[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by EricH

He's almost right. Solving problems while building is not more fun after this competition, however. The real-world version of that (without the boss's response to such a quote if said aloud) follows...

"I like solving problems while building, that's more expensive." And that, my friends, is why you CAD thrice, measure twice, and cut once (and then cut again on any identical parts), and measure again once you're done cutting.

Do a cost add-up. Figure minimum wage for every student, and normal wages for the mentors. Figure out how much the season cost in labor and materials. Now, subtract any material wasted by building something wrong and any time wasted fixing something that was built wrong (and the associated man-hour cost). I think the results might surprise everyone on the team.

There's nothing wrong with building then designing, if you don't mind wasting money and time, and not getting a real-world engineering experience.

Its cheaper for us. We don't have the money to send parts out to be made. We do have a pile of scrap metal and nearly infinite wood from our schools wood shop. Its what works for us. This is not meant to be a "Real world engineering experience". This is a robotics competition with teams from high schools made up of high school students that are mentored by real world engineers (be it we don't even have those). Try telling your potential boss "I'd like the job, but you're going to have to hire my mentor as well". In a real world engineering situation, CAD and then sending parts to be made would be the best choice. But this isn't the real world, and not all of us have the luxury of money. There is no right or wrong way to build a robot during build season. It depends on a teams situation what is cheaper. Don't assume everyone is in the same financial boat as you.