Am I missing something or have the PDFs and STEP files gone missing for parts on new AM website?
We’re still in the process up getting all of the files uploaded to the new site. If there are specific files that you need, you can email us and we’ll move those files to the top of the queue.
Are all (or most) CAD and drawing files expected to be uploaded by build season?
Since we couldn’t port over all the files from our previous hosting into our new hosting this posed a unique opportunity to force ourselves to ensure all of our files conformed to new standards we gave ourself.
All of the files might not be up by build season, but if you email [email protected] and let us know which ones you need, we will bump those up and get them to you post haste. For most files that were on the old site, we can get the updated ones turned around to you same day.
The missing files is super inconvenient, but hopefully the better usability, reliability, and continued improvements over the next year on our new site make up for the pain right now.
-Brett
Exactly zero of the files I have looked for have been posted; fortunately I saved most of my go-to drawings over the years past. My requests below are based on what I have used most frequently and critically in recent years in robot design.
Most critical: all of the AM14U3 (as 3946 orders two of the previous year’s KoP in advance) and add-on/extensions/designed-to-interface-with items posted (e.g. wedge plate, cross plate, bumper mounting brackets). For other teams, please also include the 2019 kit chassis if it’s different than the U3 beyond gear ratio and wheels. The kit drawings/CAD have been critical for our build since returning to the KoP chassis in 2015.
Second- wheels. Full drawings are great, but a clear statement of OD, tread width, and how much/if the hub extends past on each side, along with some sort of statement which indicates what that extension will interface with. OK, drawings really are best for all that.
Drivetrain gearbox drawings/CAD would be next on my robot design needs. As a subset, individual 20dp gears - though not necessarily drawings/CAD, but clear listings which provide: face width, boss height (on one or both sides?), pitch diameter, outside diameter, and bore.
Fourth and fifth - hubs and pulleys. Similar info to wheels and gears, with emphasis on getting that warm fuzzy that this pulley/hub will engage with that wheel/shaft/bearing.
And at the risk of honesty being brutal: any item you want to sell this build season, have the drawings available. I can’t tell you how often I have passed on an item during build season because I couldn’t get that warm fuzzy feeling that it would interface with the next piece up or down the line, and wasn’t willing to spend half a week finding out (money less important than time in that crunch). As far as I’m concerned, providing the drawings/CAD has been AM and Vex’s secret sauce for getting my purchases during build season - and at other times as well. Don’t throw the secret sauce away - in my honest opinion, drawings not up to your standards are way better than no drawings at all.
I want to add on to what GeeTwo said.
Having something similar to Vex’s website would be really cool but definitely is not necessary. Honestly a dump drive full of drawings and STEP files that were on the previous website with the appropriate part numbers would be better than no files at all.
Please post the 1/2” hex bearing cad and drawings!!! It is SO nice to not have to reference similar parts from other distributors such as Vex or WCP when I am buying your product.
Thanks for bettering your compamy AndyMark- the website looks great - just gotta iron out the kinks.
If you really need a pdf/stp file or information from the old website that hasn’t been transferred to the new website, you can still find the old website archived here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20181106125434/http://www.andymark.com/
All of the links still work (even if they are a bit slow to load), and all of the files that I’ve tried have been available. I do agree with Gus that old drawings/CAD are better than none, and would love to see them hosted somewhere on the official website instead of relying on the Wayback Machine.
Hi friends!
We’ve heard your requests for missing CAD files and drawings loud and clear. We realized that the (currently) long process of adding files to individual product pages takes way longer than we had anticipated. We’re looking into some automated processes, but we wanted to make sure all files we have would be available for the 2019 build season.
Today, www.andymark.com/CAD now points you to a (simple) directory that includes:
- PDF Drawings
- STEP Files
- Assembly Guides
- Supplemental Documentation
We’ll be using this for the interim period (through much of the 2019 build season) as our repository for these files. Files are sorted (mostly) by their AndyMark part number. If you have trouble finding something, try the little search button in the top left corner.
If there are still things missing, please shoot us an email to [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as possible. We’re working on adding this link to our website too, for easy access.
Happy holidays everyone!
Sincerely,
-Nick
Thank you Nick and everyone at Andymark! This kind of response to customer feedback is one of the most outstanding things about FRC suppliers.
(by the way the link in your post is broken)
Fixed! Sorry about that.
-Nick
I’ve downloaded what I genuinely believe to be everything, and uploaded it into Onshape. (My thumb hurts.) It is my hope to lure some Pandamaniacs into cleaning up the assemblies and start kicking them public. If anyone else is bored and wants to join in, do reach out.
I examined that parts that are of interest to my team and have them for consideration for build season. Thanks for making the effort to release them before the site was linked in.
Why not just do some back end PHP/Javascript that adds a snippet at the bottom of a parts page. Have it search for the current pages part number and if it finds a file containing that products # it adds a link to it. You could add new files and you wouldn’t have to ever edit individual product pages.
It something like that isn’t possible with your site I understand but it seems it should be.
We are working on something automated similar to this to upload all the files to the individual pages but for now there is a link to the database at the bottom of each product page for quick access.
Thanks to everyone at AndyMark who made this happen so quickly! One request: I loved the videos that showed how to assemble various AndyMark products and it would be great if you could link those to the respective products pages or make a directory page, as you did with the other files.
That’s another process the we are working through. In the meantime, we do have a public repository of those assembly videos on our https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=(http://youtube.com/andymarktube) channel, and we’re always working on adding new instructional videos and content.
This is great! Thanks y’all!
I can confirm that all of the files should be accessible in the Wayback Machine. There was a complete crawl done before they switched to their new site. If anyone finds one that isn’t I’d be interested in seeing what it is.
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