Amongst the various things you like to grab on a daily basis, CAD geometry may very well be the lowest on your list. Not to worry, there’s a team that is totally into grabbing CAD for you and they’re here to handle all the ideas you can throw at them.

They just so happen to be called, GrabCAD. We’ll pretend not to giggle and choke when we hear you say it five-times fast. What GrabCAD offers is simple. Fast, flat-rate outsourcing from the convenience of your browser. You don’t even have to look a person in the eye. Here’s how it works.

GrabCAD is hitting the fast, simple CAD file upload and design creation need. $55 bucks a pop for parts.
GrabCAD is hitting the fast, simple CAD file upload and design creation need. $55 bucks a pop for parts.

Take a look at the image above. You have a sketch, you need a model. It’s simple.

  1. Select the Sketch
  2. Choose a CAD model format
  3. DONE

You can add some comments and will need to put in some payment information, but you get the idea. The service is flat-rate. $55 (39 €) for 3D part and drawing, $25 (18 €) for a 2D drawing.

More than model creation

If GrabCAD can create models in different formats, you can imagine they’re able to convert files to different formats. While the list of CAD formats on their online order page is small, they have the ability to convert most CAD formats, even if you need to go from 2D drawing to 3D part. They also seem to have big plans for the future, making the website a one-stop portal for anything having to do with CAD and outsourcing your design. You can find out more about their services here.

What could go wrong?

I’ve had one great experience with outsourcing and one not-so-great experience with it. As long as the person creating the design understands what you need, it’s great, but if it’s not understood, it’s a pain to deal with. So, my recommendation… if you use the service, make sure you provide all the detail needed to help whoever is modeling the design understand what you expect.

Would you use this service?

Author

Josh is founder and editor at SolidSmack.com, founder at Aimsift Inc., and co-founder of EvD Media. He is involved in engineering, design, visualization, the technology making it happen, and the content developed around it. He is a SolidWorks Certified Professional and excels at falling awkwardly.