Is there anywhere that offers a low cost (free) service for creating a 3D model?
I have a part that is being used in a design but all we have is a JPG image that contains a photograph of a physical part and a JPG image of the 2D drawings. The part supplier doesn’t create their own 3D models.
-Andy.
If its a generic part you might find it on one of these sites. I’ve found most my electronics 3d parts here:
https://grabcad.com/library
https://www.3dcontentcentral.com/
https://www.traceparts.com/en
I spend some time to learn how to do models with FreeCAD. And it took me not a lot of time to get shape I wont (using Part or Part Design workbench). The only problem that took me lot of time was a colour problem - to have more than one colour in my models. With models defined using Part my problem was solved by switching from 0.18 to 0.19 FreeCad version. But with Part Design colours liked to disappear when exporting to STEP. At that moment I don’t remember exactly what problems I had (I am 60+ and sometimes have to learn few times the same specially if when problem is solved I use my solution only once and then do other things for several months). The last problem I had when I wonted to define a part as an array of one block (terminalblocks). The moment I have solved it (with forum members help) is here:
I hope that thread give you the solution for the most important problem I had when learning to use FreeCAD. Since those time I didn’t touched FreeCAD.
It is a rotary encoder with RGB LEDs in the shaft from a Chinese vendor. The schematic symbol and PCB footprint I had generated using Component Search Engine. Sadly, the 3D model that came with it was a cuboid.
-Andy.
My mechanical design skills are significantly worse than my electronic design skills (which in themselves aren’t great) so I fear trying to learn a new CAD tool and draw it myself is going to be a significant amount of effort!
-Andy.
What is the part? .
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@sdcandy: Really worth to learn Freecad believe me.
I bit the bullet two months ago after several years of hesitation. The 1st step was Huuuuuuuuudge but once done, I rather quickly acquired the philosophy of the program and succeeded to build my first model within some days: an electrochemical capacitor with angular leads, groove around the base, relief cross on the top and markings, using the draft WB, the sketcher WB, the part WB and the part designWB plus the kicadStepup WB on top. Currently, I’m proud to say that I’m exporting complete 3D populated boards from pcbnew in .step format to Freecad in order to mount the sub-assies and verify if the embedding constraints are respected.
Definitely worth to learn it. What you can do to begin is loading .step modules from kicad libs and understand how they’re done.
There are lots of information to gather on this forum as well as on https://forum.freecadweb.org/index.php?sid=d1a155f67fc72880d887a9ad7e4f56f9. Don’t be afraid by the appearent complexity of the software. It’s made of several interactive workbenches that behave like separated programs.
We also might want to ask what your usecase is. So for what task do you need the 3d model?
If it is to make a detailed rendering of your board then the amount of work to make a model is a lot higher than what you need to have a simple representation for checking mechanical alignment and constrains.
For the latter all you might need are two cylinders of the correct size which is definitely feasible to do for a novice.
The highly detailed model would be a different beast and is possibly not worth doing for a complete novice at least not if one is not prepared to invest a considerable amount of time into first learning the tools required.
Primarily we use the 3D rendered image(s) in documentation so we want 3D models that look realistic and aren’t rendered in bright orange (as some step files I have are).
-Andy.
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