CAD Repositories

There are numerous ways to obtain CAD files of manufactured parts. First, there are generic, crowd-based repositories, such as Thingiverse or GrabCAD. Then there are supply houses such as McMaster Carr. Another source is specific manufacturers who post their CAD publically, such as for hydraulic valves. And there are software-specific repositories - such as the part libraries found within SweetHome3D or for FreeCAD - or even electronic parts renderings from KiCad. Then there are part generators, such as numerous part generators in OpenSCAD or other software - such as FreeCAD which can generate springs, gears, and bolts. And finally, there are individual draftspeople who post design online. And finally, one can ask any producer or manufacturer to share their files. All together, many building blocks exist - but don't expect useful CAD to be available for entire proprietary devices such as a John Deere Tractor or Tesla car.

The available CAD spans many areas and can be used by OSE. The OSE wiki is a repository where such parts are ported into FreeCAD native formal, and placed in galleries of Part Libraries for various products. The importance of Part Libraries is having one-stop access to build anything from scratch - without spending countless hours finding all the part repositories online. Surely a master-scheme will emerge - some day - for producing all available CAD with AI - but until then - we focus on extracting useful CAD and creating part libraries on this wiki. This applies to generic parts, using the concept of Design Degeneracy to select only the most important parts. All parts should not be included. Not only is that a futile exercise - but also - OSE is actively selecting the most robust and useful designs that follow OSE Specification. Thus, hard to build, crap, complicated, obfuscated, bad materials-based, bad design should not be included in OSE's repositories - only the most robust, generative, and useful.