It was a slow ride over to SketchUp subscription city but you saw the road signs along the way. First Trimble put SketchUp online bringing you SketchUp for Web. Then, in February 2019, they announced a subscription pricing option, retaining the perpetual license option. Now, they’ve announced a complete move to an annual subscription model with classic perpetual licenses and maintenance renewals no longer available after November 4th, 2020. If you own a Classic Perpetual License today, you will be able to use the latest version you own in perpetuity. In addition, if you’d like to update your Classic Perpetual License, you can do that until November 4th, 2020.  Please…

LEGO’s are known the world over! Their blocks excite our imagination. Give a kid a mess of Lego blocks and in no time they’ll have a structure reaching to the sky! Yet for all the fun of making buildings or secret caves, let’s face it, there wouldn’t be much life to LEGOs without those tiny, (mostly) yellow-faced Minifigures. Minifigs as they are called, allow children to infuse persona into their play. A child can be anyone and go anywhere there imagination takes them!In this post, you’ll get a sneak peek behind the scenes inside a Lego factory and see how Minifigs are made. There are many steps in the process…

Editing appearances inside Onshape just go better. Now applying custom color to any region or face is a snap! Gone are the days of needing a workaround to simply change the face color of solid or surface faces of part-studio geometry. It looks like my old “zero offset surface copy” workaround has been rendered obsolete. Another notable enhancement in the June 3rd CAD Improvements update is the addition of the Appearance Panel which allows for better management of color and the ability to use color to browse the feature tree. Additionally, colors can now be configured in the same manner as other features within the part-studio. Let’s have a look…

Woodturning wood, metal, and plastics are interesting and amazing in and of itself. From bowls in bowls to a cherry burl egg, the possibilities are endless. But who would have thought of woodturning a stack of colored straws into a vase? Well, the Wood Workshop is who. And they captured the entire, fascinating process that may make you wonder what else can be turned. While various pieces of walnut wood were used to create the center and base, the main attractions are the brightly colored straws that adorn its sides. Here’s how it came together. 1. Construct the Support Structure Before getting to the multi-colored straws, we can’t forget the…

A cold wave of grassy air spilled through the alleyway. As we circled the bend, there, at the horizon, we saw thousands. Thousands, spreading through the street as if they had grown there for ages, dropping chaff, sprouting tubers, and working their way toward the mineral-rich core of these links. Alex Konstad – His characters are incredible. His creatures are even better. Otherworldly oddities with all sorts of interesting details. Read Planet Rise – The Martian landscape, created by Sean Doran with data from the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Like you’re there. Christo – The artist famous for wrap art and massive belief-defying installations passed away at the…

Wood carving is, in and of itself, an art form. It takes a lot of time and effort to turn a chunk of wood into something functional, let alone beautiful. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I think we can all agree this accurate scale wood carving of a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser is pretty dang impressive. Created by YouTube channel Woodworking Art, the body of the car is made from a single chunk of wood. Using paper profiles of a real Land Cruiser as a guide, the form is transferred to the wood and cut out using a band saw. The outline of the…