Open Source models

The open source hardware is already a very active movement. It's main driver has been the introduction of lower cost 3D printers. There are a number of different types of licences that have been used, but they parallel the Open Source software licences. A brief description of Open Source hardware is given in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware and an example of a site devoted to Open source hardware models for 3D printing is: http://thingiverse.com

I think that David's idea has quite a lot of merit. Initially it is probably more appropriate for fairly simple models rather than a full scale locomotive design, but given time it could probably encompass more complex models.

The RepRap 3D printer movement  http://reprap.org  is entirely based on Open Source hardware and Software, you are free to take the designs and software and do what you want with them, including selling them for profit. The only provisions are that you must acknowledge the souce, and publish any improvement or changes you make, with the same license conditions.

Chris

Edited By Chris Courtney on 15/05/2012 10:31:33

The problem with mechanical things unlike software is that to add new facilities you sometimes have to totally redesign and rebuild previously made components. If the original designer has made allowances for this the person upgrading the design has to stay within the original design philosophy. So there is with mechanical things a great difficulty for purely ‘free flight’ development

Rdgs
Dick

Please have a look at my recent post on the "Milling Copper" thread.

Yes, I know that EDM WireCutting is probably the "right" approach, but ...

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/07/2012 08:11:48