From batch automation to Cloud-based folder sharing, the designer’s digital toolkit has never been as opulent as it is today. But despite sped-up workflows and AI-assisted features, the one thing that will never change is how those designs translate in the physical world. From a CMF (Colors, Materials, & Finishes) standpoint, the newly-launched Swatchbook aims…

Do you like things wheels and that go fast? Are you looking to speed up your modeling process in Fusion 360? Then we’ve got just the ticket. Youtuber name notimportant posted a nice video on concept modeling in Fusion 360. He shares his process of developing geometry rapidly with just enough detail to convey your idea.

As the fastest road bike on the planet with wicked-cool industrial design, the new Specialized S-Works Venge is also one of the most technologically advanced bikes ever made. Needless to say, Specialized didn’t want to skimp on the marketing for this one. In an effort to engage their audience beyond photos and videos on their…

Used by everyone from concept artists to industrial designers and architects to mechanical engineers, Luxion’s KeyShot has been a go-to rendering package for thousands of 3D modelers for good reason – it just works. While the release of KeyShot 5 last year brought us dozens of new bells and whistles to play with ranging from…

If creating big budget animated films such as those produced by Pixar and Dreamworks has been on your bucket list, we have good news for you, friends. Pixar has just announced that they have released their RenderMan software into the wild for non-commercial use. Although the software isn’t an all-in-one modeling, rendering and animation package…

Innocent automobile drivers out for their Sunday drive in London in the fall of 2013 may have felt the noticeable increase in temperature, the sudden blinding windshield glare and continued motoring down Eastcheap Street with little more than an automatic brief adjustment of the climate control. If they were to stop and peer upward through their…

With recent major updates including the addition of Sørensen Leather’s entire 289-count material library onto Keyshot Cloud, Luxion’s popular KeyShot rendering package has never provided as much flexibility, power and resources as their latest KeyShot 5.1 release offers. It comes with little surprise then, that the winners of the recent 2014 KeyShot Rendering Contest have…

Last week, it was announced that Luxion was updating their popular Keyshot 5 rendering platform to make your CAD rendering game even more flexible and powerful. The update includes everything from new procedural textures and options, support for the growing lineup of multi-touch PCs, Apple Retina Display support and more. Yesterday, Denmark-based Sørensen Leather released…

Back in May of 2014, Luxion released their much-anticipated Keyshot 5 that saw a host of improvements to their popular rendering package. Among other new features included the popular ‘Perspective Matching’ option for accurately placing a model in a scene and the introduction of Keyshot Cloud to further enable the Keyshot user community to instantly…

Whether you consider yourself a car nut or not (go home Jay Leno), it’s hard not to appreciate the level of detail that goes into vehicle renderings. While any well-executed rendering can be a sight to behold no matter the type of content, automobiles are in a category by themselves due to the multiple material…

For the ZBrush fanatics out there with a penchant for ooey-gooey digital clay modeling, this past weekend was an exciting one if you happened to be in Hollywood, California for the 2014 ZBrush Summit. The three-day event at the Gnomon Workshop featured everything from guest speakers and workshops to product demos and inspirational keynotes. Perhaps…

Siggraph 2014 is coming up this weekend in Vancouver and as expected, lots of exciting new computer graphics tech developments will be announced. Among them is this incredible new photo editing tool from researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the University of California Berkeley. Operating under the project title “3D Object Manipulation in a Single Photograph…

When it comes to rendering a 3D model, there are generally two directions one could go in: a drag and drop solution or a fine-tuned custom solution with more dials and knobs than a 747 cockpit. Full-stack programs such as MODO offer the latter for those who are particular about every last measurement of fresnel,…

In theory, if I were to take a hot glue gun and adapt a CNC-machined nozzle with a heat-sink on it to replace the existing glue-gun nozzle, then I could do what a 3D printer pen does in wax instead of plastic…but would I call the result a 3D print? No. It would be a…

Several months ago, the world was presented with the “3Doodler”—at the time, a conceptual analog device proclaimed to be the world’s first 3D printing pen. After achieving much notoriety, esteem and extensive international press coverage, the small Boston-based upstart behind the project, WobbleWorks LLC, shattered its now comparatively-modest $30,000 fundraising goal to make the device…

It’s no longer a secret–modo 701 is going to kick butt in major ways. Luxology’s Brad Peebler gave an online presentation this morning where he showed off the best of what’s new for those of us eager to dive into the new release. From updated edge beveling enhancements to a new animation workflow, Luxology has…

Luxology announced earlier this week their new modo 701, and as expected there are a host of improvements including expanded animation features like audio playback and sound support. For those of you looking to upgrade, here’s a quick preview of what’s to come.

Didn’t we just predict that acquisitions would be all the rage in 2013? Here’s a fun one: Autodesk buys German real-time rendering software Pi-VR, and when combined with the 2011 Numenus acquisition and Carl’s 2011 One Graphics System (OGS) initiative, we have a feeling AD is prepping to melt some faces.

I’ve marked today as the day I’ve seen the largest number of ‘WTF’s ever recorded by man… in the field of product development. Three new policies for product design and hardware projects were set in place by Kickstarter as described in their blog post, Kickstarter is Not a Store. It’s a game changer for those…

Two months ago, I received a very special package in the mail. No, my Chia Pet collection didn’t have a new member – rather, I received a new Dell M6600 Mobile Workstation from thee SolidBox. SolidBox is the custom auto shop of computers, taking stock builds, then modifying and optimizing them to your liking. How…

Have you ever felt the burning compulsion to export an OBJ file from SolidWorks, only to find out it’s not possible? Well, now it is. Neil Larsen and macro-maker Karpena have released a macro to make it happen. Absolutely free and exports both .obj and .mtl files.

