842 Rookie Robot
 

Here is a model of one of our new robots were building in order to get new team members ready for build season. We are also testing a drive system using this robot as well. I did not go into detail because I didn't think it was really necessary. The way I see it is that sketch-up is good to build off of since you can make models very fast and is really easy to learn and Autodesk or Solidworks is when you want to show off your design. This robot will also have a ping pong cannon built on it.

http://sketchup.google.com/

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=16ff954c65cb2e99dec8e8e3324cefee&prevs tart=0

Re: 842 Rookie Robot
 

Cool stuff guys! Getting ideas drawn out is a huge part of creating and tweaking a design (and, strangely, the hardest part to convince students to do). Getting your concepts laid out in a 3d environment makes it easy to see how it will work and spot any potential problems. When you get into more detailed or complicated designs, advanced CADing software like Solidworks starts to become more helpful for analyzing things like weight, strength, and motion of mechanisms. Even so, Sketchup is probably advanced enough to cover most things you might design for FIRST robots.

Keep up the CADing work, it's a good habit to get into!