[av11d]

Using CAD can eat up a lot time. Typically, we use drawings (and some CAD) to get a (fairly) accurate schematic of our robot. After that, the Inventor and Mechanical teams work concurrently on the robot. The Inventor team spends their time modeling the robot in 3D and making sure there are no problems with measurements, etc. The mechanical team uses the drawings and whatever is done in Inventor up to that point to build the robot. We're usually able to crank out both a good inventor submission and good robot in 6 weeks by using this method.

If you're going to use CAD, make sure you learn it before the season starts! Best of luck!