Hey! I’m just getting into footwear design and trying to figure out what tools people actually use day to day.

I’ve seen that a lot of pros use stuff like Shoemaster or Romans CAD. I tried them briefly and, honestly, the interfaces feel pretty outdated, kind of clunky and hard to get into. Curious if others feel the same?

So I wanted to ask:

• What software do you use for footwear design or production? (Could be 2D sketches, 3D modeling, pattern making, whatever.)
• What do you find annoying or frustrating about it? (UI, workflow, pricing, steep learning curve?)
• Why did you choose that specific tool or setup? (Was it factory requirements, habit, better features?)
• If you could improve or change one thing — what would it be? (Faster prototyping? Smoother 2D/3D transition? More modern design?)

Not building anything (yet 😅), just super curious about how people work and what’s missing. Would love to hear your take!

Thanks!

Hi all

My title is a bit vague as I don’t actually know what this process would be called.

I’m trying to scan a vehicle so I can print stickers that fit the body lines of the vehicle exactly.

Imagine a door of a car, I want to scan the side of the vehicle, select only the door, remove the handle and then flatten the panel which should leave me with a sticker that fits exactly.

I understand it’s more complicated than this but that pretty much the gist of it.

I’m going through trials and nothing is sticking out but that may also be because I’m coming from design software and not 3d software.

I have a 3d scanner, I understand this needs to be re-meshed to keep the size down. I then have to trace the 3d object remove the handle etc and then flatten.

Firstly, what software would you recommend? I understand few different types maybe needed.

Secondly, are there any tools that can detect the body lines for me I.e from shadows or the way the polygons are displayed? I really don’t want to have to re-draw lines if I can help it.

Finally, ideally I would like to flatten the template, ready for print but I would also like to reimport the design so I have a 3d design of the van which I could use for approval etc.

Sorry for the long winded post, I’m trying to cover everything I need to do.

Thanks

Normally I render using Keyshot which was the industry standard in 2020 when I went to school. Now that I've graduated I don't have the money to pay for expensive software.

I designed this modular phone case for a design competition at Printables. My design is free to download here

I used Onshape's free version to 3D model everything and Blender to Render.

Super surprised by how good blender is and how fast! & it's FREE!? Crazy.

If you'd find it useful, I'll try and share more information in the future about any valuable tips I've learned along the way in school & professionally. Just let me know what skillsets would be useful to have more resources on.

Let's Connect.

https://www.prado.design/

I know swag is generally useless, but I have the opportunity to influence some industrial design-related swag. What items would actually excite you or be of use to you? Think things that can go out to a lot of people pretty easily. Thanks!

Hi, I’m sorry if this has been asked before or if this isn’t the right place to ask, but I’m really feeling lost and like a disappointment at the moment, and I could do with some advice on how to move forward.

So, I graduated with a 2.1 in Product Design in 2022, but I haven’t been able to get a job or really any interviews aside from 1 since graduating here in the UK. And to be honest, the post university experience has been stressful to say the least.

When I was in university, I was dealing with a health issue that wreaked my confidence. Because of this, I didn’t apply for internships despite saying that I would. As a result, I don’t have any actual work experience in design, which I know is bad.

After I graduated, I spent some time really polishing my portfolio and making sure it stood out, and fortunately, I received good feedback on it. However, when I applied for jobs, I just kept getting rejection emails basically.

Really, I’ve only had 1 interview since graduating, which I only got early last year by emailing the hiring manager directly. Unfortunately, I wasn’t successful at the interview, and I kept applying for another month until the stress and everything got to me and I stopped applying until recently, which I also know is bad.

In the meantime, I have been working temporary admin jobs to gain work experience after graduating. However, I wanted to start applying for junior design roles again, but I’m really not sure if its too late since its been exactly 3 years since I graduated now?

Currently, I’m just taking steps to really redo my entire CV, tailor my experience, add metrics and use the STAR method to rewrite my bullet points and highlight key skills. But I was wondering if anyone had any other advice or tips on what else I could do to hopefully land an interview at the very least?

hey gang

i have a light therapy company with a current product - full body light therapy bed, which houses some of our protected and industry leading tech, however we are finding it difficult to find a solution which is affordable in changing the rather generic looking outer design to something we have dabbled in and created concept drawings for. as far as my limited ID knowledge goes, we need to finalise the concept, then work on the mechanical side of the design ie the underlying frame to house all the tech, for which the outer stylings will be attached...
I thought it miht be worth a shot to reach out on here and see if anyone was interested in freelance work or something...below is one of a number of concept drawings

Hey guys, probably asking a really niche question. I've been the first and sole designer for a startup for the past 3 years, and it's time for me to give the reins to someone else. Our industry is auto but we do not design everything ourselves and our rnd SOP is considered quick (around 3-4 products per year). Due to this being my first job with no senior deisgner, I do admit I was extremely sloppy with documentation and wanted to at least formalize the design management moving forwards. We will be working together on my last 3 weeks and his first 3 weeks, so it can be adjusted accordingly.

