of bloggers got a one-week jump on the press and…

I know you’ve been tearing your eyelids in restless horror just wondering to your wits end about the oddly, inconsistent capitalization and branding of the Dassault product line. NO MORE, I SAY! Last week, at the Dassault Customer Conference, I forgot to ask about it, had a nightmare, wrecked in a downhill boxcar derby and…

Strap on your chaps, slide on your shades, and assume the motorcycle rider position as your co-workers push you around the office. All custom bike heeeeeck is about to break loose. Wild West Motors, outfitter of wicked custom motorcycles, based in San Diego, California, has decided to replace SolidWorks with AutoDesk Inventor. Why? They just…

Do you remember the Audi R8 Surfacing video? The preview of how to model it in SolidWorks? If the fact that it wasn’t actually available then was enough to taunt you into joy-filled rage, you can wipe those frustrated tears. It’s here. Daniel Lavoie has put the entire process together. 14 hours and 20 minutes…

Ya see those people in the image to the left. That’s not a stock photo friends. nu-uh. That’s Dassault Systèmes product users being highly productive, and highly excited about being highly productive. There’s a special place for these people and it’s not where you’re thinking. It’s Orlando, Florida. In one week from yesterday, Dassault Systèmes…

Oh yes, 3D product development on a Mac. ‘Tis a glorious thing isn’t it? Although maybe not completely glorious, but sure, glorious enough to get a mob of Mac users riled up with spasmodic glee. Autodesk just cracked open the Mac ‘Pandora’ box to provide More Options for Mac Users. AutoCAD, Inventor, 3ds Max and…

So, I’m minding my own business, trying to increase my high score on Scramble 2 when all of a sudden I feel a tremor in the 3D mobile app force. Nope, it wasn’t the tomatillo enchiladas. There had been, as a matter of fact, a new iPhone app approved. The 3DVia Mobile iPhone app. It’s…

Yesterday, AutoDesk goes and launches the Sketchbook Mobile iPhone App. Today? Cloud city, baby. AutoDesk has cranked up the bandwidth on the West Coast to allow the ability to run trial version of certain AutoDesk software via their servers. The only problem? You have to be within a specific geographical area. Looks to be within…

Today, from the great wild yonder of the iTunes App store comes the design tool of the century, or at least the next few days. Whatever you call it, if you have an iPhone and like to sketch, you’ll love it. AutoDesk has released a mobile version of its SketchBook Pro product upon the masses.…

If you sneak in the back-door of just about any company you will find they have their own unique way of developing products. And why not, they’ve had engineering practices created over decades that would make most people slip into a paper-induced coma. Chrysler has their own special mix as well. It’s a fancy phrase…

You may be at a boil trying to run SolidWorks on a Mac or just looking for a way to model some product ideas on a new install of Linux. Maybe you didn’t even know there are CAD applications available for Linux. Jack Wallen of GHacks put together a post on CAD Programs for Linux…

How many types of CAD modeling can you stack atop your chest before collapsing a lung? Most draw the line at two, solids and surfacing, and even then, aortas start rupturing. Little do people know there’s a third that can be applied to give you, YES, TRIBRID MODELING. Delcam has had Tribrid modeling capabilities in…

I peaked around the corner and you wouldn’t believe it. 808 blarin’! the people they starin’! popped my caddies back-a’latch and tossed in a bowl of cornflakes and these here crazy links. Stefan Morrell – Not only is his website cool, he’s got a knack for creating cities and worlds with intense depth. 4 Lessons…

OK, so the last poll revealed that no one cares if the OS goes away as long as our lovely apps work. Hoorah. But who cares about OS this or OS that when you can model up something sweet you’ve always wanted to, right? There’s the 3D modeling at your day job, but what if…

So there are a few things you won’t see in SolidWorks 2010. No big deal? Well, another one of those things is no CATIA-SolidWorks translation. Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks, commented in a recent interview with Ralph Grabowski that, “Customers are fed up with not being able to share data between Catia and SolidWorks.” Are…

You know that point where robots become more agile than humans and then dead, lifeless bodies scatter the streets of the cities. Yeah, that is approaching, and you’ll love to see what’s putting it all in motion. Ishikawa Komuro Lab has been busy over the past 10 or so years developing technology in high-speed visual…

If you’re anxious to spray sweet gravy out your nose at the site of the new rendering capabilities in PhotoView360, your wait is mostly over as of right now. Spoon it on, cause the Photoview 360 2010 Beta Rendering Contest has gone through the first round, and the entries… are not too shabby. You’ll notice…

