[IanW]

I know that my old team (2374) printed a model of our chassis in 2012, and I'm pretty sure that the model was brought to the Portland regional this year. That print was merely part of a display that demonstrated the capabilities of 3D printing to other teams. I actually had to make major changes to the model just to give it a chance of printing successfully.

I don't think that making a 3D print of a robot or subassembly would really be a useful tool. I don't see how it would communicate any information that you couldn't get from just looking at a CAD model on a screen.

However, as teams that have access to 3D printers have been learning, they can make some pretty cool parts. If you have access to one, I'd suggest experimenting with it to find applications. For example, my old team used ours to make hubs, sensor brackets, and other similar parts.