It’s time for another round of apps that cover the spectrum of your beloved mobile device(s)! The Weekly App Smack is the best of new or updated design and productivity apps (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list sure to make you more efficient. Do you have an app suggestion that has made your life easier or changed up your workflow? Let us know in the comments below or send it into tips@solidsmack.com. Hit it! Math Interactive (iOS — Free) Improve your intuition by exploring the interactive illustrations and learn how to solve both simple and…
Sponsored by Let’s say you sit down in your office chair, it absorbs you back to 1992 where a mustached salesman in a mauve shirt smiles and starts pelting you with hard drives. What a nightmare… And exactly how I feel about the process of evaluating 3D CAD software. I’ve been through it multiple times, as you likely have, but… it doesn’t have to be like that. When you’re evaluating a CAD system, you want to actually use the software that will define your product development for years (if not decades) to come. But, before you even get to the testing, there are some criteria you should consider and some key…
If you ever get tired of the boring motion of flicking the same light switch on and off again, these rope LEDs might just shed some new light on your living quarters (literally). At first look, StudioKnob’s’s Click Light system appears to consist of only LED ropes—however, the multi-part system also includes two metallic stands to which the lights are connected. Measuring 14cm (5.5”) in height, 80cm (31”) in width, and 20cm (8”) in depth, a low voltage runs through the two surfaces which transfers to the rope lights once they magnetize. So no, these ropes don’t run on batteries, nor can they light up remotely and be worn at…
While there used to be a painful shortage of inspirational design sketching books out there, these days, design students and those looking to refresh their skill set may, in fact, have too many to choose from. The good news is, there’s something different to learn from each—so go ahead and build out that library. Among other design sketching book favorites, we love the broad variety of sketching styles presented in Sketching. While the book is ideal for any design student or classroom, many professionals and design studios will also likely learn a thing or two from the wide variety of sketching styles and form examples presented within the book’s 256…
Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or modeling up a 3D storm, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week on SolidSmack Radio we’ll get the groove going with “Friday Morning” from Khruangbin before diving into irresistible tracks from Gorillaz, Father John Misty, Beck, Fog Lake, and others before wrapping up with “Pay No Mind” from the all-new Beach…
The New Story charity organization may have beaten them to the first punch, but that sure won’t stop the Eindhoven University of Technology, contractor Van Wijnen, real estate company Vesteda, materials company Saint Gobain-Weber Beamix, and engineering firm Witteveen+Bos from setting up five 3D printed concrete houses in Bosrijk, a relatively new residential district in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Dubbed Project Milestone, these houses will be built consecutively as construction improves over the course of the project. The first house to be built in the new residential district will be a single-story living space with three rooms, a wooden roof structure (meaning it won’t be completely 3D printed) and cover 95 square…