The New and Improved FIRST CAD Library

[Ed Sparks]

Well I've finally got the "New and Improved" FIRST CAD Library up and running and I'm hoping some of you with access to various cad systems can give me a little feedback (bugs, suggestions, etc). I'm still tweeking, converting, and uploading models and my plan is to have everything I have on this site by the kickoff.

I've made several enhancements to the library as outlined on the opening page and I've uploaded a few of my newer models already.

Check out:

Drillmotor in the Mechanical Library
Opticalswitch in the Electrical Library
Compressor in the Pneumatic Library
The "Manufactured" library (Home Grown Parts)

Any help from you guys to make this thing error free and more useful is greatly appreciated.



FIRST CAD Library

[Elgin Clock]

Ed,

While Autocad is unfortunately the most widely used CAD syatem out there, IMHO it sucks for space planning and 3d modeling. Will you have room on your server to have store the files in more formats in the future? I don't expect you to do all the work yourself, let's face it there are better things to do in this world then to sit at a computer and make drawings or models, and what you have done is already a valuable asset to FIRST so......My question is: Will you allow teams involved with FIRST to convert the Autocad files you have to other formats, ie: Solidworks, CADKEY, Pro E, etc. and then send them back to you? I think the more formats the parts are created in would save time, and time is a valuable thing during those fun yet hectic six weeks!

[Adrian Wong]

Put my vote in for PRO\Engineer & PRO\Desktop formats.

Actually, how about formats like IGES and parasolids? Perhaps you could knock out two (or three) birds with one stone.

[Ed Sparks]

My delema is that I am trying to provide a service that can be used by all teams. In a nutshell, I need to find a few file types that can be imported my most of the CAD applications that all of us use. I only have access to Autocad, Inventor, and Solid Edge and do not know what file types (other than native) the other CAD applications can work with. I can generate IGES and dxf from Autocad and I've posted a few examples.

If some of you with other CAD software could try out these examples, I would be grateful.

At the very least I will provide the Inventor files because obviously that is one common application we all have access to.

While I would love to accept models from other teams with other applications, I have a couple concerns.

1. I have no way of verifying the contents and integrity of the file.

2. I have limited space on the server.


I will accept models in one of the "known" formats however if any team is inclined to contribute. So far, all of the models are my own work.

[Dan 550]

Ed, your new library is the best thing since Dew! The files are so nicely organised, and the previews are nice to have. All in all, your new site is very fluid and precise, and your 'Under Construction' gifs are neato. Thanks for sharing your work with all of us here, Ed!

Ed is the CAD God of FIRST

Keep up the great work!

[Adrian Wong]

I can generate IGES and dxf from Autocad and I've posted a few examples.

Thanks! Which parts happen to have IGES formats available? I'd like to try an import on PRO\Desktop to see if the model arrives intact.

[Ed Sparks]

Ed, your new library is the best thing since Dew!

Man! Talk about the ultimate compliment, to be compared with Dew! I may never get over it ........


I put every file type I can generate on the drill motor in the Mechanical library. If I were to go back and do this to all the files, would everyone interested be covered?


FIRST CAD Library

[Adrian Wong]

I just wanted to let you know that the IGES import went flawlessly.

[Elgin Clock]

Sucess!!!

The .sat file for the drill motor came into Solidworks perfect...just one question, What unit of measure were these parts drawn in originally????

MM, IN, FT, M?

I need everything preferably to scale while I do some space planning on the BOT!!

[ggoldman]

You all do know that the design award is in inventor this year....besides why work with obsolete and outdated software anyways?

[Ed Sparks]

Some parts were drawn metric (mm) and others english (in). If the part doesn't make sense, scale it by a factor of 25.4 and it should work out. I choose to draw in whatever units the part is manufactured in (and my calipers are set to).

BTW, I just released more parts in the mechanical library. Check out the tranny parts.


FIRST CAD Library

[SiliconKnight]

Just curious, how often do the components in the robotics kit change? I'm coming from a rookie team, and my understanding is that the parts that are given aren't known until the kickoff. Or are the parts similar enough every year that you gurus can predict what's in 'em?

-=- SK

[Elgin Clock]

Last year probably 90% of the parts were the same as previous years I believe. Usually there are only additions to the kit I think the newest ones were the gyro a few years ago and a proximity sensor this year?? (2001 was my first year - someone please correct me if I'm wrong?)

[Ed Sparks]

Elgin's right. Most of the parts repeat year to year. A few are added and a few are dropped but most stay the same as the prior year. Parts that appear in the CAD Library are things that we have seen before. I keep the "dropped" parts in the library for prototype reasons and mark them with a (!).

On January 5, we I get my hands on the new kit of parts, I will begin modeling the "new" stuff.