Community Values and Guidelines
What does it mean to be a member of GrabCAD?As members of GrabCAD, we strive to stay true to the values of the Community. With every action we take, we aspire to be:
- Generous — We strongly believe that what goes around, comes around. That is why all models on GrabCAD are free for personal use. Share what you make - you never know the impact your model could have on others. Be sure to say thank you!
- Collaborative — There are millions of us with all sorts of backgrounds and skills. Take advantage of this and help each other to build something amazing!
- Creative — Original thinking fuels innovative designs, engineering, and ultimately problem-solving. Creativity is integral to every engineer’s and designer’s processes.
- Professional and Respectful — That is not to say that there is no place for fun (there is!). It means that we respect each other’s differences, offer constructive feedback, and act like professionals. We should be respectful of each other's differences and design styles.
- Curious — No matter how experienced we are, there is always more to learn. We are always eager to better ourselves and help others.
- Connected — Network with others and grow your engineering relationships by following other community members. Create something new together.
- Leaders - Be a catalyst for change and collaboration. Lead discussions and help other community members who are just getting started.
What guidelines am I expected to follow as a member of GrabCAD?Like with any community of people, members of the GrabCAD Community are expected to adhere to certain rules and guidelines so that we can all coexist and work together peacefully and respectfully.
Do...
- Share your modeling talents. We can’t wait to see what you’re capable of! Feel free to share any of your original works. If someone else’s model inspires you, and you significantly improve or modify it, you’re welcome to share that too. Just make sure to always give credit to the original model’s creator.
- Share your knowledge. Whether you’re a student, a hobbyist or a professional engineer, you’ve likely got knowledge that someone would find helpful. Why not share it with the Community by answering someone’s Question or crafting a step-by-step Tutorial?
- Be polite and offer constructive feedback. Not everyone in the GrabCAD Community is a professional. Many members are students and hobbyists that are new to the field. If you have advice for them, you are more than welcome to share it! Please just avoid being rude or condescending when doing so. We all have to start somewhere, and these newbies chose GrabCAD to get started. Welcome them with open arms!
- Share your best engineering content. We encourage GrabCAD members to create content (models, questions, tutorials) related to engineering, design, and manufacturing. While this is NOT a requirement, our Community enjoys engineering-related content the most, and you are likely to get the most attention if your work has a technical focus.
- Use the “Like” button. Help the best models rise to the top! Use the Like button for models that you think are amazing, interesting, and useful. This also adds to the model creator’s GrabCAD Score, so they will appreciate it too.
Do Not...
- Do not take credit for work that isn’t yours. We want to see your work showcased on GrabCAD, but posting any work that isn’t yours will result in an immediate removal of the model from GrabCAD. If your model was inspired by another model on GrabCAD, say so in the model description by crediting the original creator by name, and include a link to the original model’s page. Please do not upload the exact same model that someone else has already posted.
- Do not be rude to your fellow Community members. This includes lewd behavior, use of swear words, sexual harassment, any attempts to incite anger through trolling, and attacks on any group, culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. This also includes insults towards another GrabCAD member for the quality or content of their work, even if their work violates GrabCAD’s guidelines. If you have legitimate concerns over content you see on our site, please report it to us right away, and we’ll handle things from there.
- Do not spam-message other members. Spam posting is when you send out a large volume of identical emails or messages to a random assortment of people who you do not have any existing contact with. Some people find this as a great way to spread the word on their creations, but spam is considered a huge nuisance on any Community and we crack down hard on those who post spam. We fight spam all across the Community from private messages to models, questions, answers, tutorials, Groups and comments, and if you are caught spamming, your GrabCAD account will be removed and you will be clocked from coming back, so please be careful not to do this.
- Do not try to make GrabCAD members pay for your model. While some of our members create their designs and models for the love of the craft, and are happy to share their work for free, others look to CAD development as their livelihood and career, and are looking to be financially compensated for their work. GrabCAD is a free model-sharing community, and our content should be available to anyone who signs up. Anyone who wants to charge for their models should instead check out CGTrader, where they are allowed to do so. But charging for GrabCAD models is not allowed.
- Do not solicit GrabCAD members for "likes" or contact information. Some do this through spam-messaging random members. Others do it by uploading incomplete models or hiding their work behind a password in a compressed file. This sort of content will be immediately removed if spotted by GrabCAD Support.
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Do not post any contact information (yours or anyone else's) in public spaces on GrabCAD. This includes email addresses, phone numbers, passwords or WhatsApp contact details. You are welcome to share this information with someone directly over a private message, or display this information on your profile page, but it is not allowed anywhere else on the site(This includes Model pages, Tutorials, Questions and Groups). Also you must not use your contact information in a private message or your profile for the use of selling models or services.
- Do not solicit or market for a private business or website. It’s tempting to want to use GrabCAD as a platform to advertise for your business, but it is against our guidelines to do so. Feel free to include a link to your business on your profile page, but please do not direct members to your business using comments, questions, tutorials, model descriptions, or direct messages.
- Do not use GrabCAD to ask for, or offer, paid work anywhere outside of the Jobs & Career Opportunities Group or in private messaging with users having “Open to Work” feature enabled. These are the official ways to discuss anything involving paid assistance, from a single collaboration to a full-time job position. All posts of this nature located elsewhere will be redirected here.
- Do not upload inappropriate content. What is considered “inappropriate”? It differs in every culture, but violent, sexual, and political content are often the biggest issues in this sense. GrabCAD Support reserves the right to remove any content that is deemed inappropriate for the GrabCAD Community.
- Do not upload dangerous content. We consider "dangerous" any models that, when printed, could cause physical harm to other people. This includes 3D-printable, fully-functional firearm designs like "The Liberator". This also includes dangerous or untraceable firearm modifications like silencers, lower receivers and drop-in auto sears, as well as any other components that transform semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones.
- Do not upload deceptive or incomplete work. If the CAD files uploaded are different than the images, or just the CAD assembly without the part files, we may take the model down. And if you post a question or tutorial that is incomplete, we may take those down as well.
- Solicitation . On GrabCAD this is 100% not allowed and any user that tries to solicit money from other users will be banned. GrabCAD is a free Library to share with the community.
- Do not use a place-holder file to make render-only pages go public. Every model page that comes up in Library searches should be a complete CAD model. Because of this, model pages without a CAD file included are temporarily hidden from searches. Some members like to showcase their rendering skills by uploading renders to a model page and then including a random “place-holder” CAD file to make the page publicly searchable. We are working on a better way for members to showcase their render skills, but in the meantime, we do not allow for “place-holder” models, so please refrain from this practice.. All Placeholder Models on GrabCAD will be deleted.
- Do not use copyrighted company / product logos in your model designs unless you are the rights-holder, or have been given permission by the rights-holder. Models with logos used without permission are subject to removal by GrabCAD Support.
- Do not give negative criticism. Engineers in the GrabCAD Community come from all different skill levels. All comments on GrabCAD should be constructive or helpful. Any negative comments or criticism will not be tolerated.
- Do not harass Judges of a GrabCAD Challenge. We understand that you have many questions on why your model wasn't picked to be a finalist. It's ok to have questions but judges often do not have time to answer all questions immediately so please refrain from asking too many questions in private messages or contacting them outside of the GrabCAD Challenge Page unless stated in the Challenge Rules itself. All results decided by the sponsor and judges are final. Harassment of judges and sponsors will result in a ban from GrabCAD and your entry will be pulled from the challenge.
