Noctua has released CAD files of many of their hardware components.
The name might be familiar: they produce a wide range of cooling fans typically used in not only computing equipment but also in 3D printers. Many hot ends are cooled by Noctua products.
Now the company announced a new program where they are releasing CAD files on their download page for anyone to use. But why do so? They explain:
“These public 3D CAD models accurately represent mounting dimensions as well as the overall external dimensions of the product. To protect our intellectual property, certain features – such as fan impeller geometries – have been slightly modified while remaining visually very close to the actual product.
Accordingly, these models are well suited for integrating our products into your own CAD designs, as well as for creating renderings, animations, and other visual outputs. However, please do not use these models for performance simulations and note that components, such as fan impellers and internal frame structures, are not fully representative of the actual product.”
So they are not exactly the CAD models used by Noctua to produce the products, but instead representative 3D geometries you can use in a larger design. This ensures that the Noctua part will actually fit into the design properly.
Each product — and there are many dozens of them — has its own page. The provided data includes an information sheet in multiple languages, compliance certificates for those interested, and a STEP file download.
STEP format is typically used to exchange designs between CAD systems. They are not providing STL or .3MF files because these models are actually not intended to be printed directly. They are to be incorporated into a larger design.
I loaded one random design into Fusion to see what was provided, and you can see the result at the top.
As you can see, the designs provided are quite detailed, even though Noctua has dumbed down some of the fan geometry. These should be ideal for use by equipment designers.
This approach has been used before, perhaps most notably by McMaster-Carr, which provides CAD downloads for huge numbers of simple parts.
If you’re designing a machine with small fans, this could be of considerable interest.
Via Noctua
