Research is proceeding on ways to use AI techniques to generate solid mechanical 3D models.
modeling
The Fastest 3D CAD Modelers in the World
On TooTallToby.com, a passionate community of CAD enthusiasts are pushing themselves to be better modelers—and having fun along the way.
Book of the Week: Sculpting in ZBrush Made Simple
This week’s selection is “Sculpting in ZBrush Made Simple” by 3D artist Lukas Kutschera.
What’s New in Autodesk Inventor 2025?
Autodesk celebrates Inventor’s silver jubilee with many enhancements.
Plasticity Blends Artistry with CAD in a User-Friendly 3D Modeling Tool
I’m looking at a new 3D modeling tool, Plasticity.
Rhino3D 8 Revolutionizes 3D Scanning with Innovative Shrinkwrap Function
Robert McNeel & Associates has released a new version of Rhino3D, version 8.
Book of the Week: 3D Printing with Fusion 360
This week’s selection is “3D Printing with Fusion 360” by Sualp Ozel.
What are the Most Popular CAD Programs?
It depends who you ask.
Book of the Week: 3D Modeling and Printing with Tinkercad
This week’s selection is “3D Modeling and Printing with Tinkercad: Create and Print Your Own 3D Models” by James Floyd Kelly.
What is Parametric Modeling?
PTC made parametric modeling famous.
Will AI Finally Put the Aid in Computer-Aided Design?
Moribund software about to get an innovation boost from the AI tsunami.
Top Down, Bottom Up or Middle Out? What’s the Best Way to Model in Inventor?
An Inventor tutorial.
What’s New in Inventor 2024.2
2024.2 is an exceptionally loaded point release.
Trinckle: Simplified 3D Tooling Design Software for Non-CAD Users
Trinckle continues to innovate with a new version of their tool-making software.
ChatGPT and 3D Printing: A Look into MakeUseOf’s Findings
I’m reading a curious article on MakeUseOf that attempts to show how ChatGPT can be used for 3D printing.
Book of the Week: Mastering Fusion 360
This week’s selection is “Mastering Fusion 360” by Jake O Sugden and Joshua Manley.
CAD Is Not Natural: Making Organic Shapes with xShape
Jason Pohl and how xShape has changed his world of industrial design.
Book of the Week: FreeCAD Beginner’s Starter Kit
This week’s selection is “FreeCAD Beginner’s Starter Kit” by Aleksander Sadowski.
Book of the Week: 3D Printing with SketchUp
This week’s selection is “3D Printing with SketchUp” by Aaron Dietzen.
Onshape Holds an Online User Conference
Highlights and observations of Onshape Live 23.
Rapidly Design Lightweight Parts with Metafold’s 3D Modeling Tool
Metafold is a powerful tool to generate and process highly complex 3D models.
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.
Clara.io Shuts Down
Online 3D modeling tool Clara.io is shutting down.
Womp’s New Shareable 3D Modeling Service
A new service for shared 3D model development has been launched by Womp.
SnapEDA’s Syndication Network Liberates Millions of 3D Models
SnapEDA announced a new Syndication Network that releases “millions” of 3D models.
trinckle’s Fixture Designer Shows How It’s Done
I’ve been looking at trinckle’s Fixture Designer software, and it’s quite impressive.
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.
Interesting New Features in Autodesk Fusion’s May Update
Autodesk released a new version of Fusion 360, and there are quite a few new useful features.
Book of the Week: Integrating 3D Modeling, Photogrammetry and Design
This week’s selection is “Integrating 3D Modeling, Photogrammetry and Design” by Shaun Foster and David Halbstein.
Beyond Generative Design: Where 3D Modeling May Go
I caught a glimpse of a potential future for 3D modeling tools, and it’s breathtaking.
Blender Gains CAD Functions!
At long last, it appears that Blender will soon be able to perform proper CAD functions.
Book of the Week: FreeCAD 0.19 Learn by doing
This week’s selection is “FreeCAD 0.19 Learn by Doing”.
Book of the Week: Getting Started in ZBrush
This week’s selection is “Getting Started in ZBrush” by Greg Johnson.
Plasticity: New 3D Modeling Tool Coming Soon
A new, inexpensive 3D modeling tool is about to arrive: Plasticity.
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.
Formlabs Focusing On Automotive Applications?
Formlabs announced today a partnership with an automotive company, and this has some interesting implications for the 3D printer manufacturer.
