I recently discovered a fantastic parametric modeling program called SolveSpace.It is super lightweight, cross platform, and open source all of which add up to a great program.
Last week at the local makerspace there was a small accident with our large laser cutter. About a year ago I did some work to the laser to replace the rather bad height touch zeroing sensor on the laser with a nicer non contact sensor (the Omron TL-Q5MC1 which can be found on ebay for ~$3).
The mounting for the new sensor wasn't the greatest and was one of those "it works for now and we might come back later and actually fix it" type deals. Unfortunately it ended up falling off and in to the path of the laser which caught it on fire. Wow did it ever go up in flames! Luckily the person using the laser was attentive and quickly put out the fire, but the sensor was toast.
I ordered a new sensor (plus some extras) and figured it was time to make a solid mounting solution so this doesn't happen again. My first step was to model the sensor in SolveSpace to both learn how to use the tool and to have a little bit of fun before making the sensor mount.
SolveSpace has this neat feature where you can export a javascript file to be embedded in a webpage. Check it out!
For anyone using SolveSpace who plans on embedding a 3d model in their webpage you need three different javascript libraries:
If you're interested in the step file for this you can find it here.