Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
Software may be used if it's been made publicly available, but I'm not convinced that the manual supports the idea of "COTS CAD".
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Personally, I think of software as being more like a final, constructed product - similar to building a gear box in the off-season and then using it during the season. The difference is that software can be easily and quickly shared and used by many people, where building a second, third, etc gear box takes additional time and effort.
From that point of view, CAD can be quickly and easily shared and used by many people. The CAD for a gearbox relates much more closely to software than the actual physical gearbox. The key difference, I think, is that having CAD publicly shared puts all teams on an even footing when it comes to the build season - anyone can download and build the product to use on their robot, which does not give the team that generated it an unfair advantage (ignoring the experience and knowledge gained through generating it, which they would have anyways for pursuing an off-season design project).
Now, let me throw out a hypothetical for discussion. AndyMark provides CAD drawings of many items. If I were to download the CAD for their ToughBox and then build my own during the season, would that be legal? The CAD was generated prior to the start of the season, and I make no modifications for it. Note: I'm not encouraging teams to do this... please support AndyMark, as they do a lot to support FIRST!