Highlights and observations of Onshape Live 23.
cad
Major Problems Ahead for 3D Model Repositories?
There could be a huge problem for 3D model repositories like Printables, Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory and others in the very near future.
CoreTechnologie’s Innovative 4D_Additive Software Streamlines CAx Processes
Thanks to intelligent 3D nesting, textured surface design, a sophisticated SLS build manager, and more.
AM-Flow Makes 3D Printing at Scale Simpler with Automation
3D printing at scale just might get a lot simpler with AM-Flow’s automation solution.
Text to 3D: The Massive Implications of Luma AI’s Imagine 3D Technology
This week Luma AI announced a new 3D model generation technology, that while crude today, will ultimately dominate in the future.
Hyperganic’s New Simulation Tech
Hyperganic announced a new and very speedy 3D simulation technology.
Siemens and BASF Create a Concept RV for Hymer
Hymer uses the Siemens Xcelerator software portfolio and BASF new materials to reimagine motor homes.
3D Printing and Canva
Charles R. Goulding and Valentina Alzate look at how Canva could relate to 3D printing.
Polygonica 3.2 Fills Critical 3D Printing Need by Accounting for Distortion
MachineWorks mesh management SDK gets a serious update.
There’s a Growing Focus on Post Processing
Post processing was for a long time the forgotten step in 3D printing. Now, that’s changing.
Intelligent Depowdering Is Here
I’m looking at a new solution from Solukon that can automatically depowder 3D prints.
Stratasys’ Latest Acquisition Increases Part Quality, But Raises a Question
Stratasys announced the acquisition of quality software startup Riven.
Have You Tried CadQuery?
CadQuery might eventually become more popular than OpenSCAD.
Book of the Week: Advanced Jewellery CAD Modeling in Rhino
This week’s selection is “Advanced Jewellery CAD Modeling in Rhino” by Jack Meyer.
Design Strategies Needed to Unlock 3D Printing’s Potential
A Protolabs engineer’s perspective on the right DfAM approach.
trinckle’s Fixture Designer Shows How It’s Done
I’ve been looking at trinckle’s Fixture Designer software, and it’s quite impressive.
Book of the Week: The AI Cookbook
This week’s selection is “The AI Cookbook: A taste of the future” by Paolo Rosson.
Could Sketch2Pose Show The Way To Easy 3D Modeling?
Sketch2Pose provides an intriguing capability that might eventually lead to a new way of 3D modeling.
Carbon Acquires Advanced Generative Software System
Carbon announced today their first corporate acquisition, and it’s a big deal.
Question of the Week: 3D Printing A Skeleton Model
This week’s question relates to a very unusual 3D printing requirement.
Book of the Week: FreeCAD 0.20 Learn by Doing
This week’s selection is “FreeCAD 0.20 Learn by doing: Sketcher, Part Design, Assemblies, Technical Drawings” by T Kishore.
Adobe’s Solutions Open the Way for 3D Innovation
Charles Goulding & Andressa Bonafe look at Adobe’s innovations in the 3D print world.
NVIDIA Omniverse: A New World for 3D Creation and Simulation
Charles R. Goulding and Andressa Bonafé look at NVIDIA’s contribution to 3D design and 3D printing.
Beyond Generative Design: Where 3D Modeling May Go
I caught a glimpse of a potential future for 3D modeling tools, and it’s breathtaking.
Design of the Week: Functioning Model Car
This week’s selection is the Functioning Model Car by Charlie Ashman.
3D Printed Digital Inventory Gets Real in Oil & Gas
News from Spare Parts 3D reveals interesting results from a digital inventory move.
Blender Gains CAD Functions!
At long last, it appears that Blender will soon be able to perform proper CAD functions.
3DFindIt Shows How To Find 3D Models
A 3D model lookup site has quite a variety of search methods.
Interesting DfAM Features in Flow 3.0
Velo3D announced a new version of their flagship software product, Flow, which happens to include a very interesting DfAM feature.
Plasticity: New 3D Modeling Tool Coming Soon
A new, inexpensive 3D modeling tool is about to arrive: Plasticity.
The Four Modes Of CAD Design
There are dozens of different software tools to produce 3D models for 3D printing, but all fall into four categories.
CASTOR Partners With Ultimaker To Unleash The Parts
CASTOR and Ultimaker announced an agreement to integrate CASTOR’S screening software into Ultimaker Cura.
Valve Releases CAD Model For Customizing Steam Deck
Valve released the design files to enable custom cases for their upcoming Steak Deck device.
Looking At Carbon’s Design Engine Pricing
Carbon has now officially released their Design Engine software.
