CADENAS Updates 3DFindIt

CADENAS has provided big updates to their online part-finding service 3DFindIt, and at the same time is to migrate users off of PARTcommunity.

The German company specializes in online catalogs of CAD designs for parts, and has been in operation for 30 years. In the past we’ve featured 3DFindIt and PARTcommunity, as they have notable capabilities for locating the design and 3D files for commercial parts.

3FindIt is the search engine where buyers can rove through a vast collection of items. They even have a “sketch” interface, where you can draw a rough view of the top or side view of an object, which is then used for searching their vast databases.

PARTcommunity is a B2B portal providing access to a kind of meta-catalog of entries from many different parts catalogs. In our 2017 examination, we were able to find a part that had downloads available in no less than 77 different 3D file formats, which is pretty unbelievable.

The news is that these systems are being changed. CADENAS explains:

“In the last months 3Dfindit.com, our visual search engine for 3D CAD & BIM models, has been equipped it with new, innovative features and a streamlined design. As an improved platform, 3Dfindit.com will thus replace the 3D CAD & BIM download portal b2b PARTcommunity by the end of the year.”

The new version was released this week.

As you might imagine, the new features mostly relate to searches, and in particular the ease in which a user can refine a search.

For example, it is now possible to use a wide variety of filters to narrow down a search, much like you’d perform on common consumer shopping sites.

There’s a grid search feature that looks very interesting. They explain:

”Starting from a basic shape of the needed component, the search results can be narrowed down step by step. The parameters can be adjusted directly in the 3D preview until the visible model corresponds to the searched component.”

You can now also use colors to refine sketch search results, which seems quite interesting.

It’s now possible to upload an existing 3D model and the system will search available catalogs for matching designs. That search style could be extremely useful if looking for a replacement part.

The 3D viewer can now adjust dimensions on demand, enabling the user to filter down models based on specific lengths, diameters, etc.

This is a highly interesting tool that I suspect is under-used in the 3D print world. I also have a suspicion there could be very interesting ways to leverage this information in more complex ways for product developers.

Via CADENAS