When it comes to knock-their-socks off CG work, Esben Oxholm is a force to be reckoned with. With a background in both industrial design engineering and lighting design, it’s safe to say that his product visualizations rank up there among the best of ’em. And like other great industrial designers, Esben takes the time to…

How can something be ancient? And 3D printed? Because we’re IN THE FUTURE. It’s like the answer to why it smells like beer and cigarettes in here. Because WE HAVE CATS. (Name the reference!) But really, it’s not like you’re going to walk downtown and find an ancient skull artifact unburying itself from the sidewalk.…

Ya know, while there are various ways to collaborate online around a 3D CAD project with other like-minded designers and engineers, you don’t hear about it too often. We’ve yet to get to the real-time, live-edit environment, à la Google Docs, but we’re close. You may have built a few 3D models in Onshape but,…

Forehead slap. This Onshape update has so many great additions. Really, it’s impossible to pick a top 3 – All 10 could be in the Top 3. But that’s also impossible, so I squeezed my eyes as tight as they could go, until tears popped out onto three new features – those are the top…

Ladies and gentlemen, get your sample packs out, sit the kids down, and get ready to nub punch those chubby buttons into the wee hours of the morning. If you love making your own music, are mesmerized by the mixing of sound or have ever wanted to make your own MIDI controller, our Model of…

Are you an aspiring CAD Designer or maybe a seasoned professional seeking new digs? Perhaps you are hesitant to start your search, not quite knowing which geographic locale will offer the best ratio of income to living-expense. Well, here’s a little tip “Go Midwest young man!” (and ladies too). I’m talking Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and…

I know what you’re thinking. Those fist-size storage capsules would be painful to swallow. But don’t worry, while they’re too big to dose yourself with a month’s worth of Omega-3 and too small to put on a squirrel mask and crawl inside of, these storage capsule containers are PERFECT for storing all sorts of random…

So, I said, Onshape, why don’t you push out some new features in 15 DAYS instead of 21 days. And they were all like, ‘You didn’t really ask us that, but since you pretended to, BAM-A-LAM!! FIST OF ONSHAPE!! ACTIVATE!!’ And then there was a little wine and cheese party, with those guys that do…

There’s a new online 3D CAD player in town and they’ve been gaining steam over the past year since announcing beta and opening up registration. SelfCAD describe themselves as an online browser-based 3D model, sculpt, print platform with a mission to “make 3D designing and printing accessible to everyone, including professional designers, as well as…

I know. I KNOW. You’ve got your desktop segmented alphabetically using a number substitution cypher based on an obsession with cigars made between the years of 1928 and A.I.G.F. You don’t need any more organization. Oh, but YOU DO, because when you see this desktop organizer, you’ll toss your codekey for stacks of 3D printed…

To bring designers and engineers across industries together, LEDAS’ research division has announced they are working on a platform which acts as a basis for developing cloud CAD/PLM and AEC/BIM applications. The LEDAS Cloud Platform (or the LCP, as they like to call it) is the result of fusing engineering functions such as authoring 3D…

Wel, well, well. Onshape features this year to date? A buck 0′ two. That’s right, Onshape has passed the 100 mark with a small nod and rumors of cookie dough ice cream for all Onshape employees over the next month on everyday that ends in ‘Y’. It’s a modest update, a modest update of MASSIVE…

When you’ve got five kinds of soup stored away in your desk drawer for safe keeping, along with that box of emergency chocolate chips, only the most advanced form of security will do. Facial recognition and eye scan technology wasn’t around in 2000 BCE, but they did have a type of pin lock that isn’t…

Well, props to the mom’s of 1,000,000+ designers and engineers who, for reasons unbeknownst to them, gave a collective high-five from the sheer excitement of their sons and daughters learning SOLIDWORKS 2018 was indeed released and now available. SOLIDWORKS 2018 If you had to sum up SOLIDWORKS 2018 in one sentence, you would say, ‘SOLIDWORKS…

It may be a few weeks since you’ve had that dream of attaching articulating arms of grapplers, lights and small laser cannons to your upper torso, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start today. “The hardest part is starting your transformation into a cyborg. Scalpel!” is what my old business partner use to say. That’s…

As 3D professionals, we require a certain level of ambiance in our office space. It shouldn’t surprise anyone when they step inside an engineer’s cubicle and it suddenly feels like a 1920’s lounge complete with stage, singer and the smell of old reference books and even older whiskey. Lamps are an important part of this.…

