solidThinking NewsCategory Archives

solidThinking Team Spotlight

Darren Chilton - solidThinking Program Manager of Product Strategy and Development

When not spending time with his wife and kids, mountain biking or golfing, solidThinking Program Manager of Product Strategy and Development Darren Chilton is leading the global solidThinking team in pursuing industrial design needs and trends.

A senior designer with solidThinking since 2008 and formerly the studio lead for transportation design with parent company Altair, the Battle Creek, Mich.-native has come a long way since his days as an industrial design student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He specializes in using his knowledge of the industrial design process, product development and technology to create tools that enable designers to work more efficiently.

Click here for the full article and to learn more about Darren Chilton.

solidThinking Team Spotlight

Antonio Flores: Senior Product Specialist

In the spirit of collaboration, we’re giving our loyal visitors and solidThinking enthusiasts insight into the creative minds behind solidThinking by profiling a new key team member every quarter. For our inaugural article we sat down with one of solidThinking’s veteran senior product specialists, Antonio Flores, for a Q&A session about solidThinking, the industry and his creative inspirations.

Click here for the full article and more about Antonio Flores.

Be on the lookout for more on the solidThinking team in future blog posts.

Innovation as a Practice: Dagaa’s Experience

Adolfo Cota, director of development for Dagaa
Ricardo Ponce,
head designer for Dagaa

Dagaa is more than a traditional design studio; it is a company focused on the invention, design and development of new products for clients. For the founders of the company, innovation is not merely an idea, but also a practice. Adolfo Cota and Ricardo Ponce began their business just three years ago, but they have quickly learned many lessons, the most important being that they never stop learning and they can always improve a product through its design.

Dagaa’s client base is diverse, requiring designs for metal-based products, electronics, advertisements and furniture. The company is most recognized for its work in the videogame industry and has adopted solidThinking to aid in the development of its concepts. Using solidThinking, the Dagaa team was the first to create a design for a street-operated videogame machine with an LCD monitor for use in Mexico.

Click here to continue reading this story in our September Newsletter.

solidThinking Expands its VAR Network by Adding U.K.-Based Cadsoft Solutions

We are pleased to announce that we have recently signed Cadsoft Solutions Limited to our network of worldwide distributors. As the company’s U.K.-based distributor, Cadsoft Solutions will introduce its creative design and architectural customer base to the extensive design capabilities of solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired™.

Located in Cambridge, Cadsoft Solutions provides 2D and 3D CAD and design software solutions that enable innovative product development and design. The addition of solidThinking to its product portfolio will further enhance Cadsoft Solutions’ ability to provide its customers with the latest in concept design technology.

solidThinking and Cadsoft Solutions will jointly offer hands-on demonstrations of solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired™ at the ProductDesign + Innovation Conference in London, May 18-19. solidThinking is a major sponsor of the event, where senior product design and innovation professionals from leading brands, OEMs and consultancies will share ideas and explore emerging sources for growth. Come and meet us!

The Design Competition 2011 has started!

If you are a student of a college or university and you are 18 years of age or older, the solidThinking Design Competition is a great opportunity to express your creativity, use advanced 3D technologies, be evaluated by global design thought leaders and win great prizes.

The Competition has no category restriction. Design something that solves a problem. Any type of product design can be submitted.

Each applicant student will receive a full license of solidThinking Inspired 8.5 expiring on November 30, 2011 for preparing the entries.

Deadline for entries submission is September 30, 2011 (11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time).

Click here to read more. Take your chances to win!

solidThinking supports Industrial Designers’ Continuing Education Through Program-wide Sponsorship of 2011 IDSA District Conferences

Connect with us at the Industrial Designers Society of America’s (IDSA) 2011 district conferences.

As a comprehensive program sponsor, solidThinking aims to support the continuing education of industrial designers and contribute to the conferences’ ongoing collaborative discussions on technology and the future of industrial design.

During the tour, we will offer personalized previews of solidThinking and solidThinking Inspired and show some of the key product advancements delivered with the just launched 8.5 releases. Mark the dates!

Midwest Conference
St. Louis, MO
April 1-3

 

Northeast Conference
Providence, RI
April 8-9

 

Mideast Conference
Cincinnati, OH
April 8-10

 

Southern Conference
Austin, TX
April 15-17

 

Western Conference
San Jose, CA
May 6-7

solidThinking Essential Videos Now Available in Ten Languages!

With the release of solidThinking 8.5 six essentials videos, which can help users get up and running quickly and independently, are now available in ten languages. Supported languages include English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired Trial Versions Available

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired 30-day trial versions are now available for download. Click here to request the hands-on experience.

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired Released!

solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired have been released today!

We believe that these new releases are truly better, faster and easier as a result of more than 900 new features, enhancements and updates.

Our global team of product specialists, all of whom are experienced industrial designers or architects, paid close attention to the needs of existing and prospective users and have used their feedback to help achieve significant levels of improvement in the solidThinking 8.5 releases

Whether you are an industrial designer, an architect or a concept engineer, visit our website at  www.solidthinking.com to discover what’s new in solidThinking 8.5 and how it can help you design better products, visualize them with great photorealism and in real-time, and explore possible breakthrough design scenarios facilitating innovation.



solidThinking 8.5 on DEVELOP3D

DEVELOP3D previewed the upcoming solidThinking Inspired 8.5 Release.

Read the on-line article or download the PDF extract from the December 2010/January 2011 issue.

Josh Mings, the author of the article, wrote:

“We like to explore. Whether we’re designers or engineers, we like to spill the “ifs” across the table (or screen) in anticipation of that single moment when the design has been realised. solidThinking makes this possible in ways that compliment design and engineering.

It makes the design process more dependable and the engineering process more fluid. In this way, it’s shaking up the paradigms that have been sinking in for so many years.

solidThinking is a product to watch and one that other 3D software companies should keep an eye on. It’s slamming more than a few slick tools into conceptual design.

In a very real sense it’s allowing you to form and explore faces, features, joints and ribs as quickly as you think them.

That just isn’t common in the products that are out there today. Even with the organic exploration of structures, solidThinking maintains a history of features while not locking you down to their dependencies.”

Stay tuned for more news in a few days!