In CAD

How to Create a Meaty Mid-Plane (Boundary) Sweep in SolidWorks

3 Mins Read

Meaty Sweeps. You can gnaw on them all day like a charred piece of sandy camel leather. (Your computer can too.) But what are you to do when you want to send a profile merrily down a path in two directions? at once? in SolidWorks?! Well, can’t be done. BUT, you can use a single set of sketches and a couple features to get that sweep going the direction you want. You can even add in dimension driven constraints! Yes, imagine it for a moment. Take it all in. Then hit the jump to download the file and see how it’s all done.

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In DESIGN

LET'S GO TO SPACE! Mini Replica Portal 2 Personality Cores!

2 Mins Read

Look an eclipse! Wait don’t look! Wait look. It’s not an eclipse. It’s a personality core. space, space, SPACE! These Portal 2 Personality cores created by Chris Myles are all the goodness of Portal 2 wrapped up in fully functional replicas of the characters that hamper and help you throughout your adventure in the Aperture Science facility. These have been around the interwebs a bit, but there’s one video that came out after a majority of the coverage that shows the process Chris went through in creating the dashing little spheres and it’s chock full of advice and insight on how to go about creating one or fifty of your own personality cores.

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In NEWS

Autodesk to Rub Web Juice on Your Images, Acquires Pixlr

2 Mins Read

We just can’t resist the extremely riveting acquisition news of late. First 3D Systems acquires Alibre. Now, the announcement of Autodesk acquiring flash-based, online photo editor Pixlr. They offer photo editing tools Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Express, screengrabbing tool Pixlr Grabber, a slick “post process” darkroom Pixlr-o-matic and one-click photo sharing with imm.io. I think you’d agree that it lines up with their cloud computing mobile efforts quite well, but there’s another editor in Autodesk’s arsenal which could see some Pixlr pounding action.

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In FAB

3D Systems Grapples CAD Industry by the Back Fat, Acquires Alibre

2 Mins Read

3D Systems is on a grappling spree of sorts, eating up 3D print related companies and leaving a new, quite cuby, 3-dimensional logo in their wake. Then, they started in on software companies, scooping up translation and conversion software developer Sycode. The latest, announced earlier this morning, is the news that 3D Systems has acquired Alibre, makers of the price-shifting 3D software, Alibre Design. Big news? Indubitably. Here’s another graphic of the 3D System logo placed next to the Alibre logo to make it all official and some details on how it all came about.

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In SOLIDSMACK NEWS

Welcome To SolidSmack, Jeffrey Matthias

3 Mins Read

We have a special treat for you today. With SolidSmack growing like rustic mountain pines, we’re bringing on more writers. The first of the new SolidSmack crew is none other that Colorado native, Jeffrey Matthias. Jeffrey brings his experience in furniture design, fabrication and gadgetry of various sorts to the fold. He prods, pokes and isn’t afraid to give his opinion. He’s had a lot of input on SolidSmack and is part of the reason for the awesome bits of content you’ve seen in the past and will see more of in the future (not just stories about CNC and iPad styli either.) Here’s a little more about Mr. Matthias. Welcome him and be on the lookout for more articles by the fab-man from Colorado.

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