Hey everyone,
I'm an Aerospace Engineering student, and for a Graphic Design course project my group decided to model the entire 42006 Excavator in CAD, piece by piece, exactly as it comes in the box.
Here's a tightened, more casual version of that section:
Modeled every part and sub-assembly (arm, body, cabin, chain, hook) in Solid Edge, checked against the real set. Took way longer than expected — turns out "simple" Technic pieces have more going on than you'd think.
Files are on GitHub: https://github.com/Himalia13/42006-Lego-Model
Exported to a bunch of formats (STEP, STL, OBJ, FBX, IGES, 3MF...) so it opens in whatever you use
Dimensioned drawings for every part
Renders + some mounting animations
STEP zips if you just want one sub-assembly instead of the whole thing
Mostly did it as an excuse to live in Solid Edge for a while, but figured other AFOLs/MOC builders might get something out of it — renders, printing a replacement piece, or just poking around.
CC BY-NC, so free to use, just credit it (and yeah, LEGO® owns the actual design, this is a fan thing).
Down for questions or if anyone spots something off in the geometry.
Good point re: LDraw, but this was a uni project so it had to be proper CAD, not LDraw. Mainly sharing it for the drafts — dimensioned drawings are handy if you ever need exact Technic measurements, which LDraw doesn't really give you. And yeah, learned a ton doing it Nice, glad it could be useful. Mine are modeled to exact LEGO spec rather than print-adjusted, so you'll want to add your own tolerance off the STEP for now — but I'm planning to publish print profiles for most of the Technic pieces on MakerWorld, which should sort that out. I'll share the link here once that's up.