It’s no use. You can’t convince me there’s anything more practical to have on your desktop than a 3D printed SkullBot. Somehow, this bot finagled a human skull to use as it’s body. That makes for one creepy ass blade-wielding machine… or a practical use of spare skulls laying about. Don’t worry, this is just…
Presented by We’ve given you a quick overview of Onshape, but wow, there is so much more. More than I thought actually. It’s hard to keep up when they’re releasing new features every three weeks. But that right there, that is just one thing that makes Onshape such a powerful 3D modeling platform.
I know, the last time you thought ‘fully-animated 2 cylinder 4 stroke engine’ is right before you had one tattooed across your entire back. This one, however, is one you can admire without having to re-break a fused spinal column and has 100% less back hair.
Business cards?! Who uses those anymore? Well, just about everyone. After someone has emailed and connected with you on Linkedin, it’s still fashionable and polite to hand them a slip of paper with your name and status on it, before they chunk it in the can. And though most of your business cards are in…
From Nintendo’s Virtual Boy in the distant past to the Oculus Rift now, VR has been sputtering into our future. This year however, is truly the year for VR (if there ever was one) with even more companies getting in on the advancements being made in replacing or augmenting our reality.
Who doesn’t love a kinetic sculpture? If I was an inanimate object, my one dream you ask? To be made into a kinetic sculpture of some sort. Preferably one that is cool, mesmerizing and makes people question their sanity. One like this simple, and quite beautiful, kinetic sculpture modeled by GrabCAD user trinityscsp.
When I was a kid, our “modeling app” was a pile of mud and a stick. Two sticks if we were lucky. Nowadays kids have more apps than they can shake two sticks at, but creative apps for kids have been limited to stacking cubes, coloring puppies and decorating cupcakes. SolidWorks is changing that with…
Presented by “No way” you say. “Cloud services aren’t ready for prime time. They’re not secure/fast/reliable/full-featured enough for my business.” Let me tell you why you’re wrong.
This weekend, Super Bowl 50 takes place. Panthers vs. Broncos. Newton vs. Manning. One will walk away with the coveted Super Bowl World Champions Ring. Jewelry designer Diego Taccioli, from Slice Lab, and former artist-in-residence out at Autodesk’s Pier 9, imagined what the ultimate Super Bowl Championship Ring would look like.
SolidWorks World 2016 left 7,000 people overloaded by breakout sessions, inspired by customers, and smelling of the finest barbecue in the world. While the General Sessions were a bit all over the place, mingling product announcements amongst customer stories and keynotes (with beer, boobs and Yves Behar being the highlights), underlying it all was a…
It’s the first day of February, 2016. Time for the biggest CAD industry event for a single software package. SolidWorks World 2016 is on and there’s an ethereal feel in the air. Maybe it’s the rapturous, simultaneous geeking of thousands of SolidWorks users. Maybe it’s the 75 degree Dallas, Texas weather in the middle of…
People have been using Google search since 1997 (in 1996 it was known as BackRub) to search for information on everything under the son and beyond. With the rise of desktop 3D printing, hobbyists have turned to just about every search engine (Bing, Yahoo, WebCrawler, etc.) to get their hands on any number of 3D…
Today, we’re bringing back a segment that lapsed into a coma and suddenly awoke recently with a direct punch to an exposed solar plexus. Model of the Week: the best and coolest 3D models the SolidSmack audience is creating and sharing online. We’re in the future now, so there’s loads of amazingness and brilliance we…
Presented by Collaborating with CAD data sucks. In fact, you told us it’s the third most annoying thing in CAD back in late 2014. Onshape wants you to think they’ve solved it. Have they, really? Let’s think this through.
The new Line/Shape/Space site has an interesting read by Autodesk CTO, Jeff Kowalski. It is, of course, to promote Autodesk’s Dreamcatcher project, a parameter-based, generative design project, but the headline is nice and controversial, just the way we like’em.
