Announcing 3D Printing Challenge

If you haven’t discovered Ponoko yet, you’re in for a treat. Ponoko is about turning the stuff you dream up into physical objects that you can hold in your hands. Nothing beats seeing your designs come to life.

To coincide with the launch of their new Personal Factory 4 services, I’m happy to announce a nifty competition we’re helping the folks at Ponoko to promote. Basically, the challenge is to produce a piece of instructional content that’s equal parts enlightening and entertaining. Each entry must be titled “How to use Google SketchUp for Ponoko 3D printing,” but aside from that, the format is pretty open. Text, images and video (or some combination of the three) are all fair game.

The prizes are noteworthy: All three winners will each receive SketchUp Pro 8, a 12-month Prime subscription to Personal Factory 4 and a voucher for having something made. The prizes for first place alone are worth $1500.

The competition deadline is four weeks from now; all entries are due December 17, 2010. Visit the official announcement page for all the juicy details, and have fun making the world a more interesting place to be.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

Lamp Design Challenge winners announced

The winners of the i.materialise 3D Printed Lamp Design Challenge for SketchUp have been announced, and they’re beautiful. Check ‘em out:

First Place:
3D Maze by Corre

Second Place:
Parasite by Paradox

Third Place:
HD Studio Lamp by Zach Hines & Oliver Dibrova

Jury Prize:
Amazelight by Oscar Rottink

You can see all 55 entries at the bottom of this page. Thanks to everyone who submitted a design and congratulations to the winners. Each of the top three winners will receive their lamp as a physical, 3d printed object, complete with fixture and stand. They’ll also receive a SketchUp Pro 8 license, courtesy of us.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist