The time has come. Like hot flaming liquid poured straight into a web server, pounded with a hambone made of lightning and set on the table for everyone to partake… the new SolidSmack site is LIVE. It’s about time also, the old site was kinda shiny lookin’ but had the content kickin’ factor of wadded cat hair. But enough about the past. It’s all about the future and where SolidSmack goes from here. You, of course, are a big part of that. The feedback on the survey was overwhelming and will form rubbery mold we shove the future of SolidSmack into. We’ve got a winner to announce from the survey and a little more to tell you about… a design contest in fact. Here we go!
SolidSmack V3
We’re still ironing out some of the bits and bugs, but you’ll notice a few things about the layout. You’ve got the all new fancy navigation to the left, split up into topics that follow the product development process from beginning to end. We want to focus on that process, keeping it a bit fun along the way.
DESIGN – How you start it – concepts/ideas/software
TECH – What you use – gear/gadgets/hardware
CAD – How you create it – software/analysis/workflow
FAB – How you make it – 3d printing/sls/cnc
CULTURE – Where it happens – workshops/home/production
We also have a new top navigation for you as well. You’ll see a directory, for design and engineering resources and sites. You can even submit a site to be included. How rockin’ is that? There’s also a link up there to send us a tip. Go ahead, click that sucker. It slides down all fancy like and allows you to send us sites, interesting tech, product design or tips you would like to see covered. There will be more coming to this and other areas of SolidSmack. What more, you ask? Well, we’re forming a street team, the SolidSmack uber-passionate elite who want free stuff and to help spread the word about SolidSmack. We’re also deciding on a set of guides, a section for Q&A and a place to post inspiration.
We can’t leave out the new writers we have either. Jeffrey Matthias and Bradley Derry have joined the SolidSmack crew. We’ll have a dedicate page for our fine contributors, but for now, you can find out about them on the About page. You’ll be seeing more post from them as we go along. And, if you’re interested in being on the SolidSmack team and all the benefits that entails (discounted cottage cheese and colorful leggings), just drop us a line. As always, we’d love to hear from you about anything you find here!
Survey Result
The survey results were completely eye-opening. Really, we couldn’t ask for better readers. Big uncomfortable internet hugs to you all. Here are some of the results.
44% check in on the SolidSmack site regularly with 34% getting their updates via RSS.
A hefty 54% of you came here for news on 3D CAD software and Industry, while 40% came for both random, cool stuff, CAD tutorials and product design.
The additional responses were insightful and helpful. We received over 250 responses including everything from adding some lolcatz (proooobably won’t be doing that) to doing more articles on the process of design and the details people go through to get the product manufactured. All good stuff and definitely insight we’ll be looking at over the weeks to come.
iPod nano Winner
Ok, so who won the iPod nano? Using the trusty Random.org site, we entered the 250+ respondents, the winner of the iPod nano is…
Ryan Tanguay
Ryan had a great suggestion about adding a section to upload images or design inspiration. Something we’ve been considering for a while. Thanks Ryan and thanks again to everyone who participated. If you’re bummed and want another opportunity to win some awesome prizes, you’ll definitely want to know about the very first…
SolidSmack Design Competition
Next week, we have an exciting announcement. On Monday, we will be announcing the very first SolidSmack Design Competition. So far, there is close to $15,000 dollars in prizes that includes 3D software, 3D prints, and more. This is going to be fun. We’re putting together the final details, talking with a few of the sponsors to finalizes prizes and getting ready to have fun with some cool design. Be watching next Monday.
