Cad Crowd Recap | Crowdsourcing Design Contests of The Week

There’s always something interesting going on in the Cad Crowd contest section! With thousands of designers from all over the world, there’s no shortage of creative solutions being put forward by our community of CAD wizards. Here’s a recap of some of the recent challenges, and examples of some of the awesome designs that have been submitted for consideration. Good luck to all the entrants, and be sure to take a look at the Contest pages for more!

Underwater Drone – 3D Printing Design Competition – Under $1,499

Drone design is all the rage these days. Little flying vehicles have become a pretty common sight and a popular hobby. But while many dream of soaring through the air, what about those who aspire to swim like the deep blue seas (or, in this case, a lake)? Well, Cad Crowd’s community of designers have been hard at work imagining the next great thing in underwater drones might look like. This drone design by Vladimir Nikolic has got its eyes on the prize!

Vehicular LED Display – Product Design Contest – Under $1,499

Maybe your car’s got sweet rims. But has it got an 82cm long LED light display? This design is both an aesthetic challenge and also a mechanical one. How do you build such a large display that is both water-tight and aerodynamic enough to remain mounted to the top of a vehicle? Think you have a solution? It’s not too late to enter your own submission in this challenging contest!

Acrylic Box – 3D Modeling Design Challenge – Under $799

This design competition is for an easy to assemble, tool-free acrylic box that can be used to house hamsters. The challenge here is for designers to come up with a sturdy locking mechanism to secure the 6 sides without any fasteners or components protruding beyond the 6 walls. Total flushness is the goal! Sometimes design challenges can be deceptively tricky!

Innovative Napkin Dispenser – 3D Modeling Design – Under $799

When was the last time anyone came up with a new idea for a napkin dispenser? The Cad Crowd community has recently come up with over 100 for this popular contest! Clearly something about the challenge of coming up with an innovative new solution to this age-old design problem has stimulated the creative minds. This contest is a great example of the range of solutions that can be generated by a crowdsourced design contest!

Hollow Ice Ball Mould – Consumer Products Design Contest – Under $799

This one is a real head scratcher! The goal: to create a relatively simple device (preferably without a motor) that can create a hollow spherical ball of ice! Maybe doesn’t sound so hard, til you think about it! The designers have had to put on their thinking caps for this one. The design above by Adam shows a popular approach: using an inflattable balloon suspended within the mould. A fascinating challenge, the solution to this task would be hard enough even without the real-world practical limitations of building a viable product!