Book of the Week: Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay
This week’s selection is “Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay: Tools and Techniques for Sculpting Realistic Figures” by Katherine Dewey.
Do You Know These 3D Printed Lattice Applications?
A new research paper investigates the rather long list of applications for 3D printed lattices.
CASTOR Releases Unusual Trends Report
CASTOR released their 2021 annual Additive Manufacturing Trends Report, and it’s quite a bit different than you might think.
Magics 26 To Include Native CAD Support
Materialise announced a powerful new capability in an upcoming version of their Magics suite.
Blender Upgraded to 3.0, But Is It Good For 3D Printing?
Blender has been upgraded to 3.0 by the Blender Foundation.
Could The Future Of 3D Printing Be Specialized Software?
An announcement from Stratasys hints at where the future of 3D printing might be heading.
Why Carbon Unleashed Their Lattice Tools On The 3D World
I spoke with Phil DeSimone to find our more about Carbon’s recent decision to make their sophisticated lattice generation tool available to everyone.
Autodesk University: Using Part Consolidation to Optimize Parts for Additive Manufacturing
During an Autodesk University session, experts demonstrated the benefits of generative design to perform part consolidation and optimize designs.
Book of the Week: Blender 3D By Example
This week’s selection is “Blender 3D By Example” by Oscar Baechler and Xury Greer.
Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
The Blender Foundation announced that Apple has joined their development fund.
Interesting New Features in SOLIDWORKS 2022
It’s 2021, and that means only one thing: SOLIDWORKS 2022 is coming out.
Book of the Week: Tinkercard for Dummies
This week’s selection is “Tinkercard for Dummies” by Shaun C. Bryant.
Rhino’s New Grasshopper Player Feature
There’s a very interesting new feature in Rhino 7: Grasshopper Player.
Dassault Systèmes Offers Low-Priced SOLIDWORKS for Makers
Dassault Systèmes announced a new low-cost SOLIDWORKS offer for makers.
Book of the Week: Ten Principles for Good Design
This week’s selection is “Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design” by Klaus Kemp.
CASTOR’s Latest Software Refines 3D Printable Inventory Identification
California-based CASTOR announced a new version of their additive inventory software that includes several notable features.
Ultimaker Releases Ultimaker Cura 4.10, With An Interesting Feature… For Some
Ultimaker released a new version of Ultimaker Cura, their highly popular 3D print management software.
SnapEDA Provides Millions Of CAD Models For Electronics
DesignSpark and SnapEDA launched a new service for downloading 3D models of electronic components.
Can You Use Generative Design for Internal Fluid Flow?
You can optimize internal fluid flow with an integrated generative design application.
Lessons From Cimquest’s 2021 Xpand3D Event – Part Two
On May 25 and 26, 2021, Cimquest held its annual Xpand3D event, virtually.
Formlabs Integration With Autodesk Fusion 360?
A brief mention in an Autodesk post suggests Formlabs is to integrate functionality within Fusion 360.
Visualizing CAD Models on an iPad with Cadmio
A new app from Cadmio allows iPad Pro users to produce professional renderings of CAD models.
3D Systems Acquires Not One, But Two Companies
3D Systems made what it calls strategic acquisitions of two companies last month.
While Onshape Got Famous, a Browser-Based CAD Application Was Baking in Switzerland—Who Knew?
A tiny group of developers saw that the future of CAD was on the web in 2010. They called it Buerli.
nTopology’s GPU Acceleration
nTopology found a way to dramatically speed up their 3D modeling operations.
Shapr3D Introduces “Drawings”
Shapr3D announced some big changes to their popular and easy-to-use 3D CAD tool.
Book of the Week: Artificial Intelligence Revolution
This week’s selection is “Artificial Intelligence Revolution: how AI Will Change Our Society, Economy and Culture” by Robin Li.
SOLIDWORKS For Students And Makers Coming Later This Year
Dassault Systèmes announced some changes to SOLIDWORKS pricing that will be of interest to both students and makers.
Matt Rittman’s Gun CAD Creations Show How The Real Things Work
It can be baffling how CAD encompasses a seemingly infinite number of fields: from animation, to product prototyping, to homemade 3D printing.
Autodesk Fusion 360 Discount Available
Autodesk is offering a notable discount on their powerful 3D CAD tool, Fusion 360.
Siemens’ Latest NX Offers Big Enhancements
When Siemens implemented its continuous release plan almost two years ago, it promised enhancements to NX every six months.
Autodesk Adds Fusion 360 To Netfabb
Autodesk announced a very interesting addition to Netfabb: Fusion 360!
