That’s it. For the last time you’ve tossed your bicycle over the bridge. The traffic is maddening, the weather is ruining your stylish hair, and you’ve had just about all you can take of your leg being eaten by gear teeth as you round that one curve. If only there were a human-powered, weatherproof container…

Guest Post by Matthew Loew of DAXCON I realize this will be a controversial subject, but I am compelled to raise awareness of how rare a breed the Design Engineer is in industry. The Design Engineer may be headed for extinction (at least in the US). There is a HUGE difference between a design engineer…

I bet two old tires and a bag of tortillas you’re a Engineer or Designer that loves to model flat-pack, laser cut designs in SolidWorks, but has never ventured to have them made, yeah? Or, maybe you’re curious about a company called Ponoko, but not sure how to get started creating your designs. Well, it’s…

You’re looking for the perfect beach cruiser, but nothing, I mean nothing, has tires fat enough to match the coolness you want to bring to dune dude. Your search is over. The Fat Tire Sand Bike designed by Mike Scarani could be the sand-spittin’ scrawler you’ve been looking for. He designed it using no 3D…

Don your cap and uncomfortable rubber mask bat fiends. Your friends await the sound of harrowing theme music as you serve up equal portions of fear and justice around the neighborhood. It’s just what you’ll be doing with your head sticking out the top of your very own Mini-Tumbler Go-kart. Designed in SolidWorks and constructed…

Prepare your drive systems and Plastruders my Cartesian coordinating friends. The great “Horn of DIY Fab” has sounded and the battle to maintain your 3D print fix and MakerBot units sold is EMINENT. Since MakerBot released it’s printer mid-April 2009, demand has been so high they’re turning to the MakerBot community to keep production of…

They’re among us. Little robots flitting about, busy with the task of taking over this part of the world and demolecularizing that part of the world, exploring caves and enjoying the natural setting of coastline and atmospheric radiation. It’s all but a few know of… till now. Cris Rose, supreme leader of all creatures mechanically…

Plug it in and crank up the DIY make machine baby, we’re about to roll out a huge vat of speculation. Last week at the SolidSmack Posterous site, I put up a tidbit on the new Shapeways 3D Part Database. I commented that it would be interesting to see 3DContentCentral, a user-generated 3D part library,…

There are a lot of silly things you can strap to your feet. but when it comes to saving someone’s life, there’s nothing silly about strapping on plastic booties with extendable ‘blades.’ It’s just the concept Edward Shelton of Oxford, UK came up with for his final year project at Loughborough University. Ed developed the…

OOoooo. Is this really a question that needs to be asked? Everyone uses 3D right? and if they don’t, the should be slapped upwards and forced to partake of the goodness that is 3D geometry. Do the manufacturers you work with use 3D data to create parts, build assemblies or get information not provided on…

I see that look in your eye. You want to see some sweet bicycle convertin’ design that makes falling off your bike and hitting a street sign look like fun again. Well, here it is. It’s called the ZWEISTIL [two style], named by the designers, Stefan Wallmann and Daniel Knüpfer, for it’s unique variable frame…

I hope you all are ready for a fun and enlightening experience. I know we’ve pushed this iPhone modeling in SolidWorks clear around the table, but this is the model that everyone is and will be looking at for the foreseeable future. Nelson Au was kind enough to share his model and his process for…

You are lookin’ sporty. Really, you are stylin’ the design and engineering process like no other and everyone wants to know just how you do it… or at least, we do. Is it possible that you use more than one process or program to design and engineer products? We may not even realized it if…

It’s not so much that everything in the future will be built around the idea that we’ll need a proper vessel to study the organs of extraterrestrial life, but you can imagine very quickly that it would need to look stinkin’ cool… and have lights and bolts and stuff. For instance, it would almost certainly…

I know, you have a few Class III Vault doors already and probably regifted a couple last Christmas, but maybe this will give you a little appreciation for the amount of torching and hammering these massive doors can take. Vault Structures has been creating security doors for a while. Their newest 9000 lb. vault door,…

The last time I saw something this lovable and all together creepy, Sigourney Weaver was watching mama Alien get sucked through a quarter-size hull breach. Shown at the D3 in New York as part of the FUTURE.city exhibit earlier this month, the ‘Autonomous Living Unit’ by Eduardo McIntosh, is the all-in-one The idea? That this…

If you’re an old hat at using public transit, or someone trying frantically to go site-seeing, in the bustling, historic cities of Europe, you’ll know how important bus information can be. Bus stops, as we know them, are about to get a makeover. They’re not just for use as a goal for small dogs anymore.…

