You remember rolling out of bed extra early for a week long CAD training session? The coffee and breaks couldn’t come fast enough. Outside of online courses here and there, onsite, expensive training is the norm. Onshape isn’t the norm. And they’ve headbutted standard practice again with the launch of their own Learning Center. Onshape doesn’t follow the standard reseller model, so they don’t have resellers around the world charging out the wazoo for onsite training sessions. They do have an internet connection and figure other people using their software do as well. Imagine that. They mastered the short feature highlight and overview training videos, now they’re expanding, going deeper…

We’re keeping the theme of cars following last week’s Hot Rod model with a project that will be a tad simpler but just as fun. I think everyone from 2 to 200 likes a pull-back car. HOURS of fun to be had just pulling back a car, getting yelled at by someone because you’ve pulled it back too far and the gears start snapping. Well, we’ve got one better for you. New Matter is the maker of the MOD-t 3D printer ($299) and they just uploaded a number of awesome 3D print projects on their MyMiniFactory page. The latest of which is a sweet, customizable rubberband dragster you can print,…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Each Monday, we’ll link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you. Be sure to check in each Monday morning for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack.…

As wide as four kegs strapped to the back of a molasses swamp hippopotamus, he trudged atop the thin film of earth wrinkling it between twelve toes at the end of a joint on a single leg. By size and agility, he was no match, but we knew his weakness–the excess intake of sun-scorched coffee beans, ground in these links. Daniel Isles – Oh boy. The results of a 365 day sketch challenge with robots, cyborgs, androids, that serve as perfect models for his ultra-tech design style. Google AutoML – Google’s AI is better than its own engineering team at creating networks for image and speech recognition tasks… AI Paint…

A startup company has launched a 3D printer specifically designed for clay 3D printing. ClayXYZ, found currently on Kickstarter, has developed a simple and low cost 3D printer that prints just clay. But it’s not any clay, it’s the commonly available “air hardening clay” that doesn’t require firing in a furnace as most clay does. This obviously simplifies the process: 3D print the clay object and then wait for it to cure naturally, usually within 24 hours. This clay can be re-used easily by simply soaking it in water again to produce a slurry suitable for extrusion. Of course, this won’t work if you’ve glazed the object. The 3D printed…

Don’t you hate how Kickstarter ruined the ukulele for all of us? I used to love that instrument. I never had an opinion about baby xylophones either but I do now–hate em. When I see b-roll of a busy bearded man, in a busy coffee shot, in a busy city accompanied by an upbeat ukulele, I see red. Red, because I eye-roll my corneas to the back of my head. Call me a hater but heck! Isn’t it a bit patronizing when a commercial tries to shoehorn you limp-wristed into the plot with bland visuals and the strum of four strings? Nice try, Mr. Gosling. Before implying the inextricable shame…