how many engineers on this site have no models loaded

Hard to tell, but definitely a couple of millions...

i think to would be wise to not allow anyone to download models unless they contribute there models. Seems a lot of poeple just using this site purely to grab models.

If you check the engineers page, there are only 100 pages of engineers with models loaded at 12 models a page thats only 1200 so what about the other 4 million guys are they just freeloaders?

Forcing people to upload models to download a model will lead to more garbage and duplicates in the Library.

Everyone knows what this site is when uploading models. It's a free library of 3D parts available to everyone.
Does it matter if people download a model without "paying" for it by uploading a model? Some people create, most people consume. GrabCAD's focus should be on improving quality, not increasing quantity.

I'm positive there are more than 1,200 members with models uploaded.

How about if we use the badge system to count uploaders?
Upload Master Awarded to 39,632 engineers.

Upload Master 1 Awarded to 23,299 engineers.
Original Upload Master 2 Awarded to 12,373 engineers.
Original Upload Master 3 Awarded to 2,968 engineers.
Original Upload Master 4 Awarded to 672 engineers.
Original Upload Master 5 Awarded to 320 engineers.

I didn't check the values. Hopefully they all add up. It shows 40,000 members have uploaded something. It's more than 1,200, but it's not many when the member count is 7,670,000

Edit:
In addition to the ~40,000 uploaders based on badge count, I think there could easily be another 10% of members with no profile picture (thus not eligible for a badge) who have uploaded models. This is just an estimate based off recent posts to the library, but let's assume there are 740,000 accounts that have uploaded at least one model.

Also, let's not read too much into the membership number of 7.7 million. Many of those are dead accounts, or duplicate accounts. I'm sure there are a lot of members, just not 7.7 million.

I wish GrabCAD would purge the membership of all accounts with fewer than 100 points or so.
We'd lose ass poop , https://grabcad.com/penis.pussy-2 and https://grabcad.com/nick.pussy.destroyer-1 as a members (along with hundreds (of thousands?) similar members, but I think we'll survive without them.

What GrabCAD is to me.
SHARING CAD files, Professional tips, Design tips & Downloading FREE CAD Models.
A place for thought-leadership, education for the latest in Engineering, Design and Manufacturing.
A place where Professionals can show off "their" Skills and Encourage "Others" to learn the same.

https://resources.grabcad.com/company/
"About GrabCAD
GrabCAD is the largest online community of professional engineers, designers, manufacturers, and STEM students on the planet. We help you create amazing products easier.

Today, the GrabCAD Community has almost 6 million members sharing CAD files and professional tips, participating in design challenges, or downloading free CAD models from our online library of over 4 million free files. The Community is a place for thought-leadership and education for the latest in engineering, design, and manufacturing, a place where professionals can show off their skills and encourage others to learn the same."

It seems to me that this site is built upon the basis of the contributions of the 40K members but has not properly rewarded or fully protected the contributors to such.

I generally believe contributors have a desire to share both experience & enthusiasm for the parametric field as educators and a sense of pride in their accomplishments. Unfortunately disillusionment cannot help but develop when their personal efforts are stolen, plagiarised & abused for illegitimate ends.

I have found some of my models on other websites that were being distributed without due recognition of origin for monetary gain by offender. A few websites complied with my request to remove the content but it is time consuming to have to chase after such. Due to such, I have not contributed a model in the past 2 years though I have many that I would like to.

I can understand why some members are not contributing models such as from their early stage of skills development in the parametric field. Hopefully these individuals will pay it back when their abilities have gained status.

This still does not explain the disparity of contributors to member ratio (40K : 7.7 million ~ 1 contributor per 192 members).

I realise that GRABCAD uses the member count to promote its standing however back in my younger years I was told that an organisation is only as strong as its weakest member.

Over the years, a number of questions have been raised on the subject of pirated & plagiarised models as well as increased SPAM. Sara Sigel seemed to be addressing these issues but she left GRABCAD in 2015. Since then, I have not noted as much of a concerted effort.

In the past I raised a question about the Grabcad Terms of Use (TOU) in non legal format but there was no definitive answer for such as if to brush it off thus I had to surmise that these were in place to legally protect the GRABCAD organisation but not the contributing members.

I would think it would be in GRABCAD's interest for a membership review and improved contributor protections & appreciation. It might be less painful to flush out bogus accounts instead of loosing contributors(192:1).

To me, this dialogue is about TIME
Truth-Integrity-Morals-Ethics

I do not wish to offend by these comments but to raise ideas in the dialogue.
Best Intentions : Mark Bruton

I agree Matt and Sara were approachable but now we have no one. Seems the new policy is become a member and grab(cad) as much as you can.
Very shortsighted approach and it appears quantity of members is more important than quality.

I can't deal with typing content into a single line comment box, so this is going as an "answer":

GrabCAD is an open website. Models published on it are no longer under our control. I've seen members post "terms of use" with their model, it's useless. GrabCAD has terms of service and do try to "protect" models that get posted on other sites, but it's a battle that can't be won.

Don't want models "stolen" from a free public website? Don't post models to a free and pubic website. Also consider the models being uploaded. If a member is uploading viable commercial or intellectual property, one has to ask why.

