Executing successful marketing plans and campaigns is not always a breeze. There are lots of marketing ideas that don’t flourish and rather become a big failure for the company. At times, you can’t even identify what kinds of strategies you should utilize to ensure that you can raise your company’s brand awareness. But fortunately, even…
Among other industries that have seen a rapid change due to the implementation of additive manufacturing, jewelry designers are able to create entirely different forms that, even up until a few years ago, were too costly to implement into a day-to-day workflow. Between the combination of generative modeling software and various methods of small-scale 3D…
OddEngineer.com + Free Giveaway with Consultation and Bose Noise Canceling Headphones! While some got prison swole or Hot Cheetos swole in 2020, I got nerd entrepreneurship swole. I built a new thing for us freelance physical product engineers: OddEngineer.com. There, you can immediately book and pay for appointments with niche, hard-to-find engineering pros. Got questions…
NASA has awarded a piece of their $100,000 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge money to five teams for their entries in Phase 3: Level 1 of the contest. The competition is part of NASA’s ambitions to build a 3D-printed habitat for deep space exploration, including their endeavor to journey to Mars. https://youtu.be/KKPtMjUEnX8 The competition, which started back…
As if we didn’t like Harbor Freight enough for providing the ability to outfit a complete machine shop for the price of two sandwiches and knee slap. Now they want to give your favorite teacher tools,money and the recognition they deserve. The Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence will award $500,000 to 10…
It’s difficult to have a conversation about the history of industrial design and not bring up Braun during at least some point in the conversation. The German company – along with legendary industrial designer Dieter Rams – have time and time again been called the single biggest influence on Apple products thanks in no small…
In what was surely one of the most challenging caption contests ever, Onshape and SolidSmack teamed up to offer one lucky winner a one year subscription to Onshape Professional if they could impress us with their use of the words “Onshape”, “cephalopod” and “mayonnaise” in a single sentence. It’s times like these when one must…
Does anybody know anything about handrail clamps? PDM/Engineering Community GrabCAD just announced that they are doing a Design Challenge with NASA, asking the World to come up with a Handrail Clamp Assembly that will be 3D Printed on the ISS for use. Yes! The challenge is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (well, hopefully not) to bust out…
Have you ever thought to yourself, “3D Printing is cool, but there’s got to be a better way of making XYZ”? Of course you have…and now you can win a 3D printer just by sharing your concept. 3D printing community and content library Youmagine is inviting everyone to pitch their own ideas for a new way…
Having accelerated out of the gate with multiple industry event appearances and even a feature on NBC’s Today Show, Local Motors has been enjoying their moment in the spotlight with their first 3D printed car, The Strati. The design and production of the Strati began with a crowdsourced design competition on Local Motors’ unique crowdsourced…
Whether you consider yourself a car nut or not (go home Jay Leno), it’s hard not to appreciate the level of detail that goes into vehicle renderings. While any well-executed rendering can be a sight to behold no matter the type of content, automobiles are in a category by themselves due to the multiple material…
Been tinkering with some science fiction-inspired car designs in your spare time? Local Motors has just announced their 3D Printed Car Design Challenge with $10,000 in prize money if you think you might have the next great 3D printed car idea. Also known as the Direct Digital Manufactured Vehicle (DDMV), the challenge aims to eliminate…
Been feeling a little inspired to sketch out some robot designs after recently seeing Pacific Rim? Me too. Lucky for us, the studio behind all of the animatronics used in Pacific Rim (on a side note: holy crap, they actually used animatronics for those scenes?), Legacy Effects, has been celebrating Robot Month with a 3D…
…Okay the title is partially misleading, but is somewhat true: if your ‘vision’ of what a 2014 Lexus IS F Sport should look like is chosen, ONE of the prizes is a one year paid lease for a 2014 Lexus IS F Sport—plus, an all-expenses paid trip to see your design revealed at the SEMA…
Consider it a Pinewood Derby for the 21st Century Maker…YouTube and 3D Printing included. As a way to kick off the 2013 IDSA International Conference (August 21-24), the IDSA is sponsoring the Launch Day Challenge consisting of 3D printed cars to be launched down a ski-slope track. Here’s how to enter.
In anticipation of the cadjunkie SolidWorks 101 course official launch next Wednesday, we’re offering three completely free cadjunkie Professional memberships with access to every SolidWorks, Rhino, and modo video we’ve ever made. After that, we’re offering 50% off discounts for the rest of the week.
