CAD

OpenAI is making rapid advances in a new text-to-3D object system it's been working on. The Shap-E AI, available as an open-source download, can generate 3D assets straight from a text description, or build them from supplied images.

Evolution has shaped the load-bearing skeletons of animals over aeons with incredible precision. Now, an accelerated simulation of the evolution process is helping NASA create stronger, lighter parts for its spacecraft projects – in record time.

When you're laser-cutting parts for a build project, you obviously want to be as efficient as possible. A new MIT-created program is designed to help, by optimizing the manner in which parts are cut from sheets of raw material.

One little button in a piece of CAD software is threatening to fundamentally change the way we design, as well as what the built world looks like in the near future. Inspired by evolution, generative design produces extremely strong, efficient and lightweight shapes. And boy do they look weird.

HTC has released MakeVR for the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. The 3D-object modeling application lets designers create and examine objects in VR and once they're ready, export them for 3D printing.

Using a radically-modified packing tape dispenser packed with electronics, a team of researchers have created a physical 3D sketching tool to create life-size wireframe models

Cubify Sculpt is a new application from 3D Systems that gives users the ability to freeform shape objects, giving a more natural feel to the design process and making it more accessible to the less-experienced designer.