I’m happy to say that Industrial Design is alive and well in the Social Media sphere due in part to a select few Industrial Designer bringing things together to let everyone else know what’s up. Industrial Designers around the world are getting organized on Twitter. The coolest thing about it? They’re not just using it…

You may like to argue about whether or not 3D Printers will go mainstream, but one thing is for sure, you can get started pretty easy, pretty soon and do it on the cheap. Prepare your fingers for nicks, scraps and beautiful droplets of layered ABS plastic. Next week, Makerbot will start shipping their Cupcake…

What could be more exciting than a thermos filled with your favorite soup flying across the room and hitting you in the neck? A heated, self-illuminating thermos filled with your favorite soup, that’s what. Nicolas Bernal, from Montreal, Quebec, has been busy finding ways to keep his mama’s best recipes warm on a long hike…

Bruce Buck was nice enough to send a link about Salem Design and Manufacturing – a company using SolidWorks to create custom machinery that uses automation components from Misumi, the people responsible for the photo above. The image is for their Empowering Young Engineers (EYE) program to support Robot competitions with their automation components. So,…

OOOOOhhhhh, it is ON. SolidSmack has been challenged… and when I say challenged, I mean we are pickin’ fights with anything or anyone. Mr. Joseph ‘Mass Customization’ Flaherty over at Replicator Blog recently wrote about Why 3D Printers Won’t Go Mainstream. That’s just yelling to have an opposing view thrown at it. So that’s what…

Oh man are we about to blow the door of your creative gourde WIDE OPEN. You might just call a meeting to discuss new ways to design those pump housings you model all day. Be warned. I’ve been wanting to find some simple design to showcase. Simple design that can inspire designers and engineers alike…

You better have one of those fancy skin-tight ski suits with… ya know, skulls and shiny shapes on it, cause your skin is gonna peel right off your bones with this new ski concept. Charles Pyott had the idea of doubling the edge surface on a ski to help skiers maintain speed through turns and…

Once again you’re trapped in a firefight between hundreds of mechanized sentient beings, with no route of escape that wouldn’t leave you riddled with the dawning of human extinction. That is, until you see a little beast of a vehicle creep into view from around a corner. Your first thoughts are DOOM, but you soon…

Do you ever wake up from a dream, encapsulated in a bony structure surrounded by a translucent fleshy film? Not recently huh? Well, Anthony Tammaro is an artist from Philadelphia exploring that world and the medium of create art with 3D CAD, CAM and Additive Fabrication. We looked at DDM (Direct Digital manufacturing) with 3D…

I didn’t get to try out the Embody Chair, but I’ve been living in a Steelcase Leap Chair for the past month. It’s been a… different experience I’ll tell you all about in an upcoming post. In the meantime, feast your taste buds on this. I had the chance to also ask the design team…

After seeing the Herman Miller Embody Chair for the first time, I became a wee bit obsessed with what went into the design. With the design and development ranging over years of the incredible experience of Jeff Weber and Bill Stumpf, the process had to be something to talk about. Turns out it was. I…

Oh the craziness of climbing on a stationary bike and pretending you’re escaping a beating with poorly designed bike locks. What can you do? How about designing a bike that calms your fears, enhances your environment and well-being? That’s exactly what Mark Hagen did with his new take on a exercise device often seen crumpling…

Nobody wants bloody digits laying about, cluttering up a finely dusted workshop floor. That’s just bad business. That’s why this one, designed in SolidWorks, is made to leave your nubs attached to the hand. News of the SawStop severed the airwaves a while back, but the Discover Channel Time Warp Show meets up with inventor…

Ya know the speeder bikes in Stars Wars you always dreamed of riding on? Well, this bike is the next best thing for the moment. Storm Trooper, neat sound effects and wooded terrain sold separately. The Grasshopper, designed by David Gonçalves, is a collapsible, self-charging, energy-conserving joy-ride that can trasnform into a trolley or stationary…

Do you ever look at a chair and say, “that thing looks so uncomfortable.” and then you sit in it and yeah, it’s uncomfortable but then your like, “wellll, it’s kinda comfortable.” That’s the Wassily Chair. The icon of modern modern furniture from Marcel Breuer. You can actually download a SolidWorks model of this chair…

It may not be enough that you know how to sort desktop folders, write a cordial email or sketch a straight line, you may actually need to know some software that allows others to see what’s going on in the recesses of your analytically-primed imagination. There are hundreds of software apps that help Industrial Designers…

If your fear of needles send you into a fever-breaking sweat, there’s nano-technology being developed in the recesses of multiple research facilities that would eliminate the tension and danger of delivering meds to your drug-laden organs. The skin, being your largest organ, is the target of a transdermal patch with microneedles to get the juice…

