zcorp-3d-printingYou’re probably thinking the same thing I am. Soon 3D printing will be just as sure a part of the design process as having to pluck ticks from your eyelids after a nosedive into a damp, brushy floor of a wooded hillside.

Barring analogies to lyme disease and the whole blood-sucking thing, it pretty obvious 3D printing is getting more common and the ‘pay-per-part’ market is starting to get a bit more of a following. What I wonder is where is 3D color printing in all of this?

Oh, and even more… I’m wondering what you think.

solidworks-cinema4d
I know you’ve been looking for reasons to climb onto your office chair today and fall out. This is good a reason as any, so start a’climbin’ little mountain goat. For centuries you may have wondered how to get a SolidWorks model into an assortment of various other 3D formats.

Okino products is there to answer your beckon call with their updated SolidWorks Converter System for SolidWorks 2009.

You could probably make a mountain out of Kinkajous, but I imagine it would be a painful climb… unless you had these links. Russ Schwenkler Illustration – Future 3D ships and vehicles?Can we get enough. Not when they look like this. Shadows in Photoshop – Making Shadows, like being hit in the face, is easy…

swx-fm-thumbYou know that handy little thing that sits on the left side of your screen? The sidebar that keeps track of all features, mistakes, workarounds and wonky bits? Yes it’s a veritable visual of your organizational ability and it had it’s start somewhere.

Beleive it or not, it came out of a customer visit Jon Hirschtick made one day in 1994. After seeing how people worked in other CAD software, the concept was born on this scrap of paper. Take a look.

jon-hrischtick-blackjackIt was Sunday night. A day before the SolidWorks World Sessions started. Most likely this would have been another night at the Hotel Lounge trying to speak over the noise.

Instead, it was a night spent learning how to win at BlackJack. The strategy, the running count and all the tricks in between. How? It’s started on Twitter. BlackJack in Jon Hirschtick’s suite 19-107 at 9:30.

Here’s how it went.