NEW 200+ Part Community CAD Library

[sgreco]

Wow. This is awesome. It's great to see people doing things like this.

I have some parts I can contribute, I'll make sure to do it when I renew my CAD liscense.

Would you want things like entire swerve modules or six wheels skids and such on the library? because I have a few of those too.

Great job though, this is really awesome.

[ATannahill]

What versions are these good with? are they still able to work in Autodesks from past years or do you need the new stuff?

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

What versions are these good with? are they still able to work in Autodesks from past years or do you need the new stuff?

I was wondering the same thing, even if they're 09's, the STEPs should still work for older versions like 08 or 07.

[Madison]

It's probably not a bad idea, when possible, to save the parts so they're compatible with software that's not on the bleeding edge.

[AndyB]

RC, this is awesome. I've been using firstcadlibrary for the longest time but I love the fact that this site is more of a collaboration. I'll be sure to upload parts when I have them. I hope this site gets even bigger.

Not a huge fan of the iframes though. I'd rather have the page just scroll. But that's hardly a complaint at this point. I'm very thankful that someone went ahead and did something like this. Great job!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by AndyB

RC, this is awesome. I've been using firstcadlibrary for the longest time but I love the fact that this site is more of a collaboration. I'll be sure to upload parts when I have them. I hope this site gets even bigger.

Not a huge fan of the iframes though. I'd rather have the page just scroll. But that's hardly a complaint at this point. I'm very thankful that someone went ahead and did something like this. Great job!

Seconding the dislike of iFrames.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by AndyB

collaboration

That's pretty much the basis of a lot of the things we do now. Sharing designs is one of our priorities and we want to allow others the ability to better share their knowledge and designs.

We'll be showing some other cool things later on in the year.

Things like this is just one reason why RC was the first person I talked to about EWCP. Thanks a lot for giving back to FIRST and CD man.

[Jared Russell]

Well done guys, thanks!

The parts look great, and I love the "open source" aspect of the library. A few thoughts:

1. The site looks clean and professional, but I'd do away with the frames and just let people scroll.

2. Are you at some point planning a more automated way of uploading content? I think that even without a system for this, the site is going to rock, but a nice interface would put it over the top.

I've sent the link on to my teams' CAD folks - hopefully they will be able to contribute as next season approaches!

[Jeff 801]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

What versions are these good with? are they still able to work in Autodesks from past years or do you need the new stuff?

It depends on the part Most of the electronics and pneumatics and some of the wheels are Inventor 2008 but everything else is Inventor 2009. In other words if you use Inventor 2009 you will be fine

And for Solidworks everything is 2009

Originally Posted by sgreco

I was wondering the same thing, even if they're 09's, the STEPs should still work for older versions like 08 or 07.

That is correct the STEPs and IGES will work with older versions

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by sgreco

Wow. This is awesome. It's great to see people doing things like this.

I have some parts I can contribute, I'll make sure to do it when I renew my CAD liscense.

Would you want things like entire swerve modules or six wheels skids and such on the library? because I have a few of those too.

Great job though, this is really awesome.

I would love the parts, thank you. Contact me through the Contact/Request Section.

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

What versions are these good with? are they still able to work in Autodesks from past years or do you need the new stuff?

I believe:

-Autodesk 2009
-Solidworks 2009

-RC

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by rc_cola1323

I would love the parts, thank you. Contact me through the Contact/Request Section.



I believe:

-Autodesk 2009
-Solidworks 2009

-RC

It'd be really nice if you could save them a few years back.

Also, kind of nitpicky, but it'd be nice for electronics/pneumatics/etc... if you made "dumbed down" models that just have the critical dimensions and mounting holes. This will let teams with lesser equipment model their electronics without the lag those fully featured models will create.

[Jeff 801]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

It'd be really nice if you could save them a few years back.

Sadly we can't save them in an older version of inventor because the models were created in 2008 or 2009 depending on the part and there is no way currently to save to an older version. Because of that we have uploaded STEP and IGES models.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Jeff 801

Sadly we can't save them in an older version of inventor because the models were created in 2008 or 2009 depending on the part and there is no way currently to save to an older version. Because of that we have uploaded STEP and IGES models.

You can open the .step and .iges files and save them as older version with an older version of the software.

You could ask the user to do this, but a site such as this should really be appealing to the user in my opinion.

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

You can open the .step and .iges files and save them as older version with an older version of the software.

You could ask the user to do this, but a site such as this should really be appealing to the user in my opinion.

Sorry, I only have Inventor 2009, what do you have? It is ridiculous to ask them to make different copies for each different version, that is more work and more space used.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

Sorry, I only have Inventor 2009, what do you have? It is ridiculous to ask them to make different copies for each different version, that is more work and more space used.

If the creators expect this to be something the entire community will utilize, then it's not ridiculous to expect them to make different copies, it's what they'll have to do.

This is why FIRST CAD Library is good. You may not get a native file that you can easily modify, but you'll get an accurate file that you can bring into any CAD program, whether your software is 15 years old or brand new.

Personally I don't care about the file type. I'd be happy with IGES, STEP, or Parasolid files for everything, so long as they're accurately modeled. I don't see why I'd ever want the feature tree from Solidworks, for example, of a COTS/KOP item.