What is Reddit's opinion of BRL-CAD?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

1911 plans are pretty much public domain because it's been manufactured contuiously for the past 100 years by a million different vendors. You can practice your animation skills once you are done with the assembly. Enjoy! Also, guns are cool!

http://brlcad.org/design/drafting/M1911-A1_REDUX.pdf

You might also want to check out BRL-CAD.

Also you seem to be using commercial as a synonym for proprietary or non-free. I would request that you please don't do that.

if you are thinking of building your own 1911 their are thousands of build logs and youtubes that go over the process and where to get parts. as for dimensions try this: drafting!

As for Rock Island/Taurus/Tisas,etc depends on what variant and feature(s) the manufacturer offers. Reviews and details of these 1911s are all over the interwebs.

I found this print online.

There are about 50 different parts. Some would have to be purchased (like the springs.) The sear would require some special tooling to get the bends right. And a few of the milled parts would take some thoughful fixturing. The tolerance on the barrel isn't too tough but I'm not sure how I would cut it. I'm sure there are some tools just for that.

All in all it's doable but it would take lots of time lots of fixtures and lots of patience.

I'm modeling everything in 3D Studio Max, so I don't know if anything I export would work for you. I can export FBX, .3DS, .DWG, .DXF, .OBJ or I can save .max files if that works. I'm guessing you'd need solidworks files, which I can't export, although solidworks may be able to import one of the above file types.

Here's a pdf of the CAD file I'm working from: http://brlcad.org/design/drafting/M1911-A1_REDUX.pdf

Search for a (relatively) small or obscure but interesting (to you) open source project. Endless possibilities for daily coding and you'd be helping.

Not sure where to start? Pick one that participated in GSoC as they will have ideas already lined up. For example, here's a list for BRL-CAD: http://brlcad.org/~sean/ideas.html

(disclaimer, I work on BRL-CAD daily)

This is the only one I could think of. It's quite hard to find anything as in depth as this one.

http://brlcad.org/design/drafting/M1911-A1_REDUX.pdf

Honestly you're better off finding something and measuring stuff yourself. You could make a lamp, remote control, pen...etc

Here is a great detailed bluprint showing all the critical dimensions and tolerances.

Here is a great site that goes into great detail about the fitting, assembly and proper operation of a 1911.

Just curious - what would make it "impressive"?

This rendering example shows that it's capable of high quality output.

I don't think it's intended to take the place of Solidworks!

Mechanical Engineering student here. I too would love work in the firearms industry. Like other people said, start studying manufacturing techniques and looking at blue prints. Get a student version of Solidworks and start modeling parts. This will help you understand the reasoning behind the designs.

Here's the link to a PDF for the plans to the 1911 pistol: http://brlcad.org/design/drafting/M1911-A1_REDUX.pdf

If you just want some fun with building guns, try a program called Algodoo. It's a physics simulator and lots of people make guns in it. Here's one:

http://www.algodoo.com/algobox/details.php?id=97251

I have no experience with it, but BRL CAD is free and I think the U.S. military uses it... about

> For more than 20 years, BRL-CAD has been the primary tri-service solid modeling CAD system used by the U.S. military to model weapons systems for vulnerability and lethality analyses.