Our fellow GrabCAD workmate Gabe happens to attend MIT and borrowed their Makerbot for the Summer break. We’ve been fooling around with it and finally have it working. We want you to suggest or make something for us to print off for our Boston office!
Have a crush on a particular propeller design? Turn it into an STL for 3D Print file and post it below. Got an idea for an outstanding 3D GrabCAD logo? Send it in! We’d love to print it off and display it. But before you submit anything, please consult with the design guidelines for the Makerbot. Two important things to remember: wall thickness should be more than 1 mm and overhangs are discouraged (<45°). We can print a model with overhangs, but that means we have to print it with removable supports that leave marks on the model.
As you can see, we’ve already begun. First we 3D printed Russell Donovan’s3D Printable Penholder, which is a really stunning piece of work. As advertised, Russell’s design wasn’t all that difficult to 3D print, in spite of outward appearance. Gabe’s friend made a few great modifications to the Makerbot – adding a better extruder and hotend means it runs better than the standard one! Next we printed Aaron Dabrowski’s response to a request: The Speedshape. This car body printed quite easily – now we need some wheels and we’re off to the races.
In case you’d hadn’t noticed, GrabCAD has two new challenges up and running! Team-up, bring your best ideas, make an elegant design and have a chance to win it all!
-Under heavy winds, doors are difficult to open and close by passengers and crew. Design a hinge and door that resists wind yet is easy to open and close.
-First prize is 2000 big ones! Second prize is nothing to sneeze at either – $1500. Third is $500 – plenty to go around.
-This is a difficult challenge with plenty of payback. Collaboration is highly recommended if you want to win!
-Design any tool that you can think of! It could be a unique tool or a unique reiteration of an existing tool, for any industry (Photography, Aerospace, Automotive, etc.)
-The entire tool has to be 3D-printable – ‘non-printed’ parts cannot be added later (ie/ ball bearings, bushings)
-If it is not obvious how your tool makes life easier or how it works, clearly explain this in your user manual step-by-step and upload it as a PDF or Word Document.
-First, Second and Third Prize-winners will receive a 3D printed tool, and 4th to 10th placed competitors will receive a nice and shiny GrabCAD T-Shirt!
This very impressive model of a human looks great in any renders– next to a car design, building, machinery. It’s available to download in Solidworks and STEP format.
Congratulations to all engineers who participated in the Solid Edge tutorial challenge. Here are the 10 engineers who each earned $50 with the best tutorials (with feedback from the jury)!
“Nice tutorial showing how to link excel file to a part to make changes in its parameters. This is very useful to make a library of similar part with reference to its mating part, without creating new part every time.” – Dev Raut
“A powerful technique for design customization.” – Ali
I enjoyed many of the other presentations as well. Mr. Charles Leadbeater, a British author and former advisor to ex-prime minister Tony Blair gave the keynote presentation on frugal innovation. Other speakers addressed topics like entrepreneurship and innovation.
My presentation, called “Crowd-sourcing and Open Engineering” focused on the GrabCAD experience. I highlighted case studies centered on crowd-sourcing with examples from other industries. I’ve reproduced my slides below. Enjoy!
Quattro Eco Mechanics, a team of several young Greeks, is developing the Dominator prototype vehicle which is bound to race in the Shell Eco Marathon in the Netherlands from May 17th-19th. The team has uploaded many CAD files onto GrabCAD and is open to suggestions and feedback about the vehicle!
GrabCAD is excited to join consumer 3D printer company Makerbot, UK rapid prototyping firm Econolyst and charity group Techfortrade in setting a challenge to the world: How can you use 3D printing to help the Developing World? The prize: $100,000 dollars. It’s called the 3D4D challenge and anyone can enter.