I’m pretty sure if we ran a survey right now, all the answers would be BIONIC HAND. Even if the question asks whether your favorite color is red or gravy, the answer would be BIONIC HAND. That’s because bionic hand is not only the coolest color, it’s also the coolest body upgrade… ya know, outside a…

Chitty, chitty, chat. Chitty chitty chat chat. You want to get chatty in Onshape? Well, the update they rolled out this week makes 92.8% of 3D CAD software chat dreams come true. Maybe you’re are not so chatty, but I guarantee you’ll want to use that chat to tell your co-workers about the new sheet metal angle flange reference. Yeah,…

I feel like I’ve stepped out of reality and back in again, then back out. But it’s real folks. Possibly the most anticipated version of Fusion 360 has been launched and it includes an immense amount of new features (and one in particular) you have been waiting a long time for. Fusion 360 Sheet Metal…

Three weeks ago Autodesk posted a preview of Fusion 360 in the Browser. You remember Project Leopard correct? Well, that’s alive and well–not as a separate product from Fusion 360, but as Fusion Team, accessed directly in the browser from your Fusion 360 account. Fusion Team – Access Anywhere Even though we’re completely aware of…

Valentine’s Day is only six months away, so this is super relevant. Actually, Cardiovascular Surgeon appreciation day is a lot closer and our 3D model this week works just as well for that, Valentine’s Day and even for serenading your co-workers, singing ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ WHICH Sinead OConnor just so happened to release the official…

Earlier this January, we covered a London-based startup project called Gravity Sketch. Using VR controls, the application seeks to make 3D CAD modelling more accessible to a wider audience. Considering the software was in a closed beta and required a minimum contribution for designers to try it out, it was a bit of a bummer.…

Look at all these drawing updates! …well, five updates at least. Which is A LOT if you’re using another 3D CAD software that didn’t have ANY drawing updates this week *ahem* These updates take a knife to the neck of complexity. “You are morbid.” No, no complexity is morbid and has no place in the workplace.…

The folks over at Vectary are at it again spreading more love on their free browser-based 3d modeling app! They’ve recently added four great plugins which I’m excited to give a try. So what are the juicy bits now made available to us? Here’s the lineup; Google Fonts, Shapeways portal integration, MyMiniFactory import/export, and Noun…

Few tools are as indispensable in the design engineer’s toolbox as a solid product visualization tool. After all, why wouldn’t you want to see your model rendered beautifully after hours of modeling in a drab CAD modeling environment? And for many industrial designers, mechanical engineers, and artists today, KeyShot is the go-to tool for its…

There’s one question I often ponder. What could I stick on a rabbit to make it look more like a robot? You too? Oh, I agree, a bear… yeah, a bear could be robotically accessorized really well, granted he’s not eating you instead. Maybe you don’t have an animal to stick robot part on, so…

3D Modeling is usually done on a 2D plain with a mouse, keyboard, gallon of coffee and a really big, FLAT screen, but that dissonance in dimensions is a user experience we’ve come to accept as normal. It’s just not right. Fortunately, More applications that get 3D models off the screen and into our environment…

Ask anyone with a wood shop or a giant bowl of grapes and they’ll tell you, you just can’t have too many clamps. It’s not possible. You could have ten clamps–not enough. A thousand clamps–nope. A million clamps–WEAK, you need more. Jacob Stanton, aka jakejake, the gentleman who gave us the Squishy Turtle model, has…

This month, Onshape has a few more features to whet your appetite than last month. And, it looks like were back to seeing incremental additions to create favorable conditions for surfacing. It was hard to pick the top three this time with surface updates, hole feature updates, section and drawing improvements, and a new FeatureScript addition that’s…

I know if you could–if you had two rings of light that fit under each arm–you would run down the hall screaming, “I will bake all the muffins with my light orbs!” And when someone points out they’re rings and not orbs, you will raise your arms and blast them with magnificent halos of bright…

After last week’s model, we’re being extra picky not to print crap, and what could be less craptastic than a foldable mobile phone stand? Quite a lot actually, so don’t answer that. Still, we’re quite enamored with the design of this credit card size implement of mobile phone accessorizing bliss. Clement created this simple design…

It easy for makers, creators, and builders to shut themselves up in their workshop hours on end to get their design just right. Working in solitude can help get the job done, but sometimes you want to get feedback from others. Whether you’re looking for feedback, advice, or inspiration, sometimes you need to get someone…