When I first saw the Shapr3D app, I was pretty impressed, as were some of you, but it left some lingering questions. A 3D modeling app on the iPad Pro that looks well thought-out, but why an iOS CAD app? So we gathered the questions and ask the founder and developer, István Csanády, more about…
Options abound for software and devices to help the little ones learn the fundamentals of electronics and programming. Now, there’s another option aimed at increasing your child’s STEM dream team status. 3D Slash is a 3D modeling tool “to make 3D creation accessible to everyone” in a fun, inventive, and game-like manner. It was developed…
I think you all know what a 3D PDF is–your 3D model and all of its views right within a PDF document. They’ve been around for YEARS. Quite convenient for sharing model views, protecting model data or emailing a PDF to grandma who can easily open your work and share with her quilting club, but…
Read our interview with Shapr3D’s István Csanády here. Ever wonder why 3D modeling wasn’t more like sketching? Or sculpting? Why we’re limited to mouse clicks? I’ve had that conversation with multiple people. Some thin modeling with a stylus (a pencil) doesn’t seem intuitive. I’d say the mouse is the device that doesn’t seem intuitive — especially…
Onshape has had a bang-up year. After launching in March, upending CAD pricing, and locking down additional $80M funding (for a total of $144M), there were only two things left to do in the year: break out of beta and launch a freakin’ app store.
It was only a couple of weeks ago when Sketchfab announced that they had put together the world’s first directory for industrial 3D scanning services – The Sketchfab Community 3D Scanning Services – yet, the crew has yet another milestone announcement to make before the close of 2015. Starting today, users of the fully embeddable…
#AU2015 was space-time-distortingly gigantic, impeccably designed, meticulously planned, and flawlessly executed. And yet, behind the razzmatazz, I’m conflicted.
Last we heard from Luxion, the makers of KeyShot were arching back to prepare a knuckle sandwich of rendering KAPOW! for their latest release, KeyShot 6. Well, the troop has held true to their promise and has indeed unveiled the most powerful level-up in company history with a host of new features. For this release,…
When Onshape came out swinging earlier this year, it was speculated that whether users chose to use the new full browser CAD program or not, it would change the greater landscape of MCAD pricing and licensing structures forever. Needless to say, Onshape sent a ripple through the industry that acted as a wake-up call for…
Do you remember way back in 2010, when SolidWorks was going to be available anytime, anywhere? Well, that’s finally happening… maybe, kinda. On September 22nd, at the SolidWorks 2016 Launch Event in Boston, Gian Paolo Bassi demonstrated what he called ‘SolidWorks Online Edition’, his ‘favorite feature,’ being the one that puts the 300 innovations in…
Just six months after they announced $30M in Series C funding, Onshape has announced $80M in new funding, led by Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz, known for their investment in Airbnb, Box, Facebook, Github, Twitter, Skype and others. This brings Onshape’s funding efforts to a grand, grin-inducing total of $144M.
Well, wouldn’t you know it. The temperatures have dropped 20 degrees in the northern hemisphere, so that can only mean one thing, football season, less daylight, winter is coming, a new release of SOLIDWORKS is here. It’s SOLIDWORKS 2016 launch week and this year Dassualt is adding something to the mix.
It’s ok, you can uncover your child’s eyes. That’s only a 2D drawing they’re seeing on the computer screen. I know, it looks all sultry with its sassy projected views and consistent dimensioning, but it’s really quite innocent. Finally, Onshape has introduced drawings to their browser-based 3D CAD platform.
As the fastest road bike on the planet with wicked-cool industrial design, the new Specialized S-Works Venge is also one of the most technologically advanced bikes ever made. Needless to say, Specialized didn’t want to skimp on the marketing for this one. In an effort to engage their audience beyond photos and videos on their…
Thanks to a number of new platforms, tools and infrastructures, bringing a viable hardware product to market has never been easier than it has been in the past decade – and the momentum is only continuing to grow. In 2014, venture capital investment in connected device hardware startups alone reached nearly $1.5B – more than…
For most users who run Windows programs on a Mac, Boot Camp has always – and will likely always continue to be – the very best option for partitioning drive space without resorting to laggy virtual machines that can create problems down the road. With the recent release of Windows 10, users could install the…
When it comes to CAD software, there’s likely no topic more divisive than that of maintenance fees. Ahh, fabulous subscription service–the additional yearly charge, on top of any license cost, which typically includes product upgrades and support, often through a reseller of the software. Last week, two SolidWorks Partner websites, TPM and ModernTech, posted a new “Subscription…
Since they started coming up in CAD in the Cloud discussions earlier this year, Frame (fra.me) has shown no signs of slowing down their pursuit of allowing users to put any Windows application in their own personal Cloud. Among other reasons why the platform has been of interest is because it will allow users of…