Could The Future Of 3D Printing Be Specialized Software?
An announcement from Stratasys hints at where the future of 3D printing might be heading.
Apple Joins Blender Development Fund
The Blender Foundation announced that Apple has joined their development fund.
WASP Introduces a New 3D Print Industrial Application: Clay Modeling
WASP has partnered with Honda to develop a new process using 3D printed clay.
Book of the Week: Digital Modelmaking
This week’s selection is “Digital Modelmaking: Laser Cutting, 3D Printing and Reverse Engineering” by Helen Lansdown.
Interesting New Features in SOLIDWORKS 2022
It’s 2021, and that means only one thing: SOLIDWORKS 2022 is coming out.
Book of the Week: Modeling Naval Ships in Small Scales
This week’s selection is “Modeling Naval Ships in Small Scales” by Mike McCabe.
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.
Book of the Week: Parametric Solid Modeling Projects
This week’s selection is “Parametric Solid Modeling Projects” by Prof. Sham Tickoo of Purdue University.
Book of the Week: Essential Skills for Scale Modelers
This week’s selection is “Essential Skills for Scale Modelers” by Aaron Skinner.
Mesh Modeling, Part 3: Autodesk’s Fusion 360 Aspires Subdivision Modeling
The discussion about subdivision modeling has opened up significantly since the start of this series.
Autodesk Limits Functionality In Free Version Of Fusion 360
Autodesk abruptly announced some significant changes in the functionality of the free version of Fusion 360, their flagship 3D design 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.
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.
Gravity Sketch VR Launches CoCreation Beta
Good news from the folks at Gravity Sketch.
Finally: Autodesk Introduces Proper Emboss Feature In Fusion 360
At long last Autodesk has resolved a long-standing issue with Fusion 360: the ability to easily emboss a curved surface.
Microsoft Officially Joins Blender Foundation
Microsoft has officially joined the Blender Foundation Development Fund, a group that supports the open source 3D modeling tool Blender.
Question of the Week: 3D Printing Life-Size Heads
This week’s question delves into the science of producing life-size head sculptures using 3D scanning and 3D printing.
Shapr3D Adds Adaptive UI, Proves 3D CAD Can Be Smarter
Shapr3D has been doing a lot of ‘bringing’ to their iPadOS-based CAD app over the past three years.
nPower’s New Power Shell and Power Thicken Powers Up Your SOLIDWORKS Shelling
Shelling a 3D model can be daunting, but nPower’s new Power Shell makes it a lot easier.
SketchUp Goes Subscription-Only
SketchUp, the 3D tool many of us began learning 3D concepts from, has moved to a subscription payment model.
JustSketchMe is a Web App to Create and Download Poseable 3D Characters
JustSketchMe is a web-based app to create and pose 3D character models.
Cad Crowd Announces Winners of COVID-19 Design Contest
3D modeling freelancer site Cad Crowd announced the winners of their COVID-19 Design Contest.
Behold: Pico CAD
Game developer Johan Peitz posted a tweet recently with an animation of a project he’s working on called Pico CAD, an 8-bit 3D modeling tool.
Browser-based SelfCAD Adds Load of New Features, New Pricing for Education
SelfCAD offers a simple-to-use web-based 3D modeling service that is suitable for almost everyone.
Fusion 360 Now Offers 3D Print Slicing, But Will You Use It?
Autodesk surprised everyone by suddenly adding a way to slice 3D print jobs directly within their popular Fusion 360. But is it something you will use?
Browser-based SelfCAD Adds Load of New Features, New Pricing for Education
SelfCAD offers a simple-to-use web-based 3D modeling service that is suitable for almost everyone.
A 3D Modeling Newbie Tries SelfCAD
Could a complete 3D newbie master the easy-to-use SelfCAD? We put it to the test.
Book of the Week: Python for 3D Printing
There’s a rather interesting book that can show you how to use Python programming to supercharge your 3D modeling experience for 3D printing.
Assembly Required: New Photo Series Makes Fine Art Out of Exploded Views
An increasingly frequent approach to 3D design is to employ an “exploded view” of the components. Here we see how they can be turned into artwork in addition to their functional use.
Book of the Week: Thermo-Mechanical Modeling of Additive Manufacturing
This week’s selection is “Thermo-Mechanical Modeling of Additive Manufacturing” by Michael Gouge and Pan Michaleris.
SkillCoach | Discovering R3DS Wrap 3 | The Perfect App for Preparing 3D Scan Data for MCAD!
