Prior to 2007, the rules only specified that fabrication had to be done during the build season:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by FRC 2006 Game Manual
... But absolutely no fabrication or assembly of any elements intended for the final robot is permitted prior to the Kick-off presentation. Any MECHANISMS assembled prior to the Kick-off presentation may be used for prototyping or educational purposes, but MAY NOT be used on the final ROBOT.
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Thus, it used to be legal to take a CAD drawing of last year's robot and make another copy. As FIRST has struggled to define what it means to "build a robot", this restriction has gotten tighter. While I don't think teams are intentionally breaking the rule, older teams are more likely to have the old mindset where detailed design reuse was completely legal.