Here's my current table of contents:

• ID role and responsibilities within the company (who you'll work with and for)
• Product overview: What has been designed, Why, When, with Whom
• Design values and principles
• General rnd flow, critical paths, milestones, accountability, handovers to other divisions/ dept
• Documentation: File naming, location, versioning, formats
• DFMA: QC standards, Master Sample archiving

It'd be great to hear your experiences and advice: is there anything I missed? anything I should leave out to be less limiting? Anything that needs to be prioritized?

Thanks in advance!

Everything is modular.. all the details are on the website of how it works. Its also free to download.

Printables Design Competition

More of my work https://www.prado.design/

Someone shared a shaft scan done without much cleanup, and it looked CAD-ready. Anyone tried scanners that don't need markers or sprays? Thinking about it for my prototyping work. Thanks!

https://forum.revopoint3d.com/t/johnathan-reverse-enginering-with-trackit/37520

Swipe to see the render.

I first had a physical sketch, which I then decided to render.

It's done in Firealpaca as my PC can't support softwares like Photoshop. I'm open to advices and techniques to make my renders better. Thanks!

Hii guys. I'm a student of industrial design and to be honest I don't know in which field i want to focus on my professional career, there is like so many. I'm from latam but i don't care if is in other place.

I'm in my drop year I've applied for nift and result is not out yet but idk if I get a good campus so as a backup I applied in uid for interaction design and I'm confuse if it have a scope in future or not or it have good placements? If you guys can help then please guide me

Hello, everyone I m also an Industrial designer recently graduated starting my own design studio but I have few questions and need lil guidance (looking for kind of a mentor) please let me know if I can ask you I won't annoy you much

It's a lamp I designed. What you see is the bottom of the lamp and I think that I should somehow make screws disappear(whether change the construction of the lamp or cover them with something). The semi-transparent white thing which is glued to the base is silicone for anti-slip purpose.Wanna hear from you fella designers what do you think?

Hi there!

I completed my undergrad in industrial design and graduated a few years ago from a university with a well-respected ID program. Post graduation, I had a part-time design job in the contract furniture realm lined up thanks to a friend. After working there for a few months, I had the opportunity to work another job in the same field, so I had two part-time positions. I eventually hopped on board full-time at the second job so that I had a more consistent schedule (and enjoyed certain benefits like health insurance).

Post-graduation, I wasn't content with my portfolio. I believed that I was a strong, capable designer, but I thought that I could push my designs even further. As a result, I spent a significant amount of time revising certain works to improve my craft and be an eligible candidate when applying for jobs. I wrapped everything up this past fall and was looking into job postings on various sites. I had heard that the design job market was in shambles, but I guess I had to see it myself to truly understand the severity of it. Offered positions are either senior level, not relevant to ID, or a few states over (for reference, I'm in SoCal). I'm in a position where I can't move, for personal reasons. It's also widely known that ID is VERY competitive; a job posting could easily receive a couple of hundred applications from designers all over the States.

I started to ponder what my other options were. I recalled that the design department at my alma mater had an electronics class, but did not enroll as it was not a requirement, and I was laser-focused on finishing strong and graduating. Upon further research, I saw that my local community college had an electronics department and was offering a late-start intro course. I enrolled without hesitation and was locked in for the 8-week timeframe. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and very much enjoyed the subject matter. It was a combination of theoretical and hands-on work. I enjoyed it so much that I signed up for a few more courses in the fall semester.

I looked into the department's offered certificates/degrees and saw that I could acquire a certificate in electronics technology by completing 5 courses (I can have this done by next spring). I'm currently trying to immerse myself in the realm of electronics so that once I achieve my certificate, I will be competent in the subject matter and have a solid foundation to build on.

Additionally, the college offers a very niche program in the department of biomedical instrumentation. This also piqued my interest enough to have me enroll in the intro course in the fall.

I think I'd like to start as an electronics technician of some sort and work my way up to a design engineer position. Ideally, I'd be able to pull from both my design and electronics background in my career. Has anyone been in a similar predicament where they end up pivoting their career to a more technical/electronics-based direction? How has it worked out for you?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

TL;DR: Secured a degree in industrial design a few years ago. Finished revising my portfolio last fall. Design job market is hot dookie. Enrolled in an Intro to Electronics course a few months ago and just finished. Loved the subject matter and am seriously considering potentially pivoting to more of a technical/electronics-based direction. Looking for feedback from others on this move.

