Free 3D Design Software

RS Components and Allied Electronics have released DesignSpark Mechanical, a new 3D design software for engineering and conceptual design.

The solution is available for free at Designspark.com, and according to the company enables fast creation of concept designs for product proposals. It includes gesture-based modeling, and allows users to quickly make amendments and additions to designs. Its STL output formats are directly compatible with 3D printers.

The system's direct modeling methodology includes pull, move, fill and combine tools. It keeps track of the BOM and enables an instant quote from RS Components or Allied Electronics.

Users can create and manipulate 3D cross-sections, and draw 3D extruded, revolved, and swept geometry without ever leaving a 2D cross section. Dimensional values can be edited simply by selecting the element, and different users can set up and save their own sets of dimensions.

The solution can import ECAD (IDF, IDB, EMN) files, OBJ, SketchUp, STEP and STL formats, as well as over 38,000 Models from the RS/Allied Catalogue and more than 100 million 3D models from the Traceparts.com online library.

For more information, visit RS Components and Allied Electronics.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.