cad library

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by JesseK

If you use solidworks, download the .stp file from firstcadlibrary.
In solidworks, open the .stp file & save it as a solidworks part or assembly. Do not close the file.
In your robot CAD assembly, hit "Insert Component" and the part/assembly you downloaded will be in the list.

I would add one more guidline when downloading parts from the FIRST CAD Library; put everything you download into a seperate folder for ease of finding stuff later on.

Also, a big thing with imported files with Solidoworks is that it loses all mating features when you bring in an .stp "assembly" btw.

What you can do (if you have a lot of time) is to go in the assembly file and mate all the .stp components together so that everything is now constrained..

This is easier on say the AndyMark toughbox transmission, than on the Omniwheels which are just pure nightmares to mate because of all the angled metal on the hub piece.

To get around this annoyance of having everything sperate when you move a piece of an assembly, a shortcut (re: way to cheat) is to put that unconstrained assembly of parts in another assembly file locked at the origin, & save that as a new (final) name assembly
Then pull that final assembly in to whetever you are working on. Everything will magically be fastened to each other as they originally came in.

We did this with the Omni wheels, and they now move as one entity in an assembly model at the next level up.

Originally Posted by JesseK

As far as I know in solidworks, you cannot merge two parts together and still call it a part; it's instead an assembly.

There actually is a way to do this, but I'm not too experienced with that command. One of the guys where I work showed me that command, and if anyone is interested in knowing it, PM me and I will ask him when he is in.