Rhino3D Version 7 Released
Robert McNeel & Associates has released version 7 of their popular 3D CAD tool, Rhinoceros, a.k.a. Rhino3D.
The UK’s Design For AM Network
There’s a meeting place for those working on methods for additive manufacturing design in the UK: the Design for AM Network.
Book of the Week: Feature-Driven Method for Structural Optimization
This week’s selection is “Feature-Driven Method for Structural Optimization” by Weihong Zhang and Ying Zhou.
Book of the Week: The Complete Guide to Blender Graphics
This week’s selection is “The Complete Guide to Blender Graphics: Computer Modeling & Animation” by John M. Blain.
Shining 3D Launches Reverse Engineering Service
Shining 3D has launched a new reverse engineering service.
NVIDIA is Buying Arm for $40 Billion
How much would you sell your arm for? For SoftBank Group, the answer is $40 billion.
Modeler Recreates Scenes From Studio Ghibli’s “Nausicaä” in 3D
If you’ve never watched a Studio Ghibli movie before, stop what you are doing and watch one now.
A Portable 4K Touchscreen For High-Res CAD on the Go
With 4K screens the norm nowadays, you would think there are many an option for portable 4K displays.
Autodesk Opens Up About Generative Design
Thousands of Autodesk users, employees, and partners converged this week for the annual Autodesk University conference.
KeyShot 3MF Support Offers Full-Color 3D Prints
The 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) file type is about to go prime-time owing to KeyShot and Stratasys.
Bullish on the CAE Market: Tech Soft 3D Acquires Visual Kinematics
Engineering software toolkit provider Tech Soft 3D has acquired California-based Visual Kinematics (VKI). VKI develops a suite of software development kits (SDKs) called DevTools for computer aided engineering (CAE) applications.
BeYou Chair Lets You Sit Anyway Way You Like
Have you ever sat on a chair and thought, “Man, I wish there was a more comfortable place to sit”?
CAD Exchanger Adds CATIA, DWG, U3D, FBX Support
If you’re a user of multiple CAD platforms and 3D creation apps…
Book of the Week: Parametric Solid Modeling Projects
This week’s selection is “Parametric Solid Modeling Projects” by Prof. Sham Tickoo of Purdue University.
Sony’s Spatial Reality Is a New Type of 3D Display Technology
As technology becomes more compact, trendsetters start researching ways to improve multi-sensory experience.
SimplyColor3D Goes 2.0
SimplyColor3D has now now moved to version 2.0, and it includes a lot more features.
New Fusion 360 Features: Text on a Path, Text Frame, and More
The latest update from the Fusion 360 crew has us pulling our sock over our knee-caps and throwing our hats in the air.
MSC Joins the Generative Design Parade
We catch up with Dr. Thomas Reiher, cofounder of AMendate, who is now director of Hexagon’s generative design division.
NVIDIA Snaps Suspenders, Announces RTX A6000 and A40 Video Cards
NVIDIA officially snapped their suspenders announcing the next in their series of GPUs sporting the latest graphics-crackin’ Ampere microarchitecture.
Free Online Sculpting Tool: SculptGL
I’m trying out something called “SculptGL”, an online 3D sculpting tool.
The GeForce RTX 30 Cards Are Insane. What’s Coming Up for Quadro?
NVIDIA has come out to play with three new graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 30 Series.
Generating Gradient Material 3D Prints With GraMMaCAD
Fraunhofer IGD has developed a new type of software for 3D printing that enables use of gradient-style materials.
RIP Vic Leventhal: SOLIDWORKS Former COO and True Legend
If you use SOLIDWORKS now or used it in the past, one person you have to thank is Vic Leventhal.
SOLIDWORKS 2021 Now Available
Dassault Systèmes has released SOLIDWORKS 2021, the latest version of the powerful 3D CAD tool.
Onshape CAD | Four Surface Modeling Tech Tips to Grow By!
The folks over at Onshape have been cranking out a ton of resource material across all categories.
Entirely New Form Of 3D Design Developed: Computational Design Synthesis
Researchers have developed what appears to be a far more accessible method of developing highly complex 3D models for 3D printing.
Mesh Modeling, Part 2: Siemens Convergent Modeling for Meshes and NURBS-based Geometry
Developers of Siemens NX are working to integrate mesh data for everyday CAD users.
Mesh Modeling, Part 1: 3D Printer Company 3D Systems Has Geomagic, Other Software for Meshes
For decades, many CAD users have looked askance at data for any purpose made from point clouds, or polygonal meshes.
Why Would You Need CAD Conversion?
I hadn’t deeply considered the idea of CAD file conversion until I realized this could be a very difficult challenge for larger companies.