In the past couple of weeks you may have noticed these icons popping up on product pages all over the catalog:
So what's it all about? Well you may remember a news post from April where I mentioned that myself and two other SparkFun folks were going to amass a collection of 3D models for customers to use in their project planning. We even invited you to join in on our GitHub repository. Well it's been a few months now and things are really cookin'!
We have over 60 products (and a ton of components) modeled in a variety of formats, and are continuing to expand the collection every day. We're also making it easier to find our 3D models by marking products on the website that have been modeled. If you see the above "3D" icon on any of our product pages (where the RoHS and OSHW logos usually live) then that means you can find a model of that product in our GitHub repo.
At the moment, the repo is structured in roughly the same organization as the website. For instance, if you were looking for the pcDuino, then you could find it under:
sparkfun/3D_Models/tree/master/Products/Dev Tools/PCDuino/
As we get it filled in with more products and solidify the file structure, we'll start adding direct links from the product pages to the models.
If you haven't checked out the collection yet, go ahead and take a look! We (and you) are adding new models all the time. We know some of you have been doing 3D CAD for a long time and some of you don't know where to start, so feel free to discuss and trade tips/tricks in the comments section below. We hope to provide some tutorials for 3D modeling and prototyping as well, so look forward to that!
This is a great start and we're psyched that so many of you have contributed to the repository. Prolific contributors like Carrigan, brianrg and solarguy (just to name a few) have made this process a breeze. None of your efforts have gone unnoticed, we're super grateful for the hard work you're all putting in. This collection of 3D models will be the seed for some very cool projects down the line.
I am so glad that 3D has been integrated into SFE's catalogs. I don't know if I really suggested it way back when first, but I'm really glad SFE has taken that extra step to really ensure that its customers are fully equipped with all the knowledge they need. +1 for SFE!
With all of the 3D models out there it would be cool if they could be exported as a 3D PDF and placed on the product pages so one can get a quick look at the product in 3D. It wouldn't replace the models, as you can only look at a 3D PDF, but it would be nice browsing from a computer without cad software.
I think it is TE Connectivity that has just started using these PDFs on their product pages, and it is quite helpful in getting the right product. The 3D PDF I saw also had a measure tool, so it is a bit more functional the Github's viewer.
This is great! On many an occasion I have measured my Sparkfun components to incorporate them into a 3D printed housing...
Fun fact: Github has an STL viewer built in, so if you look at something like this:
https://github.com/sparkfun/3D_Models/blob/master/Products/Breakout%20Boards/9%20Degrees%20of%20Freedom%20-%20MPU-9150%20Breakout-SKU-11486/9%20Degrees%20of%20Freedom%20-%20MPU-9150%20Breakout-SKU-11486.stl
You will see the actual model rendered !
"solidify the file structure"... BAD pun!
White is the likelihood of a thumbnail directory?