Forum news & info

A warm welcome to the Mechanical Design Forum!
It’s great to have you on board and I hope you’ll find this a useful resource for sharing knowledge, networking and finding work. We’re a friendly bunch and I’m sure you’ll enjoy being a member. Below is lots of information about the forum I hope you will find useful.
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Here's a video tutorial showing how to set up your avatar in the Mechanical Design Forum. It seems that many members haven't set up an avatar. An avatar is the small image that appears next to your posts in discussion topics. We really encourage you to set one up because it gives you a great opportunity to add a personal touch to your profile, and boost your presence in the Forum. It also makes the website more fun and interesting to use!
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Ho Ho Ho! Christmas is coming so here's your chance to win a SpaceMouse Pro 3D Mouse from our friends at 3Dconnexion! For your chance to win this seriously cool prize all you need to do is follow the simple instructions listed below. You can find out more info about the SpaceNavigator 3D mouse (worth £299 / 299 € / $299 ex VAT) over at the 3Dconnexion website. Please also spare a few minutes to check our their new 3DxBlog and please do pop along to Facebook and Twitter to check them out there. Happy posting, good luck, and best wishes of the season to you!

How to enter the competition (you must do ALL of the following:

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1. Register as a member (if you're not already one)

2. Post in our discussion forum! Post new topics or reply to existing topics. We will choose 10 of our best contributors and one lucky winner will be selected randomly to with the prize!
HOT TIP 1: Add lots of posts of good quality to increase your chances of winning!
HOT TIP 2: To improve your chances of winning even further submit an article to us.

3. Email me (gw@mechanicaldesignforum.com) to tell me you want to be included in the prize draw! Don't forget to tell me your username!

Closing date: midnight GMT on 31st Dec 2012

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Prize draw terms and conditions:
• Only members of the official Mechanical Design Forum (www.mechanicaldesignforum.com) are eligible to enter.
• Content submitted to the Mechanical Design Forum must be meaningful and useful. The content must be original material (no plagarism) and add value to discussions. Promotional material is not allowed.
• The closing date for entry into the prize draw is midnight GMT on 31st December 2012.
• The prize draw will take place in the first week of January 2013. The administrators of the Mechanical Design Forum will select 10 of the best contributors during the prize draw period (25th Nov 2012 - 31st Dec 2012), and the prize winner will be picked randomly from amongst them.
• Postings on our LinkedIn or Facebook groups do not count. Only postings on the official Mechanical Design Forum (www.mechanicaldesignforum.com) are considered.
• The winner will be contacted by email by 10th Jan 2013. The winner must confirm acceptance of the prize by 20th January 2013, otherwise it will be offered to the next entry picked randomly from the remaining contestents. The prize must be accepted as offered; there is no cash alternative.
• The prize will be provided and shipped by 3Dconnexion. The Mechanical Design Forum will not be held responsible for the loss of the prize during shipment.
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The Mechanical Design Forum is now 3 years old. It really doesn't feel like that long since it was started.

Below are a few screenshots of how the site has developed over the last three years.

The current incarnation of MDF (let's call it MDF 2.0) uses the excellent vBulletin software. The previous versions that are pictured below (let's call them MDF 1.0 to 1.3) used phpBB. The latter is open-source so it's freely available. As great as phpBB was, it could be quite buggy and unweildy to work with, hence the decision to move to the more sleek and professional platform of vBulletin in October 2011.
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Great news! We are delighted to announce that our FREE apps are now available for iPhone and Android mobile devices.

This is the ultimate app for mechanical engineers! The MDF app gives you access to www.mechanicaldesignforum.com from your mobile device. Our popular discussion forums put a global network of mechanical engineers at your fingertips, allowing you to share knowledge, exchange ideas and make industry contacts. The MDF app also provides you with access to technical articles, including manufacturing process design guides and CAD tutorials.
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Welcome to the new version of the Mechanical Design Forum!

As you can see there's been massive changes around here. We've switched from our old software (phpBB) to the industry leading sofware, vBulletin.

Many more small changes will still be happening over the next few days/weeks while we add content to the homepage and iron out all the bugs. Please be patient if you experience any difficulty during this period of transition.
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