I know what you’re waiting for. It’s been a long day. Co-workers are finishing up their work, cleaning the sweat from their keyboard and tidying up that cubicle for the day that awaits them tomorrow. You? You’re waiting until everyone leaves. Because, once they do, you can SWAP OUT THAT GPU, BABY! And not just…
Well, the end of the year is rapidly approaching! And if you are an aspiring Onshape CAD user I’ve got an early Christmas present for you! I’ve compiled my SkillCoach Onshape CAD Improvements Mega Resource Pack! Yep, I scoured the Onshape website for every CAD improvement they posted pertaining to modeling tools and techniques that…
After sanding a sheet of aluminum to a mirror finish, YouTube creator Skills and Trade decided to take their sanding skills a step further and try their hand at sanding and polishing a mini-fridge. Here’s what went down: Contrary to what you might think, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fridge. It doesn’t have rust on its edges,…
As the title implies today we’ll delve into how to make realistic looking objects that can be used as film props or Cosplay accessories. And we’ll do it with the help of a new friend, The Crafsman! You’ll learn a few techniques for making molds and objects using two-part pourable silicone rubber. And after the…
Purchasing a traditional home may be physical proof that you’ve officially made it as an adult. Making a custom “micro-home” or heated backyard workshop, however, may be physical proof of your dedication to relatively complex weekend projects. During the winter months of 2014, Jim Howard took to his backyard and decided to build his own…
Using a series of post-processing techniques like sanding, painting, gluing, and mold-forming, you can easily make your 3D printed projects look just like their store-bought counterparts — ideal for when presenting realistic “looks like” prototypes to clients or coworkers. From sanding and gluing all the way to crafting different molds and finally painting the objects, MakerBot’s…
Even with the prevalence of touchscreens and touchpads, no piece of input hardware can interact with a computer quite like the traditional mouse. Introduced as a prototype in 1964, the very first personal computer mouse has let users edit their Word documents, play video games, and altogether explore a digital world created by 1s and…
If you’ve yet to get your CAD jabbers on SelfCAD, you can spin it up and start modeling in less time than it takes to juice a pack navel oranges with your elbows at your co-worker’s desk–Tis a fact. SelfCAD is the web-based modeling/sculpting/3D printing tool that works in all modern browsers and on Windows,…
Are you a total n00b? Do you walk around proudly pronouncing fillet like in ballet instead skillet? You may be a n00b. It’s okay if you are. I once was myself. I thought k-factor was when someone had an undefinable special medium quality. I thought kerf was cheap imitation Nerf. I thought we had the…
Ah, LEGO blocks – the real-life equivalents of Minecraft. From tiny model PlayStations to a gigantic 7,541-piece Millennium Falcon, almost everything has been made a subject by these Denmark-based construction blocks. To add to the never-ending list of things you can create with this deceptively-called children’s toy, Astonishing Studios has created a handy how-to guide…
If you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend watching the original animated movie Ghost in the Shell, which will give you an idea of the amount of technical detail prominently featured in the live action adaptation hitting theaters later this month (March 31). To get an even better idea of the detail in question,…
Welding is a useful skill to have, especially if you want to repair your vehicle, which was the goal of Instructable user Mr-Mash who figured it was cheaper to repair his own rather than taking it to the shop. For him, the easiest way to learn welding was to build one big, freakin’ bicycle outfitted…
If you work in manufacturing or have your own resin casting operation, you’ll know the all too familiar sound of pressure pots or tanks being bled and the subsequent look of agonizing pain as blood prepares to spray from the earholes… maybe it’s not that bad. Yeah, yeah it is. Ear plugs always get lost or…
Yeah, you know any old helmet won’t do. And you definitely know that Lannister guard helmet you fashioned from a paper bag, gorilla glue and wood chips is looking pretty weak right now. Well, there’s a better way to make a helmet and you won’t believe how simple it is. This week on Tested, the…
This past weekend I took apart a massive 2×4 workbench–it covered the entire side of a garage. It was large enough to lay two 4×8 plywood sheets end-to-end, dismantle a motorcycle upon, gut and clean five deer, or construct a normal size workbench–a workbench like this one.
I love new types of Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs). When it comes to demonstrating design projects, you typically need both hands – unless you’re a badass who can fold origami cranes with one hand like it’s nothing. Now imagine trying to capture images while simultaneously working on a dual-wielding project. Yeah, it’s not that easy,…
After being stuck in an engineering job that left her feeling like ‘a coma victim’, design engineer and artist Nicole Hodson decided it was time for a change and decided to switch things up a bit by studying furniture crafting techniques. Flash forward a few years later and her company Ciseal has become a go-to…
Modeling with both Sub-D and NURBS is all the rage with the kids these days (at least we’d like to think so) and Power Surfacing is one add-on that allows you to use such a novelly modern modelling methodology inside SolidWorks. Since its debut in January and our hands-on in with Paul McCrorey there have…
While modo (and the modo community) offer a wealth of free material presets, there’s always going to be a time when you’ve made your own adjustments and want to save your secret recipe-material as a preset for later use. In this quick tip we’ll give you a rundown on saving out your custom material to…
Creating delectable looking food and drink items in solid modeling software like SolidWorks may not be your routine, but it is possible and if you ever need to drench either with dew or a generous amount of condensation, there’s a quick, painless, highly repetitive (click, click, click) method for applying water droplets to the surfaces…
So you’re floating down a quiet jungle stream, the overgrowth blotting any light from the viney corridor, spider-eating snakes rustling overhead. Fortunately, you used your backpack to store indestructible lanterns instead of extra food rations. You hunger and the glorious light are all thanks to the make-tastic ingenuity of Steve Hoefer. Steve created these lanterns…
Sometimes when you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can throw mashed potatoes through a propeller blade. Or, you can throw propellers through a wall of mashed potatoes. Other times, you can sit down for a few minutes and model up a propeller in SolidWorks while eating mashed potatoes. Azim Hamid did just that, although, in his…
Carve it. Shape it. Cut it. Smooth it. Knick it. Clip it. Daft Punk Helmet. Yeah, you know what’s good for you. 3 minutes of prop building madness from Volpin Props. The prop? The helmet of electronic, supersonic duo supremo, Daft Punk. The process took all of 17 months… yeeeeeah. So ya gotta think, especially…
Most of you only have two fists. One for slamming out 3D geometry in SolidWorks and the other for punching it with pretty sauce using modo. However, if you’re just starting to build up those layers of rendering calluses, you may be looking for some soothing aloe to take the pain away from the workflow…
This is a guest article by Michael Lord. Michael is a Design Engineer at Trakka Pty Limited in Sydney, Australia where they use SolidWorks to design Campervans and Motorhomes. I first talked with Michael on Twitter and asked if he would write up his experience using PhotoView360. The iPad Rendering Challenge is finished and won…
You’re a hardcore SolidWorks model whipper, but maybe you haven’t flipped the program over to see what kinds of features lurk on the bristly backside of the history-based beast. What features are these? Direct Editing features. Do not FEAR! These are some that have been there in one form or another for some time, but…