NEW 200+ Part Community CAD Library

[R.C.]

Hey CD,

Here is the site:

http://cad.team1323.com

Since I started FIRST back in the summer of 8th grade I’ve been collecting parts and learning CAD. I know there are many people that have CAD saved up from over the years. So a while back I started thinking to myself. There has to be better way to organize and allow people to share CAD. I wanted something more open source and available to community. The current CAD sites are fine, but I wanted a blend. For example:

You can only upload files to 3d Content Central. Autodesk’s FIRSTBASE wants a username and a mentor has to register for your team; FIRSTBASE also only supports inventor. I don’t want to knit pick at the other awesome sites out there. So for the past five months I’ve been zipping and organizing parts with the help of:

-Jeff From 801
-Sean From 1771
-Akash From 11
-Marie Planchard from Solidworks
-Special Thanks to Greg Marra for helping with site issues

The main goal of this is to make a central place for CAD. It currently has about 235 parts on there. I am trying to help teams that have never done CAD and need to find parts easily. Or people that are tired of saving files of basic CAD Parts. Before posting, please go through the site.

Another option I wanted to give CD is that whenever there is a CAD pic posted on CD media, people ask.” Can you PM the file to me or email it.” Most of the time the creator would love to share and has no place to make it available to the public. I have a category made for CD members and it could be a place where people could upload random drawings that do not pertain to the site’s current categories. Like cool sprockets made or random manipulators for offseason.

The advantages of the new CAD library:
-Most files have textures on them
-The name links to the place to buy the parts (need help to find the ones that don’t have links)
-Multi-Format Support
-You can Request Parts to be made
-Has over 200+ Parts
-Anyone can upload parts to the library
How can CD help? There are a ton of parts still out there.
-Please contribute parts if you can.
-If there is no link to a part but you know where it can be found, please use the contact page and send an email telling where it can be found.
-If there are inconsisties in a part, please report them.
-If anyone would like to take drawings and add more textures or make the weight more accurate, please do so.
-last but not least, thanks CD for encouraging teams and individuals to succeed.

I and the team of 1323 tried to give credit those people that have parts uploaded on the site, we do not by any means want to offend anyone by taking a drawing and labeling it someone elses. I have been collecting parts personally and editing them over the years. I may have made a mistake. If Drawings were labeled the contributor if it was fixed, modified or done better. If there are any disputes, please go to the contact page of the site and report it.

Thanks,

-RC

[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.

[acidrain2012]

Wow. Thanks a lot, this will help our team, especially since we don't usually get very much done on cad. Good job on the site too! Keep the parts coming!

[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

[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!

[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.