[Jash_J]

Originally Posted by Arkive

What would you suggest as a good balance time/resource wise between CAD and prototyping. We usually put a lot of time into prototyping but then we never put it into CAD to make sure it can fit with everything else. That hits our number one problem where our robot looks less streamlined and more cheesecaked than it should.

Typically we only dedicate a week to prototyping. However you can always give or take a couple days from that time period depending on the complexity of the game. If you are able to outline clear constraints and variables during the first day or so of build season, you should be able to complete the prototyping phase in about a week. This allows you to have a good amount of time left over to CAD.

Ideally, because you stated that your team is not familiar with any CAD software, I would suggest conducting workshops over the summer, even indulge yourself in a mock 2 week build season where you prototype and CAD a robot from a previous game over the summer. This will help you familiarize yourself with how tight the process can be and if it is feasible for your team to conduct during build season.