SolidWorks finished up their second year Student Design Contest a couple weeks ago and I’m finally getting a chance to look at some of the designs. I’m two things: hungry because I haven’t eaten breakfast and impressed cause these students did a rockin’ good job. Most of the entries were from Universities around the world…

I’m working on designing and possibly constructing a built-in bookshelf at home. It’s going to wrap around a wall and have an integrated desk in a spot that would otherwise be completely useless. Amazingly enough, bookshelves have commonly been used to do just that. Make an unused space usable. That’s interesting to me because everyday…

Really now, that wall you currently have built between you and the outside world with cereal boxes and plastic spoons is lookin’ a bit dated. It’s time you had a look at Bloxes. Bloxes is a unique and completely cardboard way of creating or recreating that bubble of nonconformity you live in. Heck, you could…

60 cubic inches of usable space that is. At least that’s what I thought until at sat down. I’m sitting in a corner with a 24″ LCD pushed up against the sides of the wall. Forget that it’s in a dirty basement with tortured screams and no sunlight. Now, I’m imagining this screen stretched and…

Hop down off the copy machine for a minute cause I’ve got a treat for ya. I talked with Dan Gustafson from NextEngine. Ya know, that company that makes the comparatively inexpensive and ultra-small 3D scanner? If you’re intersted in 3D scanning, SolidWorks Premium comes with NextEngine’s ScanTo3D utility. But NextEngines own RapidWorks utility looks…

Some of you may have jobs that allow you to get close and personal with the CNC equipment operators. If you’re not so lucky you may be interested in this video I came across at Core77. Plastic Injection Molding

Yes, that’s right. Ugly, rabid monkeys with three toes and high tariffs. Ponoko, the design-it, make-it, sell-it web site has quelled the fears of their users and completely slashed the prices for shipping around the entire known world. If you’re in the US, shipping prices from New Zealand can be downright frightening. Actually, shipping prices…

There’s a few products out there that I think are exceptional for the problems they address. Typically, its a fancy electronic consumer product that promises to save more time or remove hair or whatever. Recently I’ve been seeing products that are designed to save space. The Verticulture planter concept is one of my favorite. It’s…

Each year SolidWorks host a modeling contest and announces the winners on the last day of SolidWorks World. Some people have asked me who won the contest but, in the sheer excitement, I failed to write them down. Fortunately Nancy Buchino from SolidWorks, who ran the Chase Corporate Challenge in 29 minutes 48 seconds, was…

It’s hard to put truly inspirational art into words. At best you’ll end with someone wondering what in blazes you’re talking about, and if you’ve ever created a piece of art in your own mind… you’ll still end up with someone wondering what the blazes you’re talking about. It’s best to experience the creation and…

The most amazing thing happened right this second. (Jan 28th 1:58 PM) The Lego brick turned 50 years old. Can you imagine just trying to build things with sticks a rocks. That is just inhumane. Kids need multi-colored easily connected blocks of joy to grab their imagination and turn them into creative adults with something…

Perhaps the coolest thing about SolidWorks World is all the people you can meet. People that change things and know what the heck they’re doing. I had to privilege of speaking to a SolidWorks user and entrepreneur. The John Ferguson, aka Muggs, of John Ferguson Design.I didn’t get a photo of him, so I stole…

Well, right after slapping SolidWorks on the wrist for an inaccurate case study about car design, we’ll move on to a car that just might be completely created with SolidWorks. You can at least get SolidWorks models eDrawing Model Files for it… earth-friendly eDrawing model files models. Hybrid Cars are all the craze with the…

I love a good discussion and a recent post brought up a huge point. SolidWorks Case Studies are not always the most accurate. The discussion hinged around car design and the Koenigsegg automotive case study issued by SolidWorks a while back. “Koenigsegg used SolidWorks software to design the Koenigsegg CCX…” You come away thinking everything…

There’s not too many cars out there that just jump out and slap you upside the head with incredibly astounding design. I recently came across the Lamborghini Reventon and I gasped (in a real manly sort of way with choking and spit) with awe at how freakin’ cool it looks. Apparently only 20 are being…

You may recall a post about the Koenigsegg CCX being the fastest street legal car designed in SolidWorks. Now they have the fastest biofuel car designed in SolidWorks, and it doesn’t look ridiculous and slow. It’s called the CCXR. “… the ethanol in biofuel has the positive side effect of cooling the combustion chambers, as…

One of the speakers at SolidWorks World 2008 is going to be Dr. Don Norman. His book The Design of Future Things just came out last Monday. “It’s meant to be fun to read, but it’s meant to be a little bit scary and cautionary.” Sounds good. The book is a continuation of a previous…

