[Jade Z]

When you attend a competition, you can bring tools and supplies with you so that you can work on your robot and code before and between matches.

You can bring in 45 pounds of things your team made that was not included in the bag you put your robot in on Stop Build Day. This could be anything that goes on your robot.

If you want to make your robot structure more sturdy, you might bring rivets with you to reinforce the frame. Assuming you bought these rivets from Home Depot or Lowe's, these rivets wouldn't count toward your 45 pounds because you didn't fabricate them, the manufacturer did.

If you cut out some new plates to put said rivets on, they would count towards your 45 pounds. You fabricated them, or even just modified some metal squares you found at a yard sale. The moment they are different from how your team bought them, they are "fabricated."

If you have a kid on your team who is really bright and made his very own rivet gun, yes, it would be a team-fabricated part. It doesn't count towards this 45-pound count, however, because it doesn't go on the robot, it is used for the robot.

Obviously, programs weigh nothing. If you have to bring a new CRIO because that team member's younger sibling you told to stay away from the heat gun didn't listen, it is not a fabricated part no matter how much code your team made is on it. Unless you modified it physically, but I don't know enough about how that works to advise on that particular part.

Any part you make, assemble, or modify outside of a competition is fabricated. Once you get to the competition, you can assemble your whole 120-pound robot if you have that capability so long as only 45 pounds of it you fabricated outside of the competition.

Hope that helps!