MakeUseOf Directory » design

Tinkercad: Design 3D Objects For 3D printing

Umar — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:01:57 +0000

Recently 3D printers have gained much popularity. These devices let you design 3D objects on your computer and then materialize them using 3D printers. But going to a 3D printing place to have your objects designs can be a time-consuming process. For the designing part you can use the excellent web service titled “Tinkercad.”

Tinkercad is a user-friendly web service that lets you create 3D designs for 3D printing. The site is currently in beta and allowing free usage. You start by creating an account on the site. Next you are provided with a canvas to draw your 3D object on. Drawing tools include variously shaped 3D brushes and tools that let you easily draw holes and slots into your design.

You can save your projects as you work on them. When you are done you can download the STL file that can be taken to your 3D printing place; STL files are what 3D printers accept as input. The site also provides you a permalink to share your projects with others.

Features:

A user-friendly web service
Lets you design 3D objects
Offers variously shaped 3D brushes and tools for easy drawing
Provides permalink to share projects
Lets you download STL file for 3D printing
Similar tools: Sculpt, 3D-pack and 3dBin.

Check out Tinkercad @ www.tinkercad.com/ (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Labeley: Create Really Cool Beer Labels Within Seconds

TehseenBaweja — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:01:35 +0000

Nothing is cooler than a personally designed beer label. Labeley is a web app that helps you create beer labels within seconds. The app is completely WYSIWYG and does not require any coding or actual designing. Start by choosing one of over 20 label shapes ranging from a circle and a square to a maple leaf and a cube. Then add a background color, a background pattern from the provided graphics or upload your own image.

The next step is to select a banner and a ribbon from the wide variety given and add the desired text. The text can be customized by adjusting the font size, color, font type, outline and lots of other text effects. Once done, download the label as a PNG file or embed it anywhere on the web using the provided HTML code.

Features:

Create fancy beer labels within seconds.
Choose background, shapes, banners and add text.
Customize your label with lots of available options.
No registration required.

Visit Labeley @ http://labeley.com

NextStyler: Get Feedback & Votes On Your Beautiful Fashion Designs

Umar — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:01:41 +0000

Are you wondering if the clothes you designed were good? One way would be to ask others. That is what a site called NextStyler lets fashion designers do.

NextStyler is a website that lets fashion designers share their design sketches online. Visitors to the site can create an account to vote on these sketches. Votes indicate how popular certain sketches are and tell the designer how their work was received.

The site also holds a competition where the submitted sketches compete against one another based on the number of votes they receive. The winning sketch is manufactured by NextStyler under a special label with the designer’s name on it; the designer also gets revenue from the sold items.

Features:

A user-friendly website.
Helps designers gets feedback on their designs.
Lets you visit the site and view wonderful fashion designs.
Holds competitions and manufactures winning sketches.

Check out NextStyler @ http://www.nextstyler.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

ResponsivePX: Find The Breakpoint Of Your Design Easily

TehseenBaweja — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:01:57 +0000

Creating a responsive design is critical to the success of any web project. ResponsivePX helps in building a responsive design by letting you find the exact breakpoint width in pixels for any webpage. All you have to do is enter the URL for an online or local page, and adjust the sliders for width and height of your viewport to find the exact breakpoint.

You can check the box for scrollbars if the webpage has them, and once you find the breakpoint, you can share that exact view with anybody using a unique permanent URL. The tool is dead simple to use but offers a great functionality that can help designers create a better and more responsive design.

Features:

Find breakpoint width in pixels for any web design.
Adjust width and height using sliders.
Share using a permanent URL for the view you created.
No registration required.
Similar tools: Simures, Browize and ViewLike.us.
Also read related article: 3 Firefox Plugins To Test Your Website In Different Resolutions.

Visit ResponsivePX @ www.responsivepx.com

Color-Palette-Maker: Create Color Palettes That Suit Your Room & Look for Similarly Colored Products

MOin — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:01:00 +0000

Taking colors into consideration is a very important step in designing the interior of your house. While many sites will offer you color creation tools, to juxtapose your created colors with pictures of your rooms you should visit a site called Color Palette Maker.

Color Palette Maker is a free to use web tool that lets you discover new colors and create a palette of them. While doing so you can upload pictures of your rooms to get a better idea of the colors that will suit your rooms. Once your palette has been created you can save it online and share with your friends. You can also search for products that include colors in your palette.

Features:

A user-friendly web tool.
Lets you discover new colors and create color palettes.
Lets you save your room and palette online and share them.
Lets you upload photos of your rooms to generate better suiting color palettes.
Lets you find products that include colors of your palette.
Similar tools: ColorHunter, ColorSuckr and ColorSchemeDesigner.
Also read related articles:

Check out Color Palette Maker @ www.stylishhome.com/Design/Color-Palette-Maker (by MOin from ThumbPress)

Flickholdr: Pull Images From Flickr & Use As Placeholders In Your Design

Israel Nicolas — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:01:38 +0000

Are you dead bored with stale placeholder images in your design? Then you should check out Flickholder. This tool replaces your usual random placeholder images with related pictures from Flickr.