Need help transforming a 3D scan into a 3D model? One way is to use R3DS Wrap, whose new version has some powerful 3D modeling capabilities.
Is Blender 2.8 Suitable for 3D Printing?
Blender is upgraded to v2.8. Does this mean it is suitable for making 3D printable 3D models? We look at the pros and cons of the new software system.
Womp Provides On Demand 3D Services To The Public & Companies
A new 3D printing startup, Womp, is taking an unusual path to offer several 3D services to the public in an easy to use fashion.
3D Printing From Crowdsourced Data
A new project from Virginia Tech is perhaps the closest we’ve yet come to 3D printing as a Star Trek Replicator.
Being a Great Designer is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
You are a great designer.
Kodak’s 3D Printing Ecosystem Extends Farther
Kodak has introduced something very interesting into their 3D printing ecosystem: 3D design and print services.
LuBan: 3D Printing Very Large Objects
LuBan is a software tool to greatly assist when a very large 3D print is required.
ZBrush 2019 Focuses on Optimizing the Digital Sculptor’s Workflow
ZBrush 2019 is Pixologic’s latest iteration of their popular digital sculpting software.
Book of the Week: Geometric Modeling
This week’s selection is “Geometric Modeling: The mathematics of shapes” by Nikolay Golovanov.
New Reverse Engineering CAD Technique Could Pose Issues
Researchers at MIT have developed a practical method of reverse engineering 3D models.
Morphi Fills Us In: What’s New In v3.5
Morphi has launched the first of several updates for 2019, introducing v3.5.
Question of the Week: How Do I Get a 3D Model?
This week’s question delves into the mysterious world of 3D scanning and 3D modeling, typically unknown territory for 3D printing newbies.
Shapr3D Brings Complete Parametric 3D Modeling (and Sketching) to iPad Pro
Near the end of last year, Shapr3D revealed that the kernel in their 3D modeling iOS app had been replaced with Siemens’ Parasolid.
nPower Software Opens Pot, Pours Out Power Surfacing 5.0 for SOLIDWORKS
If you were too busy re-topologizing that scan of your skull last week
Book of the Week: SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible
This week’s selection is the detailed “SolidWorks Surfacing and Complex Shape Modeling Bible” by mechanical engineer Matt Lombard.
Dassault Systèmes Moves Closer to Students
Dassault Systèmes, producers of the popular Solidworks 3D modeling system, announced an educational partnership that may suggest something interesting.
Anarkik3D’s New Strategy
Anarkik3D announced a new strategy for growing their user base.
The Incredible MagicaVoxel 3D Modeling Tool
Need an introductory 3D modeling tool? MagicaVoxel is what you need.
Caboma’s 3D Personalization Solution
Montreal-based Caboma has developed some intriguing software that could lead to more widespread personalized 3D printed items.
Meshmixer 3.4 Available
The swiss-army knife of 3D printing has been upgraded.
Onshape Introduces Parametric Modeling 2.0 – Upends Configurations, Slaps Standard Content
Last week Onshape released possibly the most major update since launching out of beta.
Onshape Sweeps into 2018 With Advanced Modeling Tools Enhancements
2017 was a good year for Advanced Modeling Tools enhancements inside of Onshape.
LG Announces Drool-Worthy 34-Inch 5K Monitor Ahead of CES 2018
With another year just about coming to a close, companies who are gearing up to show off their latest wares at CES in Las Vegas in early January are already getting a head start on the news cycle.
Playing Around With BOTS101, But Where Is This Going?
I’ve been doing some simple testing with a bizarre 3D modeling tool, BOTS101, and I’m wondering where this journey will end.
SketchUp Free Out of Beta
The web-based version of SketchUp is now official.
Household 3D Prints: Handy, but Unaccessible
Two seemingly unbreathable barriers hold back 3D printing from general use in homes around the world.
Disney’s Compliant Mechanism System
Entertainment giant Disney has published an interesting study on a system they’ve developed to assist in the design of “compliant objects”, which could be very useful in 3D printing.
TAC.TILES is a DJ-like Physical Interface for 3D Modeling
As you are well aware, those wonderful 3D models you create each day are traditionally crafted with a mouse, a keyboard, too many mouse clicks and an occasional flinging of the keyboard across the room.
Google’s Blocks Has Nothing to Do With 3D Printing, or Does It?
Google announced a new online tool called “Blocks” for creating 3D objects.