+1 for also looking for a tool like this (online or otherwise) before, and being disappointed with what I found previously. Two projects immediately spring to mind: firstly, we have a theodolite to align some lab equipment, which I'd like to add a live digital camera to, and secondly we're designing a material heating system based on halogen tubes, for which we need to optimise the shapes of reflectors around the bulbs, subject to some geometry constraints.

I'd not seen the sharedigm.com platform before either, possibly itself also interesting for other things.