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Tinkercad is Back. Autodesk Acquires Site, Tech and Plans 123D Integration

20 May, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, NEWS

Shouts of hooray and songs of delight are going out among fans of Tinkercad this morning. My kids are ecstatic and honestly, I am too. Tinkercad is back. Over the weekend, Tinkercad announced a deal has been inked that will put Tinkercad site and technologies into the deep development pipeline of Autodesk. On top of that, the various plan types have been consolidated into a single free account with unlimited designs and all import/export functionality available (limited time through the transition). Autodesk has also announced that it will be incorporating elements of Tinkercad into 123D. Surprised? Shocked? Here are the details.

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Ultimaker Design Challenge: Design a 3D Printed Toy, Win a 3D Printer

13 May, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, CONTESTS

Toys. What crotchety old man is the only person in the world who doesn’t like’em? That guy? Well, he can gum his pudding in shame, because GrabCAD is putting on a challenge to 3D print a toy and they’re teaming up with Ultimaker to make it happen. The Ultimaker 3D printed toy design challenge is your chance to show what insanely awesome mechanism of play can be pushed through the renal artery, aka extruder, of an Ultimaker 3D Printer. The prize. Well, that would be an Ultimaker 3D printer, valued at $2210.

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mark-biasotti-solidworks-porsche-carrara

SolidWorks Model: 2500 CC’s of Porsche Carrera GT Surfacing for Your Gourd

13 May, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD

Some would rather drive down Route 1 in a Porsche Carrera listening to Tiesto instead of modeling the exotic convertible in SolidWorks. If, however, you desire the later, you’ll want to pause your SolidWorks surfacing infusion and jab this into the base of your neck. In a previous post, Mark Biasotti detailed the desire to model the Porsche Carrera GT, taking on the challenge of building the entire surface of the exterior and interior. Of course, a full SolidWorks model of such a car, by such a master, would be a high demand item. So, the week after he told his story, he posted all the files for the car, including the full “2500+ feature beast” that you can roll through till your mouse-clicking finger pops off.
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Sunglass.io Updates Collaboration Platform, Announces $20 PDM

03 May, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, NEWS

Your choices for web-based collaboration are ever-growing towers of storage, sharing and data-viewing options that are turning into quite the trend in the 3D software space. Sunglass was one of the first on the scene with viewing CAD files in the browser and the widest support for 3D file formats, 3d software plugins, cloud-based apps and an API that links it all together. Now, they have new features, a new pricing model with versioning and data-management functionality that make the plugins more useful and the entire direction of this company (and this space) even more interesting.
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GrabCAD Workbench Launches. CAD File Viewing & Versioning For Engineers and Design Teams.

30 Apr, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, NEWS

Two weeks ago, GrabCAD launched Workbench. It’s not the worn countertop in your Grandpa’s garage. Rather, it lives on the internet surrounded by the warmth of Amazon’s S3 secure server architecture. More specifically, Workbench is the revamped version of GrabCAD’s project collaboration platform that adds a new interface, viewing of all major CAD file formats, secure sharing of files, versioning, revision control and, low and behold, a pricing model. Yes, GrabCAD has forayed into the world of freemium business models with three tiers of pricing – Professional, Team and Enterprise. Team and Enterprise details and pricing are yet to come, but the free Professional level (currently in closed beta) allows unlimited projects, unlimited collaborators, unlimited storage and mobile access. Are your collaboration woes solved?

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Alibre and Geomagic Combined. 3D Systems Releases Geomagic Design.

17 Apr, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, NEWS

Remember Alibre? That’s what people will be saying after today (or may have already been saying.) Alibre is the company and makers of Alibre Design 3D modeling software that was acquired by 3D Systems in July of 2011. As of today, Alibre is combined with Geomagic, the makers of Geomagic Studio 3D scanning software (and other design, inspection and haptic products) that was acquired by 3D Systems this past January. Now 3D systems has merged Alibre with Geomagic–the two become one; a big, happy geometry-shaping family. 3D modeling bliss and water-tight mesh babies soon after?
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Autodesk Reveals Fusion 360 Pricing for Cloud-based 3D CAD

16 Apr, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, NEWS

Wondering how the future of cloud-based 3D CAD is developing? More and more services are coming online with cloud-based offerings and Autodesk is certainly leading the way in both offloading processing for simulation and having complete access to your software and data via a web connection–it’s the whole anytime, anywhere scenario and they just announced pricing for the 3D design development portion of their growing 360 portfolio.
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Autodesk Gamifies Science and Tech, Rolls Out Digital STEAM Apps [for kids]

28 Mar, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, DESIGN, RESOURCES

I know you’ve had all you can take of the magical background music and gentle voice-overs coming from that Disney fairy app. It’s time to delete the horror that is dressing baby Tinkerbell (don’t ask me how I know so much about this) and give your children a good dose of science, tech, engineering and mathematics, erupting from the idea of making the mix more fun for kids and more inclusive of the artistic ilk. Autodesk has released a set of education apps for mechanics, design and measurement with the medicine going down all the easier with a little gamification.

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Autodesk Drops the Design Beat with Updates to Design Suites

26 Mar, 2013 by Josh Mings in CAD, NEWS

Tapping your fingers on the edge of your desk in rapid, chaotic motions may typically annoy your cube mates, but if you’re all users of one of the two Autodesk Design Suites or Simulation tools, it may prompt a head-bobbing sing-along. Autodesk just announced the release of the 2014 Design Suites and with it, they they add a measure of of assembly performance, a folder-full of factory assets and a smidgen of free surface liquid simulation to round out top new features.

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modo 701 is out! Here’s some new features to get excited about [video]

25 Mar, 2013 by Simon Martin in CAD, NEWS

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 proved that not only can they make a great software package, but they also listen to the needs of their strong community of users. Here’s a collection of some of the best of what’s new…presented by Mr. Peebler himself.

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Category: CAD