Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike9966
Another question just hit me. If anyone could comment on how long it took them to draw their robot that would be good info to pass along. The kids seem to think it's a couple of hour thing and I think it's muchhhhhh longer.
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I am not a SolidWorks Ninja (SWN), but I did use it a little bit in college for 3-4 classes. I think my lack of talent in this realm is finally useful!
For estimating time, I found it helpful to mentally break the tasks down into blocks. I'd choose the blocks so that they'd be equally difficult, and take me 3-4 hours each ( a SWN could do each block in far less time ).
Typical "Blocks":
Modeling a complicated part - an interesting wheel
Modeling a group of simple parts - all of the simple structural members
Assembling a group of parts - taking the structural members and snapping them together
Final Assembly - taking the different groups and snapping them together.
Also, remember that the design process is likely to be the gating process, rather than the design capture. Solidworks is a very intuitive tool, but you have to know what you are drawing first.