I am with you on that, Carlos, but I am not willing to sacrifice 5-6 hours of my time (because the shape is quite complex if you want to capture the details accurately) just to sell some $5 file two or three times on Cults3D.
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O, if I were you, I’d ask this designer to consider it: https://cults3d.com/en/users/LBModels/3d-models?page=1
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I get it. It’s the mirror image of my cost concern. Is that how long it takes you to come up with a file? 5-6 hours for something this mundane?
As another CAD designer, I can confirm that mundane has no bearing on the time it takes to do the design work. I’ve done several mirrors for other (mostly British) kits and getting them right can be a bear of a job. The time needs to be paid for, and that depends on what you consider to be a reasonable hourly rate for skilled artwork verging on being miniature engineering.
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Time estimate will depend on several factors mainly:
- Complexity of the shapes and angles, etc. More curves, more “fillets”, more angles, more parts = more time-consuming
- Availability of relevant data - dimensions and reference photos, etc. Research takes time.
- Balancing accuracy vs. printability in 3D printer
- How skilled the CAD designer is.
- How accurate and detailed the designer wants to make it.
5-6 hour for the Humvee mirror is a conservative estimate based on my skill level - Obviously, I don’t CAD for living, don’t have an engineering or architect background, and as a novice/hobbyist, if I were to make it in an acceptably accurate representation, it may even take longer.
I wouldn’t say the mirrors look “mundane” if someone were to CAD them.
There are complex curves, angled shapes, many contours, various parts, many dimples, etc.
Plus, you need to figure out if the design will fit existing kits in 1/35.
Even if someone would scratch-build it in a relatively accurate shape, it will take several hours.
What I’d consider a mundane object to CAD would be like a Sherman tank gun barrel and a plastic water bottle - uniform shapes throughout, few unique parts, easy to replicate with existing templates, and plenty of reference data available.
If someone thinks they can CAD faster without prior experience, more power to you. Learn how to CAD yourself if you think you can do better.
And as to these custom “suggestions” and “requests”, unless it’s something I want to use for my builds, the answer will almost always be NO.
I don’t have the time.
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Well, considering that my CAD skills are absolutely zero, I’ll take your word on the amount of effort involved. I did try scratch building a set from styrene and wire. Didn’t take me that many hours, but then again they did not look that good either.
Didn’t mean to offend by calling a mirror a mundane object. I get it if you’re not designing things that you won’t use yourself. In the meantime I’ll keep watching out for somebody to come out with files for the mirrors someday so I can print some up myself. New stuff appears every day.
at the grand old age of 60, i’ve just gotten into 3D modelling. very, VERY simple stuff in tinkercad for the 3D printer. And that takes me hours to get right, i always find it funny when you watch people CADding on YouTube and they make it look soooo easy.
no way Jose
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I think we need to consider that folks doing CAD work to sell printed products have the ability to spread the cost of design-time across lots of sales, just as the design costs of the parts in a plastic kit are spread over tens of thousands of them. For small-run or one-off designs that time cost cannot be spread out. And if you’re selling on Cults etc, you’ll only get a fraction of the custom since each buyer can print off as many copies as they want, rather than paying for each print. The result is that folks like me will only sell the STL files if it’s something I designed for my own models, and that has very low potential for sale of printed products. Essentially I invested the time for my own hobby, and am getting a few extra pennies from it afterwards rather than trying to cover my investment.
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So here’s something simpler to CAD. Gatorade bottles.
I’m going to make it available in 1/35, 1/24, and 1/16 scales to use in dioramas.
Currently, working on making that pallet of 24.
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