[Betty_Krocker]

Originally Posted by EricH

The rule is there for a reason. The intent is that teams not work on their competition robots before the game. The GDC might decide, for no apparent reason, to ban pre-made shifting transmissions. Farfetched? Yes. Possible? Yes.

I believe that there were rumors at one point that teams were pre-building. The next time a new ruleset came out, there were significant changes that would ruin the prebuild.

You may be right about the prototype, but then you'd probably need to get another pair of transmissions to be sure you're strictly legal.

Now, about those tips: 3) could really be ANY CAD program. Inventor is included with participation. It's just about as easy as Solidworks.
2) any method of organizing wire. Wrapping it works, energy chain could be used. Just organize it and keep the runs as short as possible, especially if they're heavy gauge.
1) Aluminum axles can be used. However, you have to know what you are doing. There's different types (alloys) of aluminum, and some are more suited for axles than others. If you want to do the analysis to get the aluminum axles, go right ahead. If not, steel works.

Right but if they were just playing with it and it HAPPENED to end up on the robot, then they are good. The word INTENDED is the key word in this rule and intent is hard to prove, so you are fine...