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Posts Tagged ‘cadooku’

Over the last few days, I’ve been following a thread on one of the LinkedIn SolidWorks groups I belong to with great interest. Some of you may be familiar with it. It’s about a new website, Cadooku.com, where SolidWorks users can upload and sell their models.  This is something new for me, you know? I had heard of similar places, but none that catered exclusively to SolidWorks users.  The site is still in Beta, but it’s fully functioning at this moment, and you can even see quite a few models for sale already.

For some of us, the first question that comes to mind is, “Why the need for this kind of site?” A few users pointed out they can easily get models for free from the 3D Content Central. While this is true, you need to remember that the best models usually come from part suppliers and many of the models you find at the user’s library, could use a little improvement.  Phil Staunton, product designer and co-founder of Cadooku, had the following to say about this:   “Most models you get from Content Central are designed by manufacturers that upload components hoping for designers and engineers to use these components in new product assemblies as they are already modeled. The incentive is that the production team is likely to spec the same components and therefore the manufacturer will sell more real components.

This doesn’t provide any incentive to upload components that you don’t manufacture in the real world. And therefore these components tend to sit on all our hard-drives. Cadooku is designed to help increase the library of SW parts available by encouraging people to upload their models as they could create a passive income.

As an SW user myself I have regularly tried to hit a deadline by downloading models from free sites only to be disappointed at the quality of the download and worse, that it is simply imported surfaces that are hard to edit. By encouraging those who upload a model to give detailed, accurate descriptions and upload an image of their model tree, we hope to avoid this for users of our site.”

So, I guess this would mean that for most users knowing they’ll get paid for their model and that they are responsible for the model’s integrity is a good incentive to upload something of decent quality, as opposed to simply sharing whatever they model for free, errors and all.  Personally, I think it’s a great idea.  As much as I like sharing what I do, because I also learn in the process and my interest has always been to compare notes with other users that may take a look at my models and point out my mistakes or areas that need improvement, I do believe that great modeling work deserves compensation.  If someone out there spends several hours creating a great model and then some of us want that model and we plan to use it for commercial purposes, then I think we should compensate his/her effort. It’s only fair!

However, there are other implications in selling models this way that need to be understood, as well.  One of them is deciding how much a model is worth.  Regarding this, Phil adds, “Price is entirely determined by the seller.

We suggest during the upload process a price of $15-25 per hour of modeling time. The $15 an hour rate would be sensible for student or new modelers where as $25 an hour would better reflect a more experienced modeler’s expertise. This is because although they would be quicker at modeling, the model is likely to be modeled using better, more editable techniques and therefore would be worth more.

For example: I am a reasonably experienced modeler who builds robust, parametrically defined models. I have built a mountain bike in 3 hours and therefore I would probably charge $20 * 3 = $60. Of course I may choose to go for a lower price to sell more and undercut existing models or charge more on the basis I think I have done a great job and it is better than other, similar models on the site. The $60 just gives an approximate price to start from.

Price can be altered at a later stage if the seller chooses. However, if the price is reduced, this may be viewed as unfair by people who have bought the model at the higher price and therefore we discourage this.”

Other concerns  that come to mind are those about disclosure of proprietary information, as well as how to fight plagiarism and prevent people from taking a model from a free site, such as 3DCC, and then posting it in Cadooku  as their own.  Phil also had something to say about this, “I agree that 95% of content produced by designers is probably confidential client work. And yes we will probably never be as big as Turbosquid for example. But that’s ok because all we need is the 5% of models from lots of design consultancies to create a decent, useful library. The problem is going to be that if no-one uploads anything. To help encourage people to put models on the site we are currently offering great benefits (inc. free advertising for a month and zero commission until March 2010) for any model uploaded by December 1st. We are also offering to professionally render your main showcase image for any model uploaded before the end of the year. So take advantage and upload that 5%!!  …  If you post models from 3DCC as your own, you are breaking your agreement with 3DCC. We plan to police this and report these users to 3DCC and take their models off our site. We are also hoping our members will help with the policing. Any other suggestions to help with this would be appreciated!”

It certainly sounds like an interesting idea that may benefit quite a few users. What do you think? Do you think even those models you create during your down time are worth something or would you much rather share them for free? As a user, would you buy models or would you rather spend the extra time and effort and model everything yourself or hope to find something semi-decent for free?