Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

Not sure where to look for this in the rules, thought some of you might already know offhand & save me a lot of time.

A mentor on our team thinks that for all machined parts that we make, a requirement in the rules is a Autocad drawing or equivalent.

Is this true/something similar true?

Re: Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

No way.

There's an award involving CAD modelling—the "Excellence in Design Award". Have a look in Section 5 of the manual for details on entering.

Re: Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

Tristan is right on.

But modeling everything you machine IS good practice for the real world, and teaches you good design skills, so it can't be all bad...

Re: Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

This is the second year in a row that I have been lead/only cad guy doing EVERY part for the robot...

It is really satisfying when you finally get it done, and I used my models from last year in a portfolio I sent to WPI.

The models aren't just for making things, they are good portfolio fillers, and make a great addition to your discussion with the design judges :)

Re: Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

Requirement? No. Definitely not, or we would have had illegal robots/parts for years.

Great Resource/Extremely Valuable to Do? Absolutely. There are awards, and it is good practice, and it ALSO allows you to determine if certain ideas will/wont work. Sometimes, Inventor will tell you something wont work when it actually will though. These cases are rare.

We drew one of our old robots, and Inventor seemed to think that the mechanism could not work the way it did.

Re: Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

it is also great to use when you are building/ designing stuff for your robot while it is away. Last year we had to design a new ball collector for our robot. So instead of waiting for the regional to start to draw out all the specifics, we had plans drawn up and the necessary parts ready so we had a new ball collector ready within an hour. Instead of wasting all day Thursday trying to get it to work.

Re: Drawings/CAD requirement?
 

It's a good idea to document things, even if it's not a requirement. If a part breaks into tiny pieces during competition, it takes way less time to make one from a clear drawing than it is to make one from a random sketch in a notebook somewhere, or worse, just from measuring the broken part.