Have you got some decent CAD skills and some ingenious engineering ideas? You might consider entering the DesignSpark Challenge from RS Components and Allied Electronics for a chance to win up to £5,000 cash and the first Ormerod 3D printer ever created, from RepRapPro. Just come up with a kickass product using DesignSpark’s latest CAD software, DesignSpark Mechanical, and upload it for the DesignSpark community to judge. The product with the most “likes” wins!
Co-developed by SpaceClaim, DesignSpark Mechanical appears to be a relatively intuitive and easy-to-use gesture-based modelling program (for Windows). According to commenters on the site, SpaceClaim’s contribution should make it a great piece of software, with one user saying, “The screenshots and workflow shown in the promo video look exactly like SpaceClaim Engineer. If DesignSpark Mechanical *is* SpaceClaim, this is fantastic news, because it is an awesome package to design with. Intuitive, fast, powerful, it’s my preferred option in my day job (mech. engineer).” The software also has one of my favorite features: it’s free. Below is the aforementioned promo video:
Download the software here and upload your designs here. You could win some useful cash and the newest 3D printer from RepRapPro. As the machine is yet to be released, the specs for the Ormerod 3D printer are still a mystery. I e-mailed the folks at RepRapPro and have yet to hear back, but, after the contest ends on November 22nd, I’m sure that all of our questions will be answered. Even if your design doesn’t beat the rest, you still have a chance at the runner up prize of £2,500.
The contest springs from RS’s original The Gift of Innovation Challenge, in which four teams of engineers were pitted against one another to design life-changing devices using the same software. The teams produced such unique items as a water filter for emergency use, a Coke bottle adapter to create an efficient watering can, a device for generating energy from bike pedalling and a lock for bike security. You can watch an overview of that contest in the following video:
You have from now until Friday, November 22nd. So get crackin’!
Source: DesignSpark