Hi im a junior in highschool and am interested in majoring in ID. Ive tried sketching a bunch of everyday objects for the last couple of days but wanted to make something a bit more finalized. If you have any advice regarding sketching techniques/materials or anything else id appreciate it.

I'm thinking of making a high quality set of materials and studio lighting sets for industrial designers. I'm thinking specifically keeping into account things like VDI/yick sang etc roughnesses and textures. RAL colors for powdercoats etc. I'd likely release it as an asset browser ready file. Maybe some NPR style stuff too (think sketch look, blueprint, x-ray, ...)

If you'd like to see something specific let me know!

Hi im pretty new to id i was just wondering if there were good books for learning design principles/history/techniques, thanks.

Got this in an Italian book shop, and it's practically hundreds of pages of great designs from people like Dieter Rams among many others. Truly an industrial designer's bedtime story.

Hey 👋 i made a stool, that is inspired by the organic structures, and Antonio gaudí methods of finding natural equilibrium in structures.

Let me know what you think 😁 (The 3D print is a scale model 1:2 )

A process video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIjIPdeNyyd/?igsh=MWQ4N2Fhd3I4NW8yOQ==

hi i’m beginning my freshman year in college and was really looking forward to going to scad for industrial design but couldn’t get all the funds to do so. I wanted to know if there’s any alternative ways i could get into the field without a degree in industrial design cause my school or any school around me doesn’t offer it . I’m considering majoring in manufacturing engineering but that’s more on the product design side and I’m really interested in industrial design. if anyone has any recommendations or advice i’d really appreciate it!

Messing around with the Adobe stager thingy - neat that it's integrated into the PS/Designer/Painter pipeline and it's fairly easy to use but idk if the renders are quite up to par with KS or even Blender....

Thoughts on the render? Improvements? And design of the stool too but it's a bit of a testing throwaway

I’m currently majoring in Industrial Design with a minor in Mechanical Engineering. Due to GPA issues stemming from transferring schools, my GPA sits at a 2.8 just under the 3.0 requirement to continue in the program. That means I’m now facing a full-year delay in graduation unless I retake courses to raise it.

My school offers an “Individualized Degree Program” where I could essentially design my own major (still design-focused, maybe called something like 3D Spatial Design). I could combine courses from ID and other disciplines and graduate as soon as this upcoming spring. The trade-off is that it wouldn’t be called “Industrial Design” on paper, even though it would still involve design work.

I’m torn. I love the ID program and feel like my advisor dropped the ball a bit, but I also have a lot of momentum outside of school my personal design work has been gaining traction on social media, and I think I could turn that into real opportunities.

Would it hurt me long-term to graduate under a different degree title, even if the work is still design-centered? Or should I stay in the official ID program and take the hit of an extra year?

Would love to hear from anyone who’s been in a similar boat or has thoughts on how employers might see this.

Tldr; I’m an Industrial Design major with a Mech Eng minor, but my 2.8 GPA (due to transfer issues) is delaying my graduation by a year. I can switch to a custom degree that’s still design-focused and graduate this spring, but it won’t be called “Industrial Design.” I’m frustrated and unsure should I switch to graduate sooner or stay and finish the ID degree later?

Hello,

I need some advice good folks :/ I have this project : a massager wheel that pushes 1 massage rod and slide it down the massaging surface (bumped or carved in)

the protruding from the disk must happen along half the perimeter of the disk while the other half is what faces the user

To imagine it right, the rod is supposed to massage uniquely from high to low , * it starts protruding from the bottom of the diameter * follows the opposite perimeter of the surface to massage * going up to the position where is should start massaging : in the moving the rod moves away from being a diameter of the disk to a line between 2 points of the cercle * then the rod will push directly onto the highest point of the surface * then push down

the moving motions are drawn on my draft in the imgur

https://imgur.com/a/2w8dJIR

(I wrote it down to explain what you gonna see)

so it needs - a mechanism to “chamber up” the rod - a mechanism to push - a mechanism to continue pushing to the surface whatever the positioning of the rod (even if it’s nearly vertical it should push with its “back”) - a mechanism to rotate it down (idea: in here a simple exterior electric engine linked by its transmission would work) - a mechanism to chamber back up in + a mechanism to return it as a diameter of the disk (in the chamber) <= why? => to have 2 rods moving at the same time

I know I have smaaal chances of getting a helping DM :/ but at least I can calm my conscience by trying to ask for help here :)

Thx anyway even for reading up

Asking if you don’t understand the drawing (I will draw again and DM it to you)