Free CAD for Vex - New Parts!

VEX V5 General Discussion Technical Discussion
#1

It’s been quite a bit of work, but a new set of parts is now available at hobbyvex.org. There are now 77 parts in the set! The entire starter set is now covered as well as all the sensors.

Please read the CAD page on hobbyvex.org if you’re updating from version 1.0. The new parts are not directly compatible with the old parts, however, there is a simple conversion process.

**Is anyone posting models or instructions anywhere? ** Only one (a SquareBot) has been submitted back to hobbyvex.org thus far :mad: Please PM me if you know some reason nobody is posting them.

#2

Please note that you should choose the finest grid setting for placing parts within MLCAD. You can use the Settings menu and choose the Grid flyout menu and then choose Fine -or- press F11 -or- find the grid icon on the toolbar and press it.

Using the finest grid setting helps when positioning parts because the snap-to-grid feature can get closer to where you want the part to be.

(I didn’t mean to use the angry smiley in the previous post, that was supposed to be the sad one.)

#3

Well,

I went throug the installation, upacked the parts and … was very disappointed with the selection. On the other hand I know how hard you must have worked to draw or modify what is there. I don’t know whether to whine or applaud. :slight_smile:

I will say and ask this:

  1. At this point the virtual parts that I know about (because they were downloaded along with the rest of the MLCAD stuff) are next to useless for me. My robots mostly use metal parts that don’t come in a starter kit. The LDRAW parts I have are mostly starter kit parts.
  2. How can I help get more parts added to the library?

Blake

#4

The starter kit seemed like the natural place to “start” :slight_smile: Anyway, it comprises the majority of what I own so there wasn’t much choice about it for me.

Help creating more parts is VERY welcome. I have been using SolidWorks and STL2DAT to do modeling and conversion for LDRAW respectively. There are a few niggling details in the process that I won’t go into here. If you’re interested in following my process send me a PM and I’ll show you what I know.

If you’re not using any starter kit parts, are they still parts that many other people would be using?

Steve

#5