If you’ve been looking for a way to keep those SolidWorks muscles strong going into 2014, consider this SolidWorks 101 Course from acclaimed industrial designer Adam O’Hern (AKA ‘the cadjunkie‘). Unlike other industrial design tutorial series, Adam keeps the long, awkward pauses out and the intensity full throttle…all in an easy-to-undertand and proven learning formula for CAD. Adam starts the sub-two hour course with a simple Erector-like scissor joint before guiding you through developing a functional robot that can be 3D printed, rendered, or sent off for manufacturing by the end of the series. The best part about the SolidWorks 101 Course? It’s included with a cadjunkie membership!
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new face-smack of great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. This week we’ll start off the new year right with some gut-busting tracks starting with Staring at the Sun from TV on the Radio and we’ll work our way through some Tricky, Girls in Hawaii, Daughter, Editors, and others before wrapping up with In the City from Caveman.
If your blackjack hands have been getting a bit stale and you’re looking to conserve those hard-earned pennies, then consider this new bike building-themed Kickstarter project from graphic designer Alex Solomon. Geared consists of color-coded cards that represent different components of a bicycle assembly with the object of the game being to use your ‘Part Cards’ to strategically assemble multiple ‘Best Builds’, which are tallied up at the end of the game in a point system. Perhaps more importantly, the game presents a new way of approaching an assembly build in general and stretching that quick-thinking design muscle.
Recently we received an interesting note from SolidSmack reader Rex Brodie about the Cubify Sense handheld scanner that he had recently purchased. According to Rex, the scanner was insanely difficult to use without a portable screen and a 12+ foot long USB cable…and that’s after assuming that your subject matter is ‘ideal’. There have been similar reports from other users as well…leading us to believe that perhaps the $399 Sense scanner might have jumped the gun with a release that doesn’t promise what it advertises…and doesn’t include a return option once it’s shipped. Well, video game modification mad man Ben Heckendorn (AKA Ben Heck) of the Ben Heck Show recently ran the Cubify Sense through his testing engine to see just how well it can perform…and found some conclusions that might lead to better performance. Ultimately, will his results prove that the scanner has more potential than what we’ve seen thus far?
It could be argued that there are two different kinds of people in this world: those who can draw accurately on an Etch A Sketch and those who end up with what looks like a ball of hair coughed up by their neighbor’s cat. Okay, perhaps not…but regardless, the Etch A Sketch is as iconic as they come in the world of toy design along with Pez dispensers, Barbie, and Hot Wheels. Today, some hardcore ‘Etch Enthusiasts’ are even programming their Etch-a-Sketch ‘platforms’ with Arduinos and step motors to run computer-aided designs. But where did the concept for the Etch A Sketch come from in the first place anyways? In this animated short released Saturday by the New York Times, Etch a Sketch inventor André Cassagnes gets the proper biographical treatment on the iconic toy that he developed decades ago.