[Lev]

I personally see no problem with use of FirstCAD Library. Its not like any of the models posted there are amazingly complex, or spectacular visually. You have to do quite a bit of work to make them look right after you download them, like filleting the sharp edges, simplifying excess detail, and mapping with good textures. Modeling any of those would not benefit my 3d skills, since most of them are pretty trivial, and there is no challenge in doing them - just time effort.

There is a big difference in downloading a car model from 3dcafe and downloading a metal extrusion from FirstCAD library, because in the first case you are downloading it because you dont know how to make the model yourself, but in the second case you download it just to save time on grunt work. It takes skill and creativity to model a car. It takes simple ability to follow a blueprint to model a robot part in Inventor. I would download the FirstCAD Library model so that i have more time for tasks i find challenging - like complex model, realistic lighting, and detailed textures.

About the rules. That line in the consent form was always there. Yet autodesk did offer in past years kit parts modeled in inventor for download for use in animations. I dont see how using FirstCAD Library is any different, even more so since more people know about FirstCAD Library than about the files Autodesk gave away - its a resource available for everyone.

So here is the bottomline in my view - if you think that you could learn something by doing the model yourself, you probably should. Otherwise, i dont see much point in doing gruntwork models such as kit parts.