The latest addition to the video library on 3DMadeEasy.com is in the Inventor 2013 course, Spotlight on Skills - 36 : Ocean Commotion - mechanical toy describing a wide range of constraints

The new Higher GC course in Scotland has been supported recently by a Specimen Paper. A solution to the CAD question in this paper is available in the Inventor 2013 course, Spotlight on Skills - 35 : Twisted Speaker.

3DMadeEasy are delighted to announce that an international distribution arrangement has been established with Carlos Costa - see the link at the bottom of the front page.

Eddie Mack is delighted to have been invited to join Autodesk's 'Teacher Advisory Council'. In a very practical and hands-on way, this will allow Eddie to contribute to the expanding range of excellent curricular resources Autodesk provides for the Education Community worldwide.

A number of new dates have been added to the training calendar. If you are within travelling distance of Newton Mearns, Scotland why not consider attending. See our training pages for full details.

Throughout the Summer, there will be a number of improvements to the site. Some are front end and will improve the look and level of content. The best work though will be going on behind the scenes increasing capacity and capability to ensure faster, more reliable video streaming. Feel free to let us know your thoughts on this. Have you noticed an improvement ? Is there room for further improvement ?

Any students or teachers looking to take their Revit Architecture knowledge onto another level may well be interested in this gem of a website I came across recently. www.littledetailscount.com is packed with tips, tricks and downloads and is produced by recognised Revit expert, Michael Anonuevo.

A close look at the analytics of 3DMadeEasy reveals a couple of interesting facts about the viewing habits of the students using the site. Typically, learners fall into one of two categories. Most commonly, students log on in groups of 15-20 within five minutes of each other, indicating that the most frequent use of the site is in supporting 'whole class' teaching. The second most noticeable feature is the amount of time students spend logged in to 3DMadeEasy outside of class time. There is a large number of students taking advantage of the 24/7 accessibility of the site and are viewing teaching material in their own time. Couple this with the free software from the Autodesk Student Community and you can see the attraction.

3DMadeEasy has played a lead role in the provision of support material for a set of 'soon to be trialed' Engineering Diploma resources for UK school/college students. The new course material will shortly go out on trial to approx. 30 schools with a view to implementation in August 2011. Other partners in the project were the Royal Academy of Engineers, Middlesex University, Autodesk, The Gatsby Foundation, TEP and Motherwell College.

Inservice courses for teachers of Design & Technology delivered by 3DMadeEasy are about to get underway. The first titles are 'An Introduction to Autodesk Inventor' and 'Creating Video Tutorials' and are intended to give teachers an insight into the operation of softwares as well as considering how they may be best used and delivered in the classroom. The sessions take place in Glasgow, Scotland on 14 and 15 December 2010.

On Wednesday 6 October at the University of Glasgow, 85 Design & Technology teachers from all across Scotland attended a 'Train the Teacher' event. The session was laid on by educational software specialists, Academia.co.uk. The intention of the event was to illustrate the advantages to D&T teachers of Autodesk's Design Academy bundle. Presentations were delivered by Eddie Mack of 3DMadeEasy, Niall McGinnis of Carrick Academy and Paul Tolliday of Man and Machine.

Academia.co.uk have been appointed the sole distributors for 3DMadeEasy in England and Wales. Schools can subscribe by navigating to - www.academia.co.uk/school/3dmadeeasy/ default.aspx. Academia Ltd., based in London, is a leading supplier of Autodesk software in the UK as well as a wide range of other softwares and training solutions.

With schools across Nth. America and Europe returning after Summer holidays, there has been a big jump in traffic on the site. At peak times (early morning in Nth. America and late afternoon in Europe) there can be hundreds of kids simulataneously streaming videos via 3DMadeEasy. Just a thought, any teachers out there who would like to use the opportunity to partner up on projects across continents, let us know and we will try to create a match for you.

Sir Winston Churchill High School in Calgary, Canada is the latest school to subscribe to 3DMadeEasy. Our growing community now has schools in four continents.

Our initial bundle of 3D Studio Max material is now available. Aimed at the beginner user, it seeks to give a well supported introduction to the three main areas covered by this powerful software - modeling, rendering and animation. Suggestions for further content ? Feel free to let us know via the 'Contact Us' link.

We hope you like the new look and the new layout. You will also notice some changes to the logging in process if you are an existing subscriber - we hope you will appreciate the enhanced security. Please use the Contact button to let us know what you think.