In the end GrabCAD is something different to each member. For me it's a place to post models I make for fun and practice. GrabCAD also motivated me to learn how to render models.
If a member is upset at their models being downloaded and used, they need to explore why that makes them upset. The usual reply is "my models are being sold on another website!". Again, who cares? You've uploaded the models here for free with the expectation that they'd be downloaded and used. Yes, selling models is against the GrabCAD terms of use, but it has no impact on the uploader. Or at least I can't imagine what the impact is.
Write back and explain why I should be offended if some idiot pays for a model that they could download for free.

- If people do not have faith in the website & GRABCAD to show concern and make a concerted effort to have IP protections in place, what is the motivation to continue to upload & maintain quality models on the website? This will eventuate that the website is inundated with poor quality models.
- My main motivation in this discourse is to enquire whether GRABCAD can do more to improve this situation. As previously stated, oversite seems to be dependent upon managing individuals efforts (Sara & Matt) instead of concerted effort by the organization.
- The dialogue is meant to open up ideas to implement instead of throwing it in a Too Hard basket and putting ones head in the sand.
- I have used GRABCAD to showcase some of my skills in the pursuit of work. It now seems the best approach may be to upload only graphic rendered images of my models thus providing IP protection but still having an online portfolio. As of today, my overall placement in the community is #445 out of over 7 million members. Maybe not at the top but still respectful.
- At the end of the day, the GRABCAD points & badges system really does not provide anything tangible other than boosting ones ego. It seems only engaged GRABCAD’rs provide LIKES for downloaded or model quality recognition With the present discrepancies, there seems to be a lack of incentives from GRABCAD for someone to upload quality models.
- As John inferred, vast majority of members display no sense of responsibility or propriety to the GRABCAD website & library models and can be downright demanding & rude for something they have not contributed to.
- I have entered the GRABCAD community with an unspoken contract of providing helpful models in exchange for other useful models & a mutual respect & recognition of whom has provided such. In reality, I guess it is as William B Mayer’s quote “A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.”
- Maybe you are right, best NOT to share unique models that can be improperly used by others (plagiarism, piracy). Maybe I am naïvely principled but I would like to think better of members. However as this discourse has highlighted with the disparity of contributing members to non-contributors whom seem in general to act in disregard to TOU (terms of use).
- Maybe there should be a new GRABCAD forum where entry is based on values & principles which would give better control of shared models.
- So please tell me, should I just become part of the masses and take whatever I can without contributing to the site or continue in this discussion to see if something can be done to resolve issues?

I’m just a regular GrabCAD member like everyone else, I have no insight into the operation.
- Sure, let’s have dialog regarding changes that can be made. But GC staff should be part of the conversation. We should also clearly define why the conversation is occurring. “My feelings are confused because someone on the other side of the world stole the model I gave away, then sold it for $1” is a starting point, but dig deeper. Make use of the Seven Why’s method to further explore that starting point.

- Placement of 445 out of 7,000,000 members is cool but meaningless. There isn’t even a method to determine ones “ranking” short of sorting by score, then counting how many pages back you end up. The Engineers pages only show 1,200 members that way. So getting a “rank” is impossible for seven million other members. I think I’m “ranked” in the top 100 now. It’s cool, but it has not earned me so much as a cookie.

- The GC score and badges are meaningless. But they are desirable, and a part of many websites where people contribute content for a “like” or fake Internet point from their peers.

- Badges are even more useless now since the system started to be revamped. I understand the reason for it. But the new system awards spammers with badges for posting garbage. If garbage gets a badge why bother trying?

- There’s no tangible reward for participating in 90% of GrabCAD. The Challenges are the only place you’ll get a prize. Maybe they pay for Blog posts? The rest of the site is voluntary. But I will say there are intangible benefits. I knew nothing about rendering images when I started. Now I’m halfway decent at it. It’s a skill I learned by participating here and wanting my models to look nice in the library.

- Yes, many members are “rude”. But this is a worldwide site. Learn to read their posts (often run through Google Translate) with an open mind. It is possible they are rude. But it is also possible that “rudeness” is just the way their country is, or it’s an artifact of limited English, or the translation.

- I download and use some models from the library. I’m often in violation of the GC terms of use for doing so. That other members violate the terms of use is not surprising.

- Uploading any design with viable commercial or intellectual value to a free, open, worldwide library is a terrible idea. If something has value, protect it.

Changes I’d like to see:
- An ignore button so I never see some members
- A Follow button that shows me everything a member does
- A re-re-vamping of the badge system to reward quality instead of quantity
- Throwing away the “like = points” for models. Base model “score” on downloads
- A Library warning to NOT upload data with commercial or intellectual value
- A system to “vet” posts and screen spam from the site. Or a method to auto-remove posts once a threshold of reports are generated
- Consolidation of the Question and Group areas
- Reevaluation of the GrabCAD score
- An ability to search the Groups
- Removal of “Featured Groups” (it just makes new members post in the first Group they see)
- Groups that place new posts on the first page instead of running “backwards” so I have to go to page 5 to see new content
- Sorting by activity option for Questions
- Better updates/communication by staff members when changes occur
- Resizable text boxes. The “comment” fields don’t show a single line of text correctly
- Propagation of the Group text editor to other areas of the site
- Consolidation/clarity of the Discussion vs. Question posts in Groups. Why can one have attachments but not the other? Why can one have inline images but not the other?
- Revamping of the Tutorial section. Does GC want tutorials? Or does GC want a link to YouTube? Why can’t I watch a YouTube video on GrabCAD at a different size? It just forces me to leave and watch from YT.