The Internet has given us access to resources unparalleled in the history of humankind. The volume of exchange for ideas, pictures, written text and now 3D models have been building to a climatic boom in creativity. To an extent, that depends on how you define ‘Creativity’. I see creativity as the synthesis of two previously…
Autodesk has it out for you. Your software too. And probably your choice of breakfast cereals. Evil. This week they dropped their plans for the future of CAD computing revealing very clearly what software will be delivered over the web and what software service will be accessed through a browser. They’ve slated it as ‘Access…
Quickly now. Stick your hands against the screen. Now, lift them off slightly and move your head to either side. Did you see that? A physical 3-dimensional object rising from the aether around your digits? No, no you didn’t, because it hasn’t happened yet… but it could. Three technologies have surfaced showing how we may…
We’re just not going to let that “Kill SolidWorks” thing die… ahem. One comment from former SolidWorks CEO, Jeff Ray is all it takes for a firestorm to start whipping our sanity. What most people do not realize is that the is about creating a better product and providing some more options, not about violently…
Autodesk University 2010 is off to a design romping start and there’s already been a massive skull buttering of product announcements, tech previews and tid-bits of information coming in from all directions. Autodesk has no qualms about mentioning hybrid modeling approaches, cloud computing or delivering software over the web. Mostly because, well, they’re already doing…
If you’ve been waiting to see what PTC’s next move is, your wait is over. If you’ve been waiting to see what direction product development tech is taking, stop. Nearly every CAD vendor has shared their vision of what the future of product design is going to be like. Thursday was PTC’s turn. Thursday, October…
Update: Just an update… I’ve got the overview with my thoughts up on what project lightning turned into… PTC Launches CreoWhatcha think now? There’s a peculiar odor of CADmospheric ions in the air and all the blustery bits of activity are swelling up over the US East Coast. Tomorrow, October 28th, PTC will reveal their…
While I was growing up, I’d occasionally run towards a wall, jam my fingers up into my arms, pass out and wake up to dogs dragging me off into the woods. Fortunately, the dogs were my pets and my fingers healed into agile implements of multi-touch destruction. And thankfully so. At SolidWorks World 2010 I…
So, I’m sitting here throwing make-shift tablet styluseseseses at my face waiting for a massive Cintiq 21″ tablet to arrive so I can test it out, when I see Jordan Tadic from 3D Vision showing off how he used SolidWorks on a Wacom Cintiq. It’s tablet pickin’ fun of the highest caliber… or next to…
What if you could stick suction cups on your oculars and move models around on the screen with your eyeballs? Yeah, and, what if you could stick suction cups on your chest, hands, neck and elbows to do the same thing? Oh yeah. Well, what if… you didn’t need suction cups… BOO.YAH. We’ve talked about…
Quick, while nobody’s looking, slip those goggles on that make you look as if you’ve slipped through time to warn yourself about reading this post. “DON’T READ IT!” your future self says, but curiosity grasped your eyelids and pulls them clear over your freshly shaved hairline. You just can’t start a new decade without throwing…
Out of the millions of things in the world to get really, really embarrassingly excited about, storage read/write speeds are UP there. Are ya with me? YEEEEEEAH. Start giving your bandwith brothers high-fives, because Fusion-io knows what you want and the latest ioXtreme SSD is setting the standard, at least for the next week, for…
You could put one finger on a 3D mouse, stick another finger down your throat and blast a pile of 3D geometry onto any screen of any time-saving product development program with ease. However, it’s still just a pile, perhaps a well thought out pile, but still, a pile… on a screen. It’s a conversation…
Just look at those happy digits going at it with pure multi-touch tappin’ delight. Cool desktop UI’s are great fun to play with, but with Windows 7 launching October 22nd and many already using it, multi-touch and UI’s are about to converge. Bumptop is on it. Version 1.2, you can download right now, has all…
…there was no mass hysteria, freestyle finger punching or the slightest mention of how to blow a wasabi peanut out your nose. Disappointing? No. Earlier this week, I had the privileged of spending 2 days with 8 other bloggers as guests to the SolidWorks User Experience Group, Labs, and Product Development Team. Yep, they flew…
Ok, maybe not ‘Crush’ so much, maybe more like, boot it into the future. You need to drop your bagel, Blackberry or coworker on the ground and run, nay I say sprint, to read Oleg Shilovitsky’s 6 reasons Why Google Wave will Change PLM Collaboration. Pivotal, my geometry-glazed friends. Oleg briefly points out how Google’s…
There’s hope for your carpal tunnel syndrome, worn out wrist supports and squeaky chair. In the future, they may be replaced by the joy of getting into your work… literally. Lauren Argo put pen to paper to churn out the idea of pen to air on 3D canvas. The idea uses “iGPS”(?) to capture a…
Welcome. It’s knee-slappin’, face-movin’ time again here on SolidSmack and this week we introduce to you Mr. Doob, who thought it a pleasant idea, in his Flash experimentation, to show you what it’s like to have a 3D scene position itself based on the position of you melon. You can play with the mouse-driven version,…
Pull up your socks. It’s about to get ruckus up in the CAD Engineering Software world. The Conference is going down the next few days in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Palace Resort. COFES 2009 (Conference on the Future of Engineering Software). The topics focus on ‘Innovation’*, from how software affects design to predicting the future…
BIG hat tip to Kevin Quigley for commenting on the Future Design and Engineering post yesterday and mentioning another video that takes a stab ( much better stab) and future design possibilities. FilmMaker Bruce Branit brings reality to life in a big way. No touchscreens, no paper, and no limit to what can be done.…
Ahhh, it’s that time where we sit with a pretend cup of hallucinogenic material and ponder the inescapable existence of highly advanced technology creeping it’s way into our future (as well as the need to still clean it all.) A little over a week ago Microsoft presented, in fine video form, it’s vision of what…