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DIY Civilization with the Global Village Construction Set

14 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in DESIGN, FAB

Moving dirt. Mixing concrete. Inspiring people. Not something you want to do with a spoon, a bucket and lots of screaming. Especially when your goal is to create entire civilizations from scratch. Typically, you would need a few dozers, a backhoe or three and a lot more money to throw at materials and manufacturing equipment. Not any more. Marcin Jakubowski, founder and director of Open Source Ecology, is taking on the challenge of developing low-cost, open-source, diy machinery with the Global Village Construction Set. They were just funded successfully on Kickstarter last month. Now it’s time to kick the machine-making into high gear.

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The Flyboard is Insane and Awesome Combined

13 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in DESIGN

I’m convinced that what you’re about to see is the future of water sports, water exploration, water battle and anything having to do with the combination of insanity and awesomeness. Franky Zapata, World Champion professional jet ski/waverunner rider of Zapata Racing, is stepping watersports up a number of notches by retrofitting a jet to propel you, not only through the water, but into the sky. Check. This. Out.

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Friday Smackdown: The Smoth Mealer.

09 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in SMACKDOWN

And slipping into the grassy depths, the shadows fell, the sun disappeared overhead and the earthy floor tumble out before her. What strange and vibrant things were these passing by? A snail of purple playing didgeriplinks with an elfkin on top launching these links.

Amy Sol – Quiet and peaceful. Little pandas sitting on shoulders and furry friends. A mix of manga and vintage-style illustration.
Disrupt your inbox – As opposed to the inbox disrupting you, which it’s likely doing, right now. A few hacks to make it work better.
21 ft Great White – Yes, this is a 21 foot Great White shark circling a boat, caught with an iPhone camera.
Cello beatbox – If you like the deep sound of a Cello and the fine art of beatboxing, you’ll absolutely love this. Thanks Jeff!
Robbing a Bank – What if you were paid to rob banks? What if you then physically robbed the bank. Moran Cerf tells the story. so funny.
3.2 Million Ink dots – Miguel Endara creates a pointillist composition of his Father. 210 hours and how he filmed it.

Interactive Liquid Sculpture Makes Ferrofluid Look Extremely Cool

08 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in DESIGN, ROCKIN'

If you’ve ever mistakenly drank ferromagnetic fluid thinking it was coffee, you’re likely dead, or highly magnetized and sitting at In-n-Out gnawing on a burger dressed like Magneto. I am… right now actually, staring into the screen at the Kickstarter project David Markus has launched. Ferrite – Interactive Liquid Sculpture is a visual display of magnetic waveform tubery. Ferrofluid is trapped inside a clear container (just like my arm) with the globs of ferromagnetic particle taking the visual waveforms of the magnet placed against it. Here’s a look at the iconic desktop art piece and more from David about the project.

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TopSolid 7 is CAD, CAM and AWESOME Wrapped All Up in One [Review]

08 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in CAD

Sometimes you take a look at 3D software and go mad trying to figure out what eye to puncture first. Not the case with TopSolid 7. This review has been a long time coming. At first I was afraid, then I was excited, then slightly afraid again, then really excited. Why? Because Top Solid 7 has a methodology for modeling I hadn’t seen before. A methodology that was strange to me at first, but then became suddenly familiar and fun to learn. There are bits here and there I’d like to be different, but overall I was blown away. I think you will be as well.

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HSMXpress. First Fully-Integrated and Free
SolidWorks CAM Solution

08 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in FAB, NEWS

How do you really upset a machinist? Show them an fully-integrated SolidWorks CAM solution that puts their 2D toolpath pickin’ to SHAME. That’s one angry CNC programmer. That is, until they realize how much time you’ve saved them. HSMWorks, creators of the product by the same name, is releasing the first free CAM solution for SolidWorks. HSMXpress is a fully-functional 2D and 2-1/2D CNC programming systems you can use to lay out and visualize toolpaths for basic CNC operations like drilling, contouring and pocketing.

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My Robot Nation. Your Very Own 3D Printed Robots [Promocode!]

06 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in DESIGN, FAB, TECH

Robots! And they’re sooooo adorable! Wait, that one looks like… yes! THE FUTURE. Boys and girls, what you’re about to see IS the future. A glimpse at custom-fab-to-hand ingenuity in the shape of a wee, 3D print of eventual human devouring goodness. Now, customized fab tech isn’t new, but My Robot Nation is making it look good and poised to start a toy manufacturing revolution with a web UI that allows you to create, share and gift robot designs of varying shape and attribute. Best of all, SolidSmack readers get a sweet holiday discount till the end of the year. Hit it!

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3DConnexion SpaceMouse Pro. More Rock
for Your Bloody Nubs.

05 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in CAD, TECH

I tore the tender gristle from my wrist joint last week and sent my loose appendage into the Exhibition hall of Autodesk University 2011, straight down to the 3DConnexion booth. Before the blood completely drained, I (or rather, my hand) was able to twitch uncontrollably on top of the new product from 3DConnexion, the SpaceMouse Pro. A big thanks to Mark, Kristen and Mei for not freaking out and booting it into a seminar on data management. Here’s what I found out…

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Springy Soft, Steel-Wheeled Bike is Ready to Roll

05 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in DESIGN

Thinking of getting rid of those boring old rubber wheels on your ride? You bet. And what better way to do it than pinning strips of sheet steel together, for an ever so subtle springy wheel effect. Ron Arad is a product designer and architect with just the approach to make that happen and the results of his first go at it are quite impressive.

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Dassault Introduces a New 3D Sketch Tool for ID, Hides it in the Corner.

05 Dec, 2011 by Josh Mings in CAD, TECH

Dassault Systemes sure isn’t afraid to launch a cool, new product… then hide in the back corner next to the prosthetic leg design for their cat. Thing is, it may not actually be ready for prime-time, even though it is part of the currently available CATIA V6R2012 release. CATIA Natural Sketch was announced at ECF2011, allowing 3D sketching, with your hand, directly on your 2D screen. Here’s a quick look at the screen-slanting joy of CATIA Natural Sketch and all the gritty details we were able to dig up.

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