[smitikshah]

We have decided to really use CAD this year.

Last season a couple people tried to use sketchup to CAD the actual bot but the robot didn't end up working. For the offseason we really got serious and used SW which really helped the team - so if the main design person/captain was not there that day build team still had all the dimensions and an idea of the bot. It also allowed less dedicated members to know how they could help out in cutting/building when they decided to swing by the lab.

In addition, with CADing the entire bot this year, we were able to create an engineering notebook for future generations of the team with all the individual parts and final assembly. Each part (with CAD rendering) and an explanation of why we decided to go with that design hopefully will help future generations make tough design decisions choices.

All in all, CAD was super beneficial to use for our team, helped us all stay on the same page, and helped us not waste too much time with days on end of prototyping. Definitely recommend!

(Plus if you get things specially cut - we get some aluminium pieces waterjet cut - you would absolutely need it!)