Tinkercad offers academic institutions free software
Tinkercad, the easy to use 3D design web app, just launched a massive project. For a limited time, qualified academic institutions can use $50,000 worth of Tinkercad software.
What a great project to help democratizing 3D design throughout schools. The first 1,000 applicants can use Tinkercad for free instead of paying the yearly application fee of $75. This on-line application must be submitted by midnight PST on Friday, December 7th, 2012.
In order to apply for this plan, here’s what you’ll need to know:
- This plan is open to ALL academic institutions, home schools, non-profits and other similar organizations whose mission is to further advance the study and teaching of 3D design and 3D printing to students
- You must be able to provide accreditation or non-profit status verification
- The plan applies to the 2012/2013 school year (summer 2013 included)
- You must currently possess a 3D printer, have access to a 3D printer OR have the intent to purchase one in the 2012/201
Meet the designers: DAMN
Caroline Das en Kim Nivelle, two Belgian friends with a passion for design, are ready to launch their brand: DAMN. Their way of working? With professional 3D printers! Confused? Keep on reading!
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3D printing meets Vintage
3D printing is starting a new industrial revolution. But does that mean we have to throw away all the rest? Not at all. Quentin de Coster, a Design student from Brussels, created a wonderful design by making a perfect blend between 3D printing and vintage.
Every year the Belgian non-profit organisation Petits Riens/Spullenhulp organizes a massive fashion and design show. Big Belgian names like Delvaux, (Edouard Vermeulen) Natan, Dirk Wynants, Elvis Pompilio and a bunch of young Belgian talents are challenged to design new creations out of recycled materials and clothes. After the show people can bid for two hours on the items while they are being displayed on big screens.
Quentin de Coster was one of the designers and started thinking how to reuse objects with new techniques. He used 3D printing to design special handle for an umbrella. de Coster: “I designed the umbrella Branch as an open invitation to share it with other people. When you’re walking in the rain with a friend
Featured Friday: Showing your 3D printed designs
Happy friday everyone! We hope you had a nice week, we certainly did. To end the week in beauty: check out the newest designs in our gallery.
Michael Mueller is the designer of the first piece we want to show you: the Fox Whistle. In many folklore cultures, the fox appears as a symbol of deceptiveness and trickery. Like ‘Reynard the Fox’, a medieval charismatic character that’s always in trouble, but the good thing is: he is always able to talk his way out of any retribution. Mueller designed this whistle to be reminded about that deceptiveness. The design is printed in gold plated brass and can be used as a pendant.
Next design we’d like to show you is from Ras Leaudevie, a Belgian designer. This silver jewel is finished with high gloss, one of our four finishes. It’s a cosmological symbol filled with geometrical figures and shows how the stars and planets behave.
Last, but not least: the nicely designed Galaxy Samsung S3 Voronoi cover. 3D Materialize Ltd designed the ca
New app alert: Autodesk 123D Design
Update: Autodesk has discontinued this app. It is no longer available for download.
Is your head always stuck with great ideas, but you have no clue how to model? No problem! With the new free 123D Design app created by Autodesk, you don’t need to worry about learning complex 3D design concepts. Designing is now just one app away. It even works in your browser!
Design the things you imagine, and then make them real! With Autodesk 123D Design you can use natural design and editing tools to create a 3D model. Then 3D print your model by clicking the “choose i.materialise” button.
How it works
- Get started with one of the basic shapes. In just a few clicks you can already be cruising along with your design.
- Professional 3D modeling skills are not required. Using the creation and editing tools is straightforward and natural, so you can focus on what you’re designing, not how to design it.
- 123D Design automatically creates the most natural connection between parts. When
Enjoy our reduced ceramics prices!
Good news: from today on, the price for ceramics will be $0.18/cm²!