I finally know what I want for Christmas. An ASR Carbon mountain bike from Yeti cycles. It’s only $6149.00, fully loaded. These high-end bikes are just plain tough looking and make my purple GT Outback look wimpy. Oh yeah, and they are designed in SolidWorks. My favorite one from their line-up, the ASR Race/Trail bike,…

Well, if you add a little style and a some hydraulic planetary gear units I’d have to say, about this big… Now, this wasn’t designed in SolidWorks. It’s a civil engineering project done by TG&P out of the UK, but looking through the Falkirk Wheel site you can imagine what could be done in SolidWorks.…

I’ve always disliked the ladder in this video. It’s like trying to set a mouse trap. You think he deserves what he gets?

I’ve always like the Harman brand home audio ever since my dad picked up some Harman/Kardon equipment years ago. When ever I search for something I start with that brand and compare. That’s why it was interesting when I heard that the Harman Specialty Group had switched from AutoCAD 2D to SolidWorks. HSG creates Mark…

Some of my blog friends were having a conversation offline about a post at PR, Marketing and the business of CAD that covered the Mechanical Media Summit where Autodesk revealed their new “forward-thinking solution” to do away with PLM. Digital Prototyping. “It is presented as a way to prove a new product, prototype it digitally,…

The TechCrunch40 is being held this week and Ponoko made an appearance. Ponoko is a site where you can turn your product ideas into income. When they were in Beta, I immediately went to sign up. Even though I didn’t get an invitation I’m still excited about using it now that it’s out of beta.…

What are the statistics you’ll die on a motorcycle designed in SolidWorks? I have no idea, but if you visit the SolidWorks homepage, their exclusive feature is a plug for Orange County Choppers (OCC) and HP with a video that shows Jason Pohl of OCC developing one of their motorcycle designs. The hardware he runs…

One reason why I like SolidWorks is because it’s very easy to put a design idea together. It’s a great tool, but creating something out of pure inspiration is a lot of fun. I find a lot of things that inspire me and Sternform is the most recent. They take some very simple ideas, create…

If you’ve seen the movie Transformers or were a fan of the animated series you’ll know how super freakin’ cool this is. The truck that was used in the movie and played the part of Bonecrusher is an actual production vehicle that is developed in SolidWorks. Force Protection Inc. created this monstrous vehicle in their…

Imagine not paying thousands for a crumby, burnt-looking 3D print out of a part. These guys over in Russia have done it. (This page shows you) “How to make a 3D-printer for your home lab with $340 cnc kit and some junk. It uses cheapest plastic waste or powder paint as raw material to produce…

When I was growing up, our house was filled with plants. We had a huge greenhouse on the side of the house that I would explore and play in. My mother is a horticulturalist and plants have always interested me, as well as the greenhouses. These greenhouses and conservatories, designed by Alitex in SolidWorks are…

I particularly like furniture design and I recently came across this company in a SolidWorks Case Study. Strand-Hvass is a furniture and product design company in Denmark. It formed as a merge between the two design companies of Christina Strand and Niels Hvass. The two attended the Danish Design School. Some may think this style…

Burton Car Company, the largest sports car manufacturer in the Netherlands, holds a design competition each year for a new concept sports car. The 2007 grand prize is a €12,000 Burton kitcar. The concept has to be designed in SolidWorks based on an available chassis and meet specs for kitcar manufacturability. SolidWorks.nl, HP, W3D, and…

I know it’s been hard on us all having to manually unroll the toilet paper for the past 100 or so years, but your worries are over and good old SolidWorks may have had a large part in it. News was announced yesterday that Kimberly-Clark, the name most are familiar with in public restrooms, has…

Last week SolidWorks put out a press release about the two competitors in this years America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi Switzerland. Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) and Alinghi are competing in the America’s Cup 2007…Taking place off the coast of Valencia, Spain, the 32nd America’s Cup features a rematch of the two…

Have you ever thought a car could be designed in SolidWorks? Well, it’s being done right over in Sweden by Koenigsegg. Their latest production car is the fastest street legal car on the market clocking in at over 800 HP with speeds topping at 245 mph. That’s crazy fast and they used SolidWorks to make…

SolidWorks released news today of Hypen Design using SolidWorks for their product development. This look like a really cool company. They hail form the London, UK and do some really slick product design for some pretty big clients like Virgin Mobile, Speedo and Mattel. They’re work is impressive – take a look at it here.…