By using logical tags in your URLs, Flickholdr lets you call an image of any size from Flickr which you can use within your HTML tags. All you need to do is type in the URL then use the slashes in the address to specify the image size and tags. For example, if you need a 200×300 placeholder image of the moon, you can type in http://flickholdr.com/200/300/moon to generate the image. You can change the values after the top-level domain to change the size of the image as well as call a different tag.

Flickholder is an intuitive and dead-simple way to add beautiful placeholder images. This is especially useful for web designers who need to create polished mockups on the fly.

Features:

Free; no sign up required.
Generate placeholder images using URLs quickly.
Change image size.
Call different images with tags.
Similar Tools: Placehold, RandomImageGenerator, and PlaceKitten.

Check out Flickholdr @ www.flickholdr.com

StickerMule: Create & Order Custom Stickers Online

abhijeet — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:01:48 +0000

Sticker Mule is a web based service that lets users place orders for custom stickers and skins. You can order custom skins and stickers for gadgets like the iPhone, iPad, your laptop, Kindle or stickers that could be used just about anywhere. The site boasts of their product quality, and they mention that they use premium 3M vinyl to create the products that facilitates easy application and removal. Prices start at $59 for 100 stickers, and UPS ground shipping is free in the US.

As you can see in the second screenshot, you can select a size, and then also preview and customize the product before ordering it. They don’t mention anything about international shipping on their site so be sure to check on that before ordering.

Features

Order custom stickers and skins from the web.
Select from a range of different designs for different products.
UPS ground shipping free in the US.
Similar tools: StickerYou.

Check out Sticker Mule @ www.stickermule.com (By Abhijeet from GT Mobiles)

Post3D: Lets Designers Share Their Work & Get Quick Feedback

MOin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:01:04 +0000

While sharing their work, graphic designers often have to upload their design so others can download and render them. But now there is a wonderful new website that designers can use to share their work and make them viewable online. This website is Post3D.

Post3D is an in-progress online collaboration platform for computer designers. It lets you create an account and then a custom URL for a virtual meeting space. You then upload your design files to Post3D. Over 30 design file formats can be uploaded to Post3D directly from SolidWorks. The files are then rendered online and made viewable on the meeting space. By sharing the URL of the meeting space you can invite others to view and discuss your designs. Conversations with your design viewers can be public as well as private.

For more info watch video below:

Features:

A user friendly web service.
Helps graphic designers share their designs quicker.
Provides a feedback platform for graphic designers.
Lets designers upload files directly from SolidWorks.
Renders the designs and makes the viewable online.
Supports over 30 file formats.
Similar tools: Noteboxapp, RecurseApp, TheCommentor and NotableApp.

Check out Post3D @ www.post3d.com/home (by MOin from ThumbPress)

LoveMyHome: Visualize Interior Design Ideas Prior Implementing Them

MOin — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:01:46 +0000

It is best to visualize your interior design plans first before you carry them out. In case you are planning to implement any new interior design ideas, be sure to first pay a visit to Love My Home. It is a free to use website that helps you visualize your interior design plans. You start by installing the site plug-in that enables you to use the website’s design interface. The actual designing starts with an empty room. Afterwards you can add items to the room.

You can add furniture, decorations, televisions, and much more, but you can also start from a pre-furnished room. The products you customize the room with are actual top quality products offered by specialist retailers. Advanced item placing tools and view options help you best visualize your ideas. You can save your work and show it to friends to get their opinions.

For more info watch demo video:

Features:

Lets you preview interior design ideas.
Lets you customize rooms with actual items and products.
Offers great customization and viewing tools.
Lets you save and share your work.
Similar tools: SeeMyDesign, Houzz, DesignYourDorm, SmallBluePrinter, Buildy and ProjectDragonfly.
Also read related article:

Check out Love My Home @ www.lovemyhome.de/?lang=en (by MOin from ThumbPress)

PhotoshopEtiquette: Learn good design practices for web designing in Photoshop

MOin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:01:01 +0000

Many web designers carry out their designs in Photoshop and an increasing number of designers are following this practice. If you are one of these designers and would like to get tips on efficient design practices in Photoshop, you should pay a visit to “Photoshop Etiquette”.

The “Photoshop Etiquette Manifesto for Web Designers” is a free to use website that lists numerous good Photoshop practices. These practices are suggestions that will help web designers complete their designs in Photoshop more efficiently. By following these practices you will also enable other Photoshop-using web designers to better understand and work on your designs. Suggestions are sorted according to the design stage. The suggestion titles are presented as a list; clicking on a suggestion title expands its description along with “do this!” and “not this!” buttons.

Clicking on the “do this!” and “not this!” buttons display images that exemplify that particular suggestion. The image is presented on top of the suggestion you clicked.

In this way you can easily understand and follow better practices while completing your web designs in Photoshop.

Features:

A user friendly web service.
Lists good Photoshop design tips and practices.
Provides examples of each practice through images.
A greatly useful tool for web designers who use Photoshop.
Similar tools: VunkySearch, Tutzor, Photoshop Lady and Good-Tutorials.
Also read related articles:
10 Websites To Learn Photoshop Online
10 Must-know Introductory Photoshop Skills For Beginner Photographe
20 Photoshop Tips & Tricks That You Should Know About.

Check out “Photoshop Etiquette” @ www.photoshopetiquette.com (by MOin from ThumbPress)