You stop mid-sentence. Thoughts of a 3D printed Phoenix rising from the ashes explode in your mind. You tear your shirt sleeves off, raise your fist and suddenly realize your in the midst of a client design review. It happens. Especially when you’re thinking over various ideas to submit to a 3D print contest. CGTrader…
Ahh the world of iPhone case designs. It seems that ever since Apple posted the iPhone blueprints for case designers, it is impossible to escape ‘the next big thing in iPhone case design’…especially when it involves 3D printing. Perhaps Graft Concepts is one of the more unique case designers, however. By creating a system of…
Toys. What crotchety old man is the only person in the world who doesn’t like’em? That guy? Well, he can gum his pudding in shame, because GrabCAD is putting on a challenge to 3D print a toy and they’re teaming up with Ultimaker to make it happen. The Ultimaker 3D printed toy design challenge is…
You all know it. Augmented Reality (AR) headsets are/will be all the rage. From the Oculus Rift to Google Glass, the size, shape and application of these devices is quite broad. Sketchfab, the site that brings you the ability to set up your own 3D portfolio, is holding their fourth Sketchfast competition, and this one…
I’ve built my share of laser cut catapults and trebuchets in my life, but an entire laser cut castle attack scene? If I could be so lucky. GrabCAD user Andrea Garuti made it happen with his ‘Castle under attack’ entry that won the SolidSmack Laser Cut Toy Design Challenge. Ponoko sponsored a free laser cut…
Rockets. There just are not enough of them escaping the clutches of our atmosphere. Fortunately, we have people interested in making more rockets happen and open source websites–or rather movements–like DIY Rockets to give rocket development and learning a boost. Now, Sunglass and Shapeways are meeting at the launch pad with DIY Rockets for a…
3Dlt.com, a sort of stock photo-like site for 3D printing templates has created a marketplace for professional designers, students, companies, and consumers–however their mission is rooted in crowdsourcing solutions for solving some of the ‘world’s biggest problems’. Their current initiative? An Innovation Challenge using 3D Printing to improve gun safety with the finalists winning a…
In a new challenge from GrabCAD, your dream(s) of designing a steering wheel for a supersonic car are about to come true. We covered the 1,000 mph speed of the Bloodhond SSC back in 2008, so it’s nice to see where the Bloodhound team has taken the project, that Cisco has become their main networking…
Why it seems like only 1 month and 18 days ago that we announced the ‘Make Your Laser Cut Toy’ challenge and, in fact, it was. All entrants stepped up to such a challenge with 196 laser cut creations! A big handclap and a few prematurely launched fireworks for all of you. We have ONE…
This contest is now over. Thanks for everyone who participated in the contest! We had nearly 200 entries!! You can view them all here. Winners will be announced Monday, November 19th on the blog and also listed here. This is it. It’s here! SolidSmack is putting on the contest of the year and giving you…
Too late! This contest is over! See the winners below in the comments section and stay tuned for more contests and giveaways on SolidSmack! It’s been a while since we’ve had a giveaway on SolidSmack. The tips of our elbows tend to get dry and scaly when that happens, so let’s spread the moisturizing bliss of free…
Everyone loves a snazzy lookin’ car handle on a snazzy lookin’ car, right? Me, I prefer to command my car (or trained monkey) to open the door so I don’t have to put down my pipe and whiskey (it’s just apple juice, officer.) If you do, however, prefer to pull, push or yank on a…
Hungry for pounds and pounds of purple filament to feed through your printer? I know the answer to that is a pellet-melting YES. However, the cost of this filament… RIDICULOUS. Sure, 3D printers are awesome – You can make virtually anything – But the filament is expensive and there isn’t an easy way to make…
What do you do with all those 3D models you’re hoarding away for emergencies? You could print them and glue them to your jacket or you could sell them and make some cold hard cash. On top of that, you could save you a few trips down to the blood bank and win $500 just…
Instructables and Objet have joined forces to give you a challenge, the “Make it Real Challenge”. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to make a nice, user-friendly Instructable of how to make a virtual object a reality.