That’s right, friends: modo 601 is here, and to say we are ‘excited’ would be an understatement. In fact, we burnt ourselves on some celebratory, half-baked brownies we cooked up for the occasion while feasting our fingers on new modeling and rendering tools, a slew of new shaders and – oh yes – character animation…

Hear that noise? No? That’s because it’s the sound of stunned silence emanating from all those who’ve been waiting and clamoring for their favorite real-time rendering program to bring the simplicity and ease of photo-rendering to their world of… animation. Well, prepare for the shock-wave that’s about to peel your keyframin’ fingers right off… Luxion…

Taters and cream go hand in hand, right? Mmmmmm… mashed taters. It’s only fitting that Photo & Animation rendering get combined to form the sweet, creamy, buttery treat that is the new Bunkspeed PRO 2012 Suite. Let’s find out what’s cookin’.

Don’t you wish you could just shake someone vigorously and have a beautiful rendering pop out? I do. I’ve tried it and the results are not beautiful and you’re no closer to a rendering than you were before. However, there are programs that can do for you what your firm grip can not. Bunkspeed Shot…

Hey, there’s nothing like an industry brief on technology that pushes your agenda. amirite? Yeah for agendas! and YEAH for CPU’s and the power they have to push the limits of rendering. Huzzah!! Hugs for multi-core and hugs for photon-dicin’ render divas showing us what kind of power the CPU has to do it. Among…

Illuminate! It’s what I yell when ever I walk into a dark room, put on a black shirt or hang a litter of albino kittens over the edge of my laptop screen. It’s what you’ll yell as well when you apply these fresh hot HDRI’s to your renderings. The Studio Environment Set 1 from Yazan…

No, don’t look away. It’s not scary at all. However, the awesomeness may cause the skin to tighten across your face as the excitement in your teeth push you jowls back over your head. If you have teeth. If you don’t, don’t worry, because we can sculpt some in and render them gold faster than…

This seals it. There’s just no end to the ability you’re being given to create stunning 3D renderings that suck the eyes clean out your sockets. But you know what? Getting the lighting just right can still be a tedious task. HDR Light Studio changed that with previous version of their HDR creation program. Today…

Honestly I can’t get enough of what people are able to do with some of the rendering programs of late. Especially with KeyShot 2.1 we covered last week. Al at Develop 3D took a rip through KeyShot 2.1 as well. His overview, rendering results and the video he slapped together (after the jump) are nothing…

One of my favorite things to do in the morning is bake the plastic off the CPU cores in the ol’ computer and there’s nothing like a little rendering action to make that happen. As I write this, my CPU is maxed out at 100% while KeyShot 2.1 creates some of the renderings you’ll see…

You know the comments you keep hearing? No, not the ones about how you look in tight pants. The ones about how good the product you design would look if you only had a good rendering. Once upon a time, a simple rendering seemed impossible. No more. Over the past few years, creating amazing renderings…

Let me ask you this. Do you ever have a SolidWorks model that has the same color applied to all the parts? Doesn’t that just frustrate the glitter out of your magenta and chartreuse trousers? I feel your pain, and so does a reader who is looking to add a splash of randomly generated color…

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…

If you’ve birthed a wee one, or have been involved in the process of choosing an appropriate container to cart them around in, you might be familiar with Phil & Ted’s. They make the buggies that make your head turn when you’re trudging down the running path like an angry marsupial mama with three children…

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…

Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s been a tense couple of weeks watching the entries come in for the iPad model rendering challenge. The wait is over… Or is it? YES, it is! All together we had 28 submissions and over 50 renderings from people using a variety of top-notch rendering tools -…

I’m not sure if you’ve experienced the joys of working as a fry cook in a back alley noodle house, but if you have, you’ll greatly appreciate the artistry it takes to design those chicken tender lovin’ mesh buckets. There’s a lot that goes into shaping that sheet metal and jabbing electronics in like a…

Feel like fiddling with a few polygons on a Friday? You’ll be feeling the joys of pushing pixels around the screen creating monsters, aliens, architectural masterpieces and more with the news this week from the West Coast. Pixologic, makers of Zbrush, have launched a fresh update to their Zbrush modeling resource, ZClassroom. With it comes…

Jaw. Dropping. I’m slapping myself over and over. Actually, this is the second time I’ve slapped myself to the point my jaw is hanging by a few strands. I saw a preview of the new Luxology Studio Lighting & Illumination Kit (“SLIK”) for modo at SolidWorks World last week and have been having dreams of…

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.…

Luxology has some very, very SWEET news coming out today. It’s the ‘Hey, I can bring my SolidWorks models directly into a rendering program and get some dang cool graphics.” kind of news. I talked with Brad Peebler, CEO of Luxology (modo), and got to see some of the new features in the upcoming modo…

Well surprise, surprise. You don’t have to wait till SolidWorks 2009 Pre-release 2 comes out to try PhotoView 360, the new rendering software announced by SolidWorks and Luxology is now available for anyone with SolidWorks 2009 to poke around in. You’ll want to see the First Look Ricky Jordan has along with Gabi Jack rendering…