W… what the..? WTWH, of course. The media conglomerate that harnesses the combine power of Design World, WindPower Engineering, MCAD Central and a slew of other paper and web properties. The past couple of days I’ve received multiple Twitter request in my inbox with the nicknames “wtwh_(name)”. At first I thought spam, but then I…

In a move to spur economic growth and increase market share, EVERYTHING… in the entire world… has been marked down to a bare-bottom price of, yes, $99. In actuality however, the only things that have been marked down are two pair of all-season radials, Coast-to-Coast Flights on JetBlue and Alibre Design Standard. Yes, Alibre, arch…

Hold your gasps for a few minutes… ok, just a bit more, hold it… and release. I know, it’s almost shocking. And your friends? They probably won’t believe you for a few minutes, but yes, it’s true. SolidWorks is dropping support for Windows XP and phasing out PhotoWorks after 2010. Thanks to Matt Lombard for…

In fact, you would probably go through a few pack mules depending on the number of intersections you cross and your ability to steer a loaded ass from your hometown. So what’s the cheapest route? You could actually go for free, but you’ll have to do a presentation, get hired by SolidWorks or get on…

Pump up the Thump on the Bump man! Your renderings of soup cups and cyborgs just might get a bit more realistic, and guess what, it won’t require any harmful immunizations or soap throwing. Bunkspeed has released Hypershot 1.9, the latest version of their rendering software. If you’ve read the press release, you’ll see it…

…there was no mass hysteria, freestyle finger punching or the slightest mention of how to blow a wasabi peanut out your nose. Disappointing? No. Earlier this week, I had the privileged of spending 2 days with 8 other bloggers as guests to the SolidWorks User Experience Group, Labs, and Product Development Team. Yep, they flew…

Well, from last weeks poll on Zombie Co-workers it’s clear… most of you feel your jowl kickin’ skills are in fine form. Good for you, not so good for your undead coworkers. This week, something to ravage your thought process and provoke the estranged feeling that you’ve forgotten something. We all probably have some sort…

I’m almost positive all the contraptions we’re designing are not as environmentally satisfying as they could be. Fortunately, there are companies, which exist, aware of the riches to be made in ‘green design’ so we can go on elevating our population dense carbon emissions to a higher taxable level. And for those companies aiding our…

After seeing the snazzy video showing future multi-touch support for SpaceClaim, I went on the hunt to find out a little bit more. Fortunately, I had the email of Blake Courter, Co-founder of SpaceClaim. Great chap, hung out with him at SolidWorks World 2009, of all places. He answered some questions about MT capabilities, gives…

There’s just no shortage of pre-apocalyptic robot news these days. We’ve learned the ways in which robots could potentially feed themselves. If that’s possible, why shouldn’t they be equipped with a ‘self-learning mode’ for flawless pursuit upon a rippin’ rice burner? And if not that, then why shouldn’t they use frictional lifting patterns being studied…

Multi-touch will never happen with 3D CAD… OH, except it has… or will be, this fall. The company showing the potential? SpaceClaim. There’s no announcement out of the company yet, but a video surfaced on YouTube over the weekend showing the future of what we’re assuming will be the next release of SpaceClaim. We’ll gather…

It’s a video. 40 minutes of Alibre modeling fun and features coming out in the future version of Alibre. No need to cover the eyes of your children. It’s family fun for the future of 3D CAD. The Alibre V12 Sneek Peak is described as a ‘stellar release with tons of little tiny things.’ It…

It’s time to stop rubbin’ your knuckles raw and gritting your teeth in frustration SolidWorks friends. There’s a ‘scussion and jivin’ party going on over at the SolidWorks Community Forums. It’s sportin’ a clean, new look with a friendlier layout and way better features that the previous forums. Searching for topics is better, viewing your…

There’s a new 3D modeling playa in town and you don’t have to dink around with any messy features or geometry to create. It does, however, have to already exist. You’ll also need the ability to “maintain perpendicular & spatial distance between photos within a sequence” to take a few snapshots. After that, it’s a…

And you thought governments and retirement homes were the only powers fettered with the chains of conspiracy and hidden intrigue. oooohhhhh nooooo. Deep within the bowels of the CAD/PLM system lies long hidden speculation and neatly disguised patterns of cover-ups not seen by us in the trenches of engineering, design and manufacturing. Be warned!! Some…

I’m excited. Are you excited? The crinkly wrapper is coming off and it’s about dang time. Today, July 1st, after two years (and two months) of tinkering with graphics, plugins and a soupy mixture of html code, we’re launching the all new SolidSmack. It’s shiny, don’t ya think. But that’s not all there is to…