Got the software, now I need some files....

Ok, much to the future dismay of my wife, I purchased the STL importer (she still doesn't know I bought it). For the life of me I cannot find a good repository of free STL files. Anyone have any ideas, hints or suggestions? Been googling my butt off with limited success.

http://www.trekmeshes.ch/

Try searching for meshes........... or polygon meshes

A polygon mesh or unstructured grid is a collection of vertices, edges and faces that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D computer graphics and solid modeling. The faces usually consist of triangles, quadrilaterals or other simple convex polygons, since this simplifies rendering, but may also be composed of more general concave polygons, or polygons with holes.

The study of polygon meshes is a large sub-field of computer graphics and geometric modeling. Different representations of polygon meshes are used for different applications and goals. The variety of operations performed on meshes may include Boolean logic, smoothing, simplification, and many others. Network representations, "streaming" and "progressive" meshes, are used to transmit polygon meshes over a network. Volumetric meshes are distinct from polygon meshes in that they explicitly represent both the surface and volume of a structure, while polygon meshes only explicitly represent the surface (the volume is implicit). As polygonal meshes are extensively used in computer graphics, algorithms also exist for ray tracing, collision detection, and rigid-body dynamics of polygon meshes.

Now I'm not sure what works and what doesn't - but there is some really cool stuff on these sites.

http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/

http://www.scifi-meshes.com/gallery/

http://www.3dmodelworks.com/

http://www.military-meshes.com/forums/

http://www.jrbassett.com/

http://www.planit3d.com/source/meshes_files/meshes.html

http://artist-3d.com/

http://archive3d.net/

STL files straight from Google Sketch-Up - http://www.cadspan.com/tools

Google 3D Warehouse - http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

Turbo Squid - http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/STL

Hmmm.... cant figure out how to use the mesh things. Did find a couple of STL repositories:

This one charges per file, most are around $10 - $20 each
http://www.vectorart3d.com/

This one charges a yearly fee of $250 for unlimited downloads..... the other bad part is they have a limited selection as of right now
http://www.vectorclip3d.com/

Working on more sources, will update post as they are found.

ever get the time to play with that software?

not yet, still excited that I can carve something now, lol. Spending all my time making dust chips