Let’s bring you closer to the fascinating world of Makers. Take a look at the best and brightest makers from Dassault Systèmes Ecosystem. Experience their passion and energy as they blur the lines between physical and digital, and extend the boundaries and definitions of design, engineering and digital fabrication. Get inspired!

Inspired by the resounding success of 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers program that we launched couple of years ago, we are bringing together, in one place, a kaleidoscope of creative makers, digital fabrication artists and designers from across the world. We call it the Makers Zone.

The Makers Zone will be located within The Playground at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023 in Nashville, February 12-15. You will be able to notice it from a distance as it will be visually different-by-design. Instead of a conventional furniture you would find in tradeshows of this scale, we decided to use simple cardboard furniture that has been designed by one of our users employing a community-based, co-design and iterative prototyping process.

Let’s take a look at who you’ll meet when you are there, and what they are bringing along to the Makers Zone:

Kate Reed – Kate Reed is an Artist-in-Residence at the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab Boston. Her collection of ecologically empowered interfaces will leave you amazed. On display for the first time at 3DEXPERIENCE World, these artifacts have been designed using 3D Creator, 3DSculptor roles, and using xGenerative Design capabilities of 3D Pattern Shape Creator role on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Check out Kate’s work here.

Robert Jackson – Robert Jackson is the Founder of OpenR2 Community project. On display will be OpenR2 project’s painstaking recreation of the original 1977 R2-D2 cinematic prop. The digital twin they have worked on has been captured using the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and CATIA. The physical replica has been prototyped on FormLabs resin printers with final production parts manufactured by Xometry.

Join Robert this year as the project moves forward into purely autonomous robotics with the integration of the Robot Operating System running on NVIDIA Jetson. You may also join the OpenR2 team in a hands-on workshop within the Makers Zone focused on creating authentic components of R2-D2 in aluminum with sheet metal Bending, drilling, taping, and brazing activities. OpenR2 project is proudly accelerated by the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab.

Daniele Ingrassia – Daniele is the CEO of InMachines Ingrassia GbmH, and a Fab Academy Guru. He is going to assemble Fabulaser Mini, a compact but powerful open-source laser cutter, in a continuous workshop format that will be open for attendees to join. Built with an innovative interlocking aluminum panel structure, the machine is designed to be replicable in Fab Labs and for an easy assembly. In this workshop, you will be guided, step-by-step, by Daniele, the Fabulaser Mini creator, on how to build this machine, providing a unique learning experience on how this technology works from the inside out, from the mechanics to the electronics.

Flexible Research Group (University of California Los Angeles) – Professor Jonathan Hopkins leads the Flexible Research Group at UCLA. Their primary goal is to enable the design and fabrication of advanced flexible structures that achieve extraordinary capabilities via compliant elements. Such systems are inherently repeatable, scalable, human-safe, low-cost, easy to maintain, adaptable, and lightweight.

Despite the importance of flexible systems, designing them can be overly burdensome due to their complex mechanics. This group aims to generate the knowledge necessary to overcome these obstacles for enabling the creation of new and disruptive compliant technologies. Areas of particular interest to the group include: Architected Materials (a.k.a., mechanical metamaterials), Additive Fabrication for enabling such materials, flexure-based Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), Precision Flexure Systems, Soft Robots, and compliant Medical Devices.

We will be joined by Nigel Archer, Doctoral Candidate, UCLA, who will represent the research group at the Maker Zone. Read about Flexible Research group here.

Jake Read – Jake, a Graduate Research Assistant at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, is working on an open-source CNC machine platform that uses completely 3D-printed components with a low-cost, off-the-shelf bill of materials. It is called a ‘clank’. Clank implements a live tool-changer that allows it to perform almost any CNC process, and runs a completely modular controller.

The machine platform is entirely 3D printed and a complete Hardware BOM (not including controllers) costs about $400 USD. The tools required to build the machine total an additional $500, including the 3D Printer used to fabricate parts.

The global movement of fab labs and makerspaces has the potential to scale exponentially if the goals of fabricability are achieved for a wide variety of CNC machines. Namely, machines should be cheap, easy to build using a small set of tools, and easily reproduced globally. That is the wider context against which the Clank is placed.

Shawn Liu – Shawn is an R&D Engineering Director for 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS at Dassault Systèmes. He is bringing a research project initiated by MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld that is integrated with xDesign FabConnect. The objective is to demonstrate a scalable mechanism with configurable motor nodes controlled by real-time parallel programming. The project is called URUMBOT 2D PLOTTER.

Visiting the Makers Zone will be a golden opportunity to learn more about a collaborative project between Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS and MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) aimed at streamlining manufacturing workflows in a standard digital fabrication lab.

Luke Daley – Luke and Karen Daley are prop makers based in the UK who specialize in using SOLIDWORKS to design props.

Props are short for “properties” and refers to any object used on a stage or film set that helps to create a realistic environment or situation. They can be anything from furniture and decor to weapons and costumes. They have worked for Disney Costuming and Disney Parks, as well as providing costume props and accessories to the costume community.

They will be running workshops on molding and casting resin from 3D-printed parts here at 3DEXPERIENCE World and displaying a few props designed in SOLIDWORKS, including a replica of Boba Fett’s jetpack from The Book of Boba Fett, originally designed by Iron Head Studios, and Costume Design by Shawna Trpcic. The jetpack is made up of SLA Resin industrial prints and Machined Aluminium & brass, the hollowing was created with nPower Power Surfacing RE Plugin. To learn more, visit https://lukedaleyprops.com.

Christine Getman – Meet Magic Wheelchair, a nonprofit organization that builds epic costumes for kiddos in wheelchairs — at no cost to families.

You will meet with Christine Getman, CEO of Magic Wheelchair, who has been working with the team at SOLIDWORKS for half a decade now. Her mission is to bring communities together to create unforgettable moments for children around the world by transforming their wheelchairs into magic. Come learn more about our efforts and how you can help us spread the magic.

Brad Thompson – Brad Thompson is the Co. Founder of the YouTube channel Impact Props, where he brings popular video game characters to life.  Although their main focus is to make fun and entertaining videos, an important aspect of their channel is the actual creation of replica props and costumes with the help of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.

Brad will be running workshops on casting replica helmets and will also be bringing some of his creations to display, including a full suit of Master Chief armor and a project called “The Mini Warthog” – a modified kids power wheels that can reach speeds up to 45 MPH.

Christian Bagg – Christian Bagg will be presenting the Bowhead Rogue, their new electric assist off-road hand cycle along with their race proven articulating front end for mountain hand cycling. In conjunction to their end products Bowhead will be giving some insight and training on their composite prototyping methods.

Wet layup carbon fiber molding is a great way to take a structural prototypes past the 3D printing level and into a durable, testable, part. Using 3D printed molds and simple crafting tools composited are and easy way to get complex shapes without expensive tooling or a big shop.

Staff Makers@Dassault Systemes – Come take a look at what our in-house ‘Staff Makers@Dassault Systemes’are doing. See the Magic Wheelchair builds they have created in the past 4 years.

Learn about the new YouTube channel, Our Next Make, hosted by Chin-Loo Lama and Sal Lama, showcasing home projects that take advantage of the apps from our SOLIDWORKS ecosystem and the 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers.

Come, experience their passion and energy as they blur the gap between physical and digital, and extend the boundaries and definitions of design, engineering and digital fabrication.

There’s still time to register!  We hope to see you in Nashville!!