You can strum all day long and wear down the clearcoat on the wooden body of your regular old guitar, or you can be awesome and check out the humidity-proof, carbon fiber Blackbird Rider from Blackbird Guitars. Picking out tunes can be done in either Steel or Nylon String flavors and you’ll have the added…

Don’t take it from us, just listen to Al Dean who confirms that he is 99% sure that the new RED Digital Cinema cameras Scarlet and EPIC are modeled in SolidWorks and likely rendered in the blistery goodness of HyperShot. The RED SCARLET and EPIC are the first of their kind build-it-from-scratch-with-endless-amounts-of-possibilities Digital Still Motion…

Yes, it crawls like none other. Not across your face in the middle of a dark, cold night in the middle of Utah, but across the vicious terrain of the rockiest of earthen obstacles and barriers. BE warned! Be very a…warned! It’s the Venom Creeper with 70 degrees of axle articulation and a magnificent transmission…

Architecture in SolidWorks? Can it be done? Yes, and it doesn’t look too shabby either. Take a look at Darren Ng’s (DazStudios) photostream on Flickr and you’ll see just how cool it can look. Perhaps the greatest aspect of the images of a refurbished apartment that was modeled in SolidWorks and rendered in PhotoWorks is…

You may have seen this on some of the tech or design blogs a while back, but it just so happens that this simple looking stackable chair is a highly optimized, ergonomic peice constructed of recycled Playstation 2 game consoles and, oh yeah, designed in SolidWorks. Old news? Noooo… well maybe, but there’s a new…

You know what is sweet? Fast stuff is sweet. But a new SuperSonic Car adventure blows the whole concept of fast, along with the previously held 763 MPH land speed record, right off the sands of the Nevada desert. Richard Noble, developer of the record-setting Thrust SSC, piloted by Andy Green, is at it again…

“You likka ta ride the bicycles?” There’s nothing quite like zipping down the shoulder of the road or through a rocky crevasse with two-wheels and a handlebar between you and a very ugly and extremely stingy road rash. You are so hardcore, but look here. Lapierre Cycles will make you look like you’re a pro,…

It’s not everyday you get to sit for hours on end, as your body slowly atrophies… ok, well, maybe it is everyday, but this new chair from Herman Miller may turn your hardening arteries into pliable conduits of efficient blood flow to get that oxygen back up to your brain case. The Embody chair, with…

It’s got a 5 inch rotor, multiple lenses and a healthy appetite for taking photos from high above your eye for composition. You detach it from it’s base and launch it up to 160 ft (50m) into the vast blue yonder. The rotor and sensors take over and it does a somersault in the air,…

Ready. Aim. Rapid-prototype your freagin’ cool idea before someone else does. That’s exactly what Stu Fingerhut did with his gun rack organizer, fully-loaded to help you clean-up that mess gathering on your entryway table. The Process? Modeled in SolidWorks, rendered in PhotoWorks, and manufactured via Ponoko. It’s the steps that a lot of designers and…

Is all 2D stuff LAME? Absolutely not. Ponoko just blew that outta the water (thanks, SolidSmack is down -1% 3D) by bringing you PhotoMake to draw something cool, take a snapshot or a scan, upload, choose material… wif, bam, boom… instant lazer cut bliss from the masters of think, make, sell. Even though this is…

We’re in the exhilarating second half of the SolidWorks Press Event and as you can see from the live coverage, PAL Robotics is debuting the Humanoid Robot and striking fear in the hearts of those that know what is to come. Even though they’ll stab their metal jowls through the heart of the ‘peaceful’ societies…

I’ve covered a little of what Ponoko does with their laser-cut, create your design approach to manufacturing. Coupled with the ability to sell your own design, it’s simply the most unique and creative DIY site out there. Their blog is no less and has been one of my favorite to read some time. A group…

Now, think about it folks. When you’re cruising across the rocks, roads and roundabouts on your normal bicycle, you never know when a gaping water hole is going to open up right in front of you. Certain doom. Fortunately, this bicycle concept, could save you from landing face down in a muddy channel plus make…

Two, yes two mechanized designs of wonder and astonishment. You may think them mildly amusing at first, but after gazing upon the shear genius of these creations, I think you’ll agree with me that they are right on par with being two items you wish you could attach as appendages somehow… or use in your…

Interested in making something via the Ponoko rapid prototyping design site, but not quite sure about how to go about it? You’re in luck, they’ve just release a new service called Ponoko ID that allows you to request a design. You list a price, its sent to some designer and after one has picked it,…