New Free CAD Sheet metal tool

[coffeegoat]

I've mentioned it a couple times elsewhere, but OnShape is a full featured solid modeling suite that's cloud based (runs in your browser) and more or less replaces the outrageously expensive solid modeling tools like SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, Catia, etc. It's not a feature perfect match for everything but I've used it both professionally and for personal projects and have had great results. The best part is it's free to use if all of your parts are "public" which means that other people can see/copy them, kind of like a public code repository. You can get private storage if you pay for it, but for most truck related stuff it's unnecessary.

Anyways, the big news today was they finally rolled out sheet metal components. This is a game changer for things like bumper design, body armor, skid plates,brackets, etc. With a bit of effort you can now generate a 3d model from your measurements and get it exported to a laser cutter, job shop, etc. Odds are, it'll still be cheaper (and better) to buy available stuff from some place like Adventure Driven Designs, but for that one-off part you really want it becomes reasonable to actually model it up before you start cutting metal which in the long run saves a ton of time and money. It also means for community driven parts like strut spacers, spare tire raisers, roof racks, etc, we can just link to a model of the part instead of scribbled drawings and guesses on dimensions.

Pretty sweet huh?

 

[howirolla]

I have used this a bit as well, it takes a min to get used to it but it seems pretty decent, reminds me a lot of how solidworks is set up, so if you are transitioning from that you'll prolly get the hang of it much quicker.

 

[jms_brns]

I've been using Onshape for a couple of years now, mainly for side work and personal project stuff, and I really like it. I think I got in pretty soon after the initial public beta program, and it has come a long way since then. There are still a few things that I end up having to use Inventor or DesignX for, but overall I can do almost everything I need in Onshape. I haven't tried out the sheet metal functions yet, but with most of their features, if you can figure out how to do it in Inventor or Solidworks, it won't be too hard to figure out in Onshape.

I was just telling @Toasty of ADD about Onshape a couple weeks ago.

 

[Toasty]

_If anyone wants me to make anything from a file feel free to ask. I've always been an open source kind of guy, we have access to a lot more tools than the average Joe. One really big misconception about ADD is that we are some big company making a bunch of money and we regularly get E-mails from guys wanting us to invest in their products, ideas, trucks etc. The reality is that we are TWO dudes working out of small garages in our free time, yes we have real jobs, wives, houses, kids, pets and our own personal projects. We put more into the Montero community than we get out at this point. I'm not complaining at all. It's great after all these years we have enough community support to make parts and not loose a bunch of money, it's really much more fun when everyone has access to cool parts and things that get us all out on the trail together. We don't make Montero parts at our regular jobs we just use those connections we have through our employers combined with our personal tools and garage spaces to churn out small batches of parts. Maybe someday it'll turn into something more lucrative and I assure you that the whole community will benefit greatly.
.
.
.
.
_Now as much as I'd like to make every little thing you guys can come up with, I'm very picky about what I manufacture and ADD can't afford to R&D more than one part at a time. But if anyone comes up with something good let me know and if I can make it mutually beneficial for us all here I will.
.
.
.
.
_We are hobbyists, Montero guys to the core and more than happy to help out anyone here. You guys put about $800 (split two ways) into our pockets last year which is a vast improvement from my typical hundreds of dollars lost in years past so keep that in mind when you send that E-mail requesting $10k to get your product launched or your Montero built for free in time for SEMA. ADD has been fun, It's given us the opportunity to share the things we build for our personal trucks as well as put up a firewall between our excessive Montero hobby and wives that could otherwise question our sanity with these things.

 

[Michael Brown]

I have used Onshape for several hobby projects. It reminds me of Pro-E Wildfire, but is much simpler to work with for most designs. I have yet to try out the sheet metal tools yet. I will have to see if I can come up with anything for Gen 3. More skid plates would be a happy start. :smiley_drive:

 

[Toasty]

Ha ha ha Gen 3 skid plates... I made some but they sit... My plan was to work my way to the back of the truck one at a time with the previous skid paying the R&D for the next and so on. Hasn't panned out yet so those are on hold till the first stack sells, we switched gears and started back on Gen 2 skids because there is a much greater demand and I know enough guys who will buy them right away to make it low risk. I started on the Gen 3 first because they only come with 1 skid plate where the Gen 2 comes with 4, Gen 2's are getting upgrade stainless steel skids and one extra for the transmission plus a steel winch mount (started on that today).