[Andrew]

We make solid models and detailed drawings of every part on the robot, including kit parts. This makes our assembly actually assemble without having to widen holes, remake parts when interferences are discovered.

In 2003, the came in very useful when the drive key ways in our primary drive shaft started to fail. We got some material, printed out the drawings and submitted them to the shop. We had replacement parts ready before the key ways actually failed.

This past year, one of our high school students learned enough to be able to make our engineering drawings based on the models which we uploaded on our message board. He prepared a design notebook with every part on the robot, material, how much it cost, etc. It was an impressive piece of work, and he really knew how to make engineering drawings by the end.

Since we have something like 400 different parts on our robots, that's a lot of drawings.