Image: Yannick Castaing Need an introductory 3D modeling tool? MagicaVoxel is what you need. MagicaVoxel is a free, open source software package that provides simple, yet surprisingly powerful 3D modeling capability. Creator ephtracy explains: A free lightweight 8-bit voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer. And that is precisely what this is. At first glance, the software appears to be a rather simple Minecraft-like block editor, and in many ways, it is just that. But as you get deeper into the system its more powerful features begin to emerge. The tool installs freely on Windows or MacOS. It launches very quickly and is highly responsive, even on lesser machines.…
Although IKEA takes the cake for masterminding the ready-to-assemble (or flat-pack) furniture, the concept was initially captured in an 1878 US patent described as “(A) class of furniture which is so constructed that it may be packed and transported in parts, and put together for use by skilled or unskilled persons.” Either way, decades of design expertise, new methods of manufacturing, and a slew of customer experience updates have radicalized the ready-to-assemble experience. But the one thing that hasn’t changed much? Those pesky minimalist assembly instructions. Inspired by IKEA’s Place app, which uses augmented reality features on a smartphone to enable preview furniture within an interior space, UI designer Adam…
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! Textor (iOS — Free) Textor is a plain text editor, fully optimized for iOS. Unfold (iOS – Free) Tell your story…
You know, some think video games are a glimpse into the future of 3D product design and engineering. Just keep that in mind as you see what YouTube user Gilbert Roy Alva uses Cities: Skylines, a 3D city building sim game, to recreate some of Southeast Asia’s most well-known cities. With Minecraft being used to create castles in the sky and computer kits for kids, it’s also interesting to think how future designers and engineers will think about the digital creation of everyday things. In another example, Cities: Skylines, allows you to make your own living, breathing city – complete with roads and buildings which citizens interact with as they go about their daily lives…
Oh , look at you! You are just A DARLING. Your glistening, acidic alien skin… Ohh! You’re yawning. CUTE. A yet you just burst from the belly of my dog. Gonna have to clean the carpet… a few times. Bad baby alien. Kidding! Don’t tongue mouth my face! We may not have actual baby xenomorphs, but MyMiniFactory user crazyman2099, an “Engineer and designer that loves 3D printing and yo mama”, has given us the next best, less deadly, thing – an alien head shower head. YES. This is a remix of a great alien head model to make it into something all Alien fans need in their bathrooms. I hollowed out the…
You know what’s more satisfying to watch than a thousand soda cans being crushed? Seeing them get turned into solid blocks of pure aluminum bliss. After consuming an unhealthy amount of soda products, Ben from PressTube decides to crush and melt the cans into reusable aluminum ingots (which can be used as bricks for a shiny, aluminum house, a shiny, aluminum walkway, or a shiny, aluminum koala climbing a meat bridge). Ben starts by dumping roughly 1,000-1,100 soda cans into a shredder. Once they’ve been turned into aluminum confetti, he resists rolling in it, fires up his one-liter crucible and shovels a handful of shredded metal into it. As the…