3D model repository for boot/binding parts

[bobbytooslow]

I may have raised this idea before, but now there are more folks designing boot & binding parts for 3D printing (or CNC, I suppose). Might it be useful to have one centralized place where people share ski-related 3D models for others to download/make/use?

Websites like Thingiverse do this for 3D models of all types, but there are so many items that it can be hard to find what you're looking for. A skiing-focused repository would be a lot more useful. Maybe here, as part of EYT? An entirely separate site? Should I try to make something? Is there too much liability in this?

I'm incredibly awed by the companies that continue to innovate in this small market. But still, they have to limit their offerings to the items that are guaranteed money-makers. If we want to keep pushing the fringes of the sport, we're going to have to do a lot of work ourselves. Having a repository of 3D models could help kickstart & sustain a lot of useful DIY-ing.

[jasonq]

one thing to consider is the format. STL is great for printing, but that means you can only really print the parts and not modify them.

Modifying STL is possible with things like meshmixer and blender, but they are not good for precision work. Openscad is, but it really unfriendly since it is more of a scripting engine than a GUI. And freecad (not straight forward) and others can convert STL to STEP or other formats, but they are not very good at it, and complicated parts are almost sure to be corrupt. Example, i tried to open/convert to solid the bolt on STL with Creo Direct Modeling, and it failed with no part imported. So i tried with freecad and converted a bolt-on from STL to STEP, and no matter what i tired, when importing the freecad STEP file into Creo Direct Modeling, Creo says it is corrupt, but at least it imported something. In the end, i just created a new part in Creo and "traced" the corrupt part. And a bolt on is not complex.

so it begs the question, is the goal to share printable parts or is the goal to share editable CAD, or both? If CAD, what format? STEP, IGES, a native format for ???

IMO, liability is an issue. IMO, it is higher with STL since it implies the part is fine to print.

[jtb]

If such a repository existed, I would like to see STL plus the source from whatever program was used to build the model. I use Fusion360, but I know others use different programs. For models built in another program, I end up re-modeling them in Fusion360 using the STL as a reference -- which can be time-consuming as jasonq said. I would be happy to contribute my re-models back to the repo for others that use the same modeling software.

An index pointing to other sites (Shapeways, etc.) would be helpful, or a category on an existing site like Thingiverse. Something like GitHub could also work, though less user-friendly/discoverable. A forum is not a great way to capture the info, so if it's on EYT it would probably need to be owned/moderated by one person who keeps the index up to date.

Once you're in the realm of printing your own parts, I think it's pretty clear you own the risk, but I'm not a lawyer.

[jnicol]

A few thoughts:

1. As much as I have tried (minimal) to learn how to use this type of software, I am not able to to do it, so there are people like me who would like to be able to take a finished design and print it. (see item 2)

2. Maybe to get around the liability, you clearly state this design is 'unfinished' and you must complete the design for it to be usable. I'm "not a lawyer", so don't know if that works. Hopefully people like me would be able to at least get our ruler out and measure the design to determine if it is actually going to work for us or not.

3. On a vehicle forum I frequent, they have created what I guess would be a new 'category' for all the DIY repair tutorials. It is now pages long, but instead of going through the regular forum chat looking for a DIY, you just go to that category, pretty easy and I think that can be done here with Dostie's help.