[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Taylor

I personally wouldn't want a pre-kickoff material list. Most years, we don't build according to Hoyle (in 2013 we built a quarter pyramid and shot at masking tape goals; 2016 we didn't even attempt the sally port or portcullis). If we had purchased the full list, we would have been out more money and more space.
We have also used spare scrap to make some field elements; unless the shopping list also included cut lengths (which it wouldn't), we wouldn't buy early anyway.

I do agree with your assertion that it would be nice to have nesting patterns and/or purchasing guides released with the drawings.

I think this is the biggest reason why FIRST doesn't publish a single complete list. Teams are widely different, and depending on how you tackle the game you may only build a portion of the field. I know in 2013 we didn't even build 1/4 of a pyramid - we used the materials from our BreakAway climbing tower to build a sloped structure that was only a couple of inches wider than the robot and matched the separation dimensions of the levels of the pyramid. Last year, we only build a few of the defenses that we were worried about being able to complete.