[FTC]: What should I know about CAD (via Pro/E) for FTC?

[Techhexium]

After I have recently taken a keen interest to getting my feet wet in CAD with Pro/E (that's the CAD software given to all teams in FTC), I am wondering what should I know about CAD that will be useful when designing a robot through CAD during the season. So far I have mainly been practicing on assembly modeling. What other concepts of Pro/E should I also be familiar of?

Currently I am learning how to use Pro/E through PTC tutorials rather than just experimenting as I find the interface to be a learning curve compared to the ease of use of Google SketchUp, which I used in the past though not anymore.

Thanks!

[Molten]

Basic tools are always important. I'd suggest getting experience with sketching, creating datum planes, and assembly tools as the basic minimum to make a good model. Yes you will use extrudes, revolves, and alot of things often. These tools are relatively easy to pick up. The three tools I mentioned above are the ones I'd suggest sitting down and working on though. In the process of mastering them, you will probably master most of the other tools too.

Jason

Disclaimer: I've not drawn an FTC robot on ProE. I've drawn an FRC robot on Inventor and been learning ProE for the last couple of years. The most advanced things I've drawn on ProE were a hand drill, heat exchanger, and double wishbone suspension system.

[Garrett.d.w]

Before I begin, I have not used ProE yet, as I am on an FRC team and already have Autodesk Inventor.

I would suggest simply just do begin a basic model (of anything really, I started with pliers and then moved on to something more complex). This works especially well if you already have some basic experience with computer modeling. As you go along you will start to figure out how to translate your ideas into an actual design. If you get stuck, just ask around, I am sure that there is a large community out there that uses ProE and would be willing to answer your questions. Youtube has some pretty good stuff.

Best of luck!

[Techhexium]

Thanks everyone. It would be good for me to learn more than just assembly, I find that I may need to modify structural objects in Pro/E because teams will have to bend TETRIX parts, and not every part in the FTC Kits (Legos and TETRIX metal) is available in a 3D model. (I won't need to make them from scratch fortunately because some FTC teams like 2848 have released their CAD Library)

[NalaTI]

Look at sheet metal parts too... that's how we did all of the plastic. build it in Pro/E sheet metal, make sure it fits on the CAD robot model, then flatten the piece. Then you can print it out in a one-to-one size and cut it precisely to fit your robot using the band saw.

See http://technoguards.org/node/402 for an extreme example of how that works. In that case, after we tried it there, we realized that the details were too tough for the band saw and we actually ordered it laser cut from a company in Las Vegas ($50 for three copies) you can see the laser cut version in the next blog entry (http://technoguards.org/node/406)

[Molten]

Originally Posted by Techhexium

Thanks everyone. It would be good for me to learn more than just assembly, I find that I may need to modify structural objects in Pro/E because teams will have to bend TETRIX parts, and not every part in the FTC Kits (Legos and TETRIX metal) is available in a 3D model. (I won't need to make them from scratch fortunately because some FTC teams like 2848 have released their CAD Library)

I may be missing the point, but I'm not seeing the logic here. Wouldn't it be more helpful to know how to make parts from scratch then how to modify them? I'm sure it varies which way is easier, but for most simple parts it will be easier to make from scratch. As far as time needed, the modifying may be quicker but making parts from scratch is much easier to learn to do. I might be completely wrong, but I think your looking at it the wrong way this time.

Jason

[NalaTI]

Originally Posted by Molten

I may be missing the point, but I'm not seeing the logic here. Wouldn't it be more helpful to know how to make parts from scratch then how to modify them? I'm sure it varies which way is easier, but for most simple parts it will be easier to make from scratch. As far as time needed, the modifying may be quicker but making parts from scratch is much easier to learn to do.

There's no real difference in the learning aspect. If you learn how to make them, you've also learned how to modify them.

In our case, we modified some, and some we re-made. Some parts we made into families (so they could be replaced without doing a ton of work), some parts we learned about flexibility (shortening or adjusting dimensions of individual pieces in an assembly).

By the way, some of the parts in the standard library have the wrong dimensions (just slightly wrong, but too many "almost's" and it becomes a "not quite") -- I'd recommend that you watch closely for that as you look at mod'ing and creating.

As Tecchhexium mentioned, our CAD library of the parts that we re-built is located at: http://technoguards.org/CAD_Library