Has Autodesk ever had a CEO with neck tattoos? Carol Bartz? Carl Bass? Who really knows, but it should be a qualification. Andrew Anagnost was at the top of the list to become the next CEO of Autodesk. Really, he was at the top, alphabetically his name was at the top of the list. The…

If you have a leather jacket that says SOLIDWORKS on one side and Class A Surfacing on the other, you are a TOTAL BADASS. You also know about Power Surfacing for SolidWorks. Well, nPower Software tightened its belt a notch and released an update this week. Even though we’re not exactly sure which version it is–4… or…

It’s a little update this time around with a mere five new features but, oh boy, are they important ones. If you hadn’t asked for these features yet, you may even wonder how they were not in there before. In other words, they are very much needed. You can see the past update history and…

I’m scared to look back in our ‘Model of the Week’ archive. Wait a minute! I know for certain that (almost) all of the 3D prints we feature are in the upper echelon of the most useful things for human beings EVER. For the one (or two) that slipped by, the proper shaming will ensue.…

Remember Alibre? That’s how we started this article in April 2013 when Geomagic relaunched the 3D modeling software as Geomagic Design after acquiring them in July 2011. Geomagic had just been acquired by 3D Systems a short three months earlier in January 2013. It was all sorts of craziness. However, you would do well to…

I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you probably don’t have much LEGO paraphernalia in your bathroom… unless your a LEGO minifig yourself or have five children under the age of ten. If that’s the case you have LEGOs everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Scratch, aka The Scratch,  knows the human race lacks the proper implements to…

You remember rolling out of bed extra early for a week long CAD training session? The coffee and breaks couldn’t come fast enough. Outside of online courses here and there, onsite, expensive training is the norm. Onshape isn’t the norm. And they’ve headbutted standard practice again with the launch of their own Learning Center. Onshape…

We’re keeping the theme of cars following last week’s Hot Rod model with a project that will be a tad simpler but just as fun. I think everyone from 2 to 200 likes a pull-back car. HOURS of fun to be had just pulling back a car, getting yelled at by someone because you’ve pulled…

Sponsored by I’m not sure what you think when you hear the term ‘precision manufacturing’ but when I saw the 7+ axis micro-machining capabilities of Swissomation, I was completely floored. They take precision to the ultimate level. The company has over 70 years of experience working with some of the largest manufacturers in the U.S.…

Remember when you had to create a mesh of your model to run any sort of simulation? If Coreform has their way, that question may not seem so strange in a future with the old ways of FEA archived alongside fidget spinners and smartphones. It’s a new take on geometry analysis and the team behind it makes…

Have a hot rod project car out in the garage? Yes? No? What’s that? It’s more a pile of hot rod parts you say? If you look at my garage in the dark and squint hard enough, all of those boxes look vaugly like a hot rod… kinda. A hot rod is #3 on my…

Ya know, there’s nothing that quite matches the craftsmanship of a traditional violin… except for a weird ass instrument that is 3D printed and sounds just like a traditional violin. Thingiverse user Sun Gear (I only now a few people named Sun Gear–His father is a music teacher named Keith Engle, so we’ll call him…

Onshape snuck one in on us last Friday. By which I mean, we totally missed the 11 new updates/improvements released that make the previous curve-rich update even more convincing that surfacing is maybe, could be, definitely on it’s way to Onshape. Oh, glorious day that will be! You can see the past update history and…

If any of your hobbies involve turtles and/or squishing things with your fingers while giggling like a schoolchild hopped up on oatmeal pies, you’re going to love our model this week. Jacob Stanton, also known as ‘jakejake’, has created a small turtle toy that squishes down and bounces around on its springy little legs. They’re…

If you’re an Overwatch fan or just need an obnoxiously large and enormously uncomfortable, yet completely badass pistol to tote around, look no further. It doesn’t fire bullets, pellets, Nerf darts or anything else, but with McCree’s Blackwatch Peacekeeper in hand, people will know you mean business (nerdy, gamefan business). And, should you need to use it…

Presented by Anyone involved in product development knows there’s constant pressure to get to market faster. However, success often comes to, not necessarily those who get to market faster but, those who are able to iterate and innovate faster. For that to happen, companies across every industry need tools that promote rapid discovery, decisions and…

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…