For the seemingly endless flow of crowdfunding stories that come pouring through turnstile on monthly basis, it’s always nice to hear about a successful Kickstarter campaign that not only managed to get a product off the ground, but also resulted in the establishment of a sustainable business with multiple employees. Among others, Palette is one…
When it comes to the near future of how things get made, generative design tools are slowly but surely becoming yet another useful component of the modern day designer and engineer’s tool kit. The generative design process, which centers around infinite computing power to find optimized design solutions based on parameters that are set by…
Some would say sketching is severely limited in most 3D design software. Some wouldn’t even call it sketching, but more a fork jab into the gum-line process of tediously picking points to create kinda the shape you’re looking for. UMake is asking you to toss that process (lay down that fork) and put your ideas…
Although using the visual data from sound waves to create a number of designs – both 3D and 2D – isn’t necessarily a new concept, the clickity-clack process of gathering and making use of the usable data hasn’t been as easy as one might expect. For Brooklyn-based artist and creative technologist Blair Neal, this was…
The last time we checked in with Frame – the cloud platform that lets users run any software from within their browser – we had the chance to chat with the young startup’s CEO and founder Nikola Bozinovic about the near-future of CAD in the Cloud and how his platform could revolutionize the workflows of…
With Siggraph 2015 coming up in just over a month, researchers and software engineers are gearing up to show off their latest 3D software developments that have been in works in progress over the past twelve months. Just earlier this week we saw a new piece of software from a team of researchers at Nanyang…
Although it’s become a part of everyday life, the use of connecting assemblies through the use of fasteners including glue, nails and screws – particularly furniture designs – isn’t necessarily ‘clean’. While more timeless pieces of furniture might be used for generations and passed down over the years, the surge of cheap flat-pack furniture designs…
After years in development, those who have always wanted a solid, native version of Mcneel’s lightweight Rhino modeling environment on their Mac are finally in luck. Released on Monday, the new Rhino 5 for Mac marks the first time that the company has brought their NURBS-based modeling tool to the Mac, ever. While the young…
As design customization, 3D printing and wearable technology each continue to rise in popularity, experimental design collective Madlab has developed a solution that converges all three into a seamless user experience with no CAD skills required. Designed by Madlab director Madeline Gannon, Tactum was done in collaboration with Autodesk Research and uses projection mapping and…
With the recent announcement that they will finally be releasing their Rhino for Mac after years in development, Rhino developers McNeel have been showing no signs of slowing down their launch. The company’s European branch presented a user event in London yesterday that, along with presentations from Marc Newson’s studio design director and a bevy…
When it comes to speculating about what a user experience might be like in the future, it’s only natural to look towards the big screen to see what millions of dollars and a team of professional designers developed to make their vision of the future believable. Of course – just like a Rotten Tomatoes score…
For just over a decade now, MODO has been defying expectations time and time again with their full-featured, all-in-one 3D modeling, animation and rendering package that’s been used by everybody from Pixar to Microsoft for applications ranging from animation shorts to product design renderings and more. Disclosure: We at SolidSmack have a soft spot for…
For many of those that count McNeel’s Rhino among the tools in their toolset (and there’s a lot of you), having a native Mac app without the need to run Bootcamp or a virtual machine has been on the wishlist for quite a few years now. While McNeel has been actively developing a Rhino for…
Since announcing that they would be bundling the premium features of Fusion 360 Ultimate into the significantly cheaper Fusion 360 offering, many in the CAD community have deemed Fusion 360 as a true “next-generation contender” and “the (CAD) program to beat these days”. Although many existing design studios and firms may still be plugged into…
Used by everyone from concept artists to industrial designers and architects to mechanical engineers, Luxion’s KeyShot has been a go-to rendering package for thousands of 3D modelers for good reason – it just works. While the release of KeyShot 5 last year brought us dozens of new bells and whistles to play with ranging from…
As if the release of Onshape back in March of this year didn’t spin the CAD world into a frenzy, things are only about to get a little more crazy up in here. Yesterday, Autodesk slipped a little message onto their Fusion 360 homepage to notify users (both new and existing) that they are rolling…
Ever since they hit the block with their Pixologic partnership in late January earlier this year, Luxion has showed no signs of slowing down the KeyShot awesome train for 2015. The KeyShot for ZBrush + Bridge was – and still is – one of the company’s biggest announcements to date and effectively opened up their…