Choose any color you want without being worried about the prize. This is the color range we currently offer:
- Glossy White
- Glossy Black
- Satin Black
- Lemon Yellow
- Pistachio Green
- Sky blue
- Ocean Turquoise
- True blue
- Peach Orange
Ceramics is the first food safe material we’re offering at the moment. So go wild with your designs. It’s a great material for table ware, candle holders, tiles, vases and art pieces, but don’t hesitate to think out of the box. The models are made from alumina silica ceramic powder and sealed with porcelain and silicia. The colored glaze we apply after printing is a lead-free, non-toxic gloss.
For more detailed information about the basic properties, check out our design guide.
We’re so excited to see all the new designs our community members (and everyone else of course) will create by using this material. Enjoy!
Winner(s) of the Christmas Ornaments Challenge
We saw 23 nice entries by different designers, but there can only be one winner…Oh no, that’s not true; because there were so many nice designs: we’ve chosen three Christmas Ornaments! Surprise!
It was very clear on facebook: Luigi Vaghi’s Ribbon for X-mas is the design with the most likes! 48 people voted for him on facebook. Congratulations!
HARD
Luigi Vaghi worked really hard and we saw more and more designs from him being uploaded on the website. He made 4 designs for this challenge: the X-Mas ball, a simple Christmas ball with wholes and a sphere full of ‘like’ buttons.
LEAFS
We were so happy with all the entries that we decided to choose two more winners. The second place is for the most clever design (full of moving parts) with the second most likes on facebook: Jolien Rasschaert! Her design got 35 votes and is inspired by leafs. She didn’t make it easy for herself by designing different moveable parts.
The third design is very heartwarming. It’s a small winte
MeshUp: Mashup for meshes
For those of you who ever wondered how to save the world from polygons, we may have found the answer at the recent 3D Printshow in London: MeshUp. Developed by a Norwegian company called Uformia, MeshUp wants to create the missing link between advanced 3D modeling features and easy modification by non-experienced 3D modelers.
“MeshUp is the first real volume modeler for meshes. We want to make life easier for 3D printing and for creators. At Uformia we envision a very different experience for users, where without effort, a creator can be sure that their models are always ready for 3D printing.”
At the 3D Printshow, Uformia offered free face scans. They could be used to effortlessly model and personalize a variety of template objects that are watertight and ready to print. For example, ‘Tor Kipper’, a coffee cup with real face scan data that we printed for Uformia in glossy white ceramics.
Features
- Mesh mixing: Create new objects by remixing any number of meshes and
Tired of boring birth cards? Use 3D printing!
Roman Plaghki, a product developer at Materialise, had one hell of an idea to surprise his sister with the most original birthcards ever: a card with the face of her baby in 3D.
What do you do when your pregnant sister asks you to design a birthcard for her future baby? Roman Plaghki wanted to use all his skills so started thinking about combining 3D printing with regular printing. “After some hard thinking work I finally came up with an idea. I asked my sister to send me an ultrasound where you could see the face of the baby when it was 5 to 6 months old. I uploaded the design up in Mimics and after some designing I finally got the face right to send it to the printer.”
OVEN
He printed 5 faces in polyamide to use it as a mold for his birth cards. “I put the faces under a thin sheet of polystyrene in the (kitchen) oven and used the technique of vacuum forming to create the 3D design. After hours of work I finally got 120 faces for the birth cards.”
We must say: it looks gr
Featured Friday: Showing your 3D Printed designs
The weekend has almost landed! That means it’s ‘Featured Friday’ again, giving you some of the 3D printed highlights of the week.
Guido Mandorf from Tramspotters blew us away this week with some amazing painted prime gray models. Without any doubt, this material is becoming the number 1 choice for model trains/trams/…
Luke Milkovic turned the flag of the Kingdom of Croatia in a beautiful (sandblasted) sterling silver ring.
Ornamart took or newest metal, high detailed stainless steel, to the test and printed some custom made needle knit knobs.
And finally, Xerocraft made a 3D scan of a clay sculpture and went for bronze.
That’s all for this week. Don’t forget to share your printed models in the ‘Unbox it!‘ section of the forum or add them to the gallery. Have a great weekend!