There is but one word to describe the EvD Makerbot Absurd iPhone accessory design challenge. FREAKIN’ AWESOME. Not only were there over 180 entries, but over 180 entries that served up an iPhone biting eye-feast of unmatched proportion. There were so, SO many excellent entries, but we’ve narrowed it down and the winner is…
EngineerVsDesigner is teaming up with Makerbot Industries to bring you the first ever Absurd iPhone Accessory Design Contest! Have the perfect, insanely odd (or otherwise crazy) idea in your brain cage ready to spew forth? If so, you’ll be in the running to win a brand new, hot off the presses, Makerbot Replicator with a…
The fine peeps over at Fireuser.com have just turned us on to a contest they’re having that could deliver a smokin’ hot AMD FirePro V5900 GPU right into your desktop. Sure, they’re totally biased as far as these CAD-cookin’, high-end AMD GPU’s are concerned, but that’s no excuse not to try your hand at winning…
We’re starting 2012 off with a fast punch to the ear and perhaps the coolest 3D print design contest EVER. The insanely exotic 3D printed work of Anthony Tammaro is your inspiration and Shapeways is making your idea come to life. Here are the details.
Are you even the slightest bit interested in going to Las Vegas for Autodesk University 2011? Well, how would you like to go at someone else’s expense? Yeah, that (and beef stew) is what I’m talkin’ about. Perhaps even more enticing, how would you like to win a 3D Mouse to hang around your necks…
Yes! The time has come to announce the winners if the very first SolidSmack Design Contest. This… was absolutely incredible. We had over 130 entries across a range of categories spanning architecture, automotive, consumer products and more. You can just see all the entries at GrabCAD. With the amount of entries and the thought that…
We are well on our way to the completion of an awesome ‘Awesome Sauce’ Design Contest! If you’ve not heard about it, this is a completely open design contest dependent on nothing else than your cunning sense of style and creativity. It seems quite a few are up for the challenge as the number of…
The SolidSmack Awesome Sauce Design contest is tearing full speed ahead with over 70 entries already. From submarines to furnitures, motorcycles and concept cars it’s a wonderful array of creative ideas . You can see all the entries here and get all the details for the contest here. However, if clicking that frightens you and…
Have you heard about the SolidSmack Design Contest yet? Well, the contest is underway, but we’ve got a couple updates, plus the short and simple version of how to submit your design. There are a lot of prizes to giveaway and plenty of time to get those designs in, so hit the jump and see…
Thanks to everyone who entered the SolidSmack Awesome Sauce Design Contest! You can view all the entries on GrabCAD here. ALl the entries are being judged and the results will be announced Friday, September 30th, 2011 here on SolidSmack and at GrabCAD. Thank you once again for joining in the competition! Welcome the first annual…
There are five reasons I just dropped what was doing to check this out *looks down at fist, punches face*. Fortunately, I didn’t have machined titanium rings on each finger or my face would be a bloody, unrecognizable mess. What’s exciting me to punches is a self-initiated competition going on over at GrabCAD. Put on…
A lot of people tell me there are “better things” to do with compact electric scooter fenders than strap them to my body and run through a crowd of cake-vomiting children at a birthday party wall of fire and punches. One of those activities which is said to be better, is tossing the existing fenders…
Prepare to run over and shake someone’s face skin. The contest of the year is here with a list of prizes you just won’t believe. T-Splines has launched the Make the World a Better Place contest and since they are making the world a better place with freeform modeling software like T-Splines for Rhino and…
How would you like to stand dangerously close to the most light-weight superbike in the world as it flew by you? Yes? Well then, how would you like to be part of the team that design a wee, light-weight bit of it? HECK YEAH! If you’re game, then you’ll want to jump on the challenge…
Titanium fingertips. A chin shield. Elbow spikes. An inlay across the bridge of your nose to hold lasers manipulated by your eye. Yes, you’ve dreamt about such things in the waning hours of the morning. Now you can design them and have them made. Max Barry’s book Machine Man, a real-time serial about a man…
Can you think of a more uncomfortable chair to sit in than an airport chair? I can’t. Add to that the delight of sharing the vast majority of the world’s germs, bacteria and food particles with the other happy people at the airport and really, sitting just doesn’t get any better. One thing that can…
It comes down to this. A typically Tuesday morning with nothing but the smell of hard work in the air, lukewarm coffee and multiple ways to make 3D happen. We had just over 50 entires in the Rock Your Desktop contest, which correlates to just over 50 GrabCAD portfolio submissions you should check out via…
When you have a hankering to gnaw on a 3D mouse, you pretty much have an option between a 3DConnexion mouse and another 3DConnexion mouse. Not many choices, but when it comes down to it, the taste of that molded rubber wrist pad is going to put a smile on your face. We’d like to…