CAD team

[MattC9]

So with in our team we have sub teams (just like every one else haha) but one thing we are trying to figure out is how to structure our CAD team. Last year it was a mentor and I hammering it out but now we have a few more kids who want to CAD (thank God) but should we organize our self's? person 1 base, person 2 arm, person 3 gripper? How do you organize your CAD team and another thing how do you file share and name your files? I want to go to a number system that details the part/assembly by number, if your team uses that system what are the pro's and con's to the numerical system and how is it organized? And how do you share file's? We have used SVN in the past but we may not get access to our servers anymore next year. Also any other information you are willing to share about your CAD team's organization is very appreciated!

[Peyton Yeung]

On team 45 we have (in my time here) had a few students who work with a mentor to get the CAD done. Typically the mentor has done the actual CAD on the computer with the students inputting designs and ideas.

Our format for CAD is that all parts for a said robot are in a folder (on one of our two desktop computers) that is named after the robot. All parts are (typically) labeled with a numeric string with name describing the part (i.e. 0001 Shaft Collar). All assemblies start with a common prefix (ours is TK for Technokats), then a numeric string and a description(i.e. TK0045 final assembly).

Since all our CAD is saved to desktops it is always at the shop (although sometimes it is copied to flash drives for external work)

As for the pros and cons The pros are organization and description and the cons are that we have really long parts titles and sometimes there is confusion when we just refer to part numbers.

Hope this helps

[Hawiian Cadder]

we usually have 2-3 people doing Cad. Our cad relies on virtual components and multibody parts (for things like gearboxes which will never be machined in house). Typically there is one person driving the main assembly with a secondary person who does minor assemblies, helps with design work, and takes over when the main Cadders eyes feel like they are about to explode. a third and fourth person are used to make sure that what we Cad is available as far as stock goes, as well as to put in semi-important things that don't add any real functionality(speed holes, pockets, wire routing, ect.) Unfortunatly our schools computers slow down a ton on the weekends, so I will be bringing in my personal computer to supplement the school computer during this time. additional work for the 3rd and 4th members of the cad team will probably include converting .stp files to assemblies on the weekends as my computer has solid works 2012, where the school computers have solid works 2009.

[Peter Matteson]

We usually have 4-5 students doing CAD work under the guidance of the mentors. We typically break it out by system or component, but if it's a big subsystem two or three students sitting side by side talking gets the job done.

We usually have 1 or 2 kids that just specialize in making the drawings for our CNC programmers as well.

[TroyCDH]

With multiple CAD people you should break down based on robot function as you suggest. chassis/drive train---arm---shooter--electronic board and so forth. Your main CAD person should be managing the overall assembly ensuring the smaller design teams have a current overall assembly to work with that is up to date. This designer will also need to resolve issues between the design teams as they both try to use the same space of the robot for their individual designs.

You could have students new to CAD create the purchased components in 3D. Or find files on the web. The experienced CAD/Designer student could focus on the custom parts and design. Kind of a lead student & apprentice student situation.

Good thought (concern) on names of files. As you may know, you must have unique file names. The chassis team cannot save a part as "bracket" if the shooter team already has a "bracket". This same filename can (incorrectly) be done if teams are on their own PCs or drives (folders) but once all the parts are stored in the same folder to make the final assembly you will have issues. You can rename files, while watching for related assemblies and drawings, but it is better to have a filename plan.

One simple thought is that every CAD person use his/her initials at the beginning (or end but the team must decide) of the file name. For example "taa_bracket" would not conflict with "frc_bracket". A better solution might be for the chassis team to start all filenames with "chassis". Or your team could assign meaningful letters. A for arm, C for chassis etc.

The main goals are the file naming process is written down, the CAD team(s) know it and follow it. You could assign numbers like business do but if you are working at home, of after school, or an idea pops into your head at a certain time you might not have access (permissions) to an overall part number system. That leads to the renaming files once the master number sheet is available again, and watching file relations of drawings and assemblies.

Troy

[ecchorobotics]

On Team 75 we organize the Design group members into different areas that work towards creating the design. We usually have about 10-12 members on the design team, so we split it up into roles:

>Inventor Parts: Everyone. Each person can create an individual part after we've discussed it on the whiteboard to give to the 'assemblers'.
>Inventor Assemblies: 1 or 2 People. Assemblies are more complex, and everyone has their own ways and habits of doing it. 2 of the more experienced members work in separate subassemblies, and then they will merge them in the main assembly.
>Research: 2+ People. People who aren't doing parts are researching existing ideas to use and improve on. Why reinvent the wheel? In 2010, our team modeled our hanging mechanism off of the concept of a firefighter's ladder- it was telescopic and emulated a ladder's stages during extend and retract.
>Documentation: 3+ People. Each year we document our process as thoroughly as we can by taking pictures, maintaining detailed parts/ assembly lists, and by creating presentation drawings and instructions. We also do Inventor Simulations and save the results in case of failures in the future.
>DWG's: Everyone. Drawings are required to get our parts programmed into CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) to be CNC'd. All of our DWG's are dimensioned for reference and for machining information.
>Mechanical Group Liaison: 2 People. When the mechanical members have questions about assembly, parts, or in case a part is incorrect, the design team must know so it can be corrected in the Inventor model and have the DWG's updated for machining the correct part. If it is simply a general assembly question, these 2 people are responsible for aiding in the assembly of any complex parts that may be confusing on paper.
>Autodesk Design Award Submission: Everyone (on the entire team). The design team is heavily influenced by the strategy team. At the same time, design heavily influences many other parts of the team. As a result, we compile the data, documents, photos, videos, animations, lists, drawings, models, and any other content that has affected the robot. Everyone is responsible for contributing their work to the submission. In the end, we compile, clean up, and organize all of the work into one chronological document showcasing how we got to the final design. This document is not just for the Award Submission, but also for our records and archives of the year's successes and shortcomings.

All in all, for each subassembly (drive train, arm, end effector, etc.), we have several general meetings with everyone on a regular basis to ensure we are all moving in the same direction, and design members break off into pairs to work on a design. In a few days, after some collaboration and problem solving, we take everyone's rough designs and mold them all into one main design. Then we edit each design slightly to work together coherently, and then we further develop each part of the robot until we are satisfied with the results.

We used a numbering system to organize our parts. It was a three part file name that worked like this:

[YEAR]-[ASSEMBLY NUMBER + PART NUMBER]-[PART DESCRIPTION]

So an example would be:

2011-0208-Gearbox Side Plate

The year is always constant, but the assembly/part number works like this: each subassembly gets a number in the one-hundreds: 0100 is Main Assembly, 0200 is Gearbox Assembly, 0300 is Arm Assembly, etc.
Each part in that assembly gets a single digit increase. So the third part in the Gearbox Assembly would be numbered: 2011-0203-BlahBlahPart.ipt
The 17th part in the Arm Assembly would be 2011-0317-AnotherPart.ipt

Pros of this naming system are that it is easy to organize files in the project, it's easier to make the BOM at the end, and it makes finding files a breeze. The cons are that it's easy to mess up the number and have to go back and re number each part manually. Then you have to go back and make sure Inventor knows you renamed them or else it will ask you to find all the parts for it when you open the assemblies ('resolve'). We use an Excel Workbook to organize the part numbers. In the spreadsheet, we can insert cost, weight, and block dimensions into cells that will come back red if we are overweight or over-budget, and tell us what part's we've done and what we still need to do. It also has dates and % completed of each assembly, so if a subassembly is not 100% by the date we specified in the schedule, we know that we need to pick up the pace in order to meet the deadline. Our schedule is tight in order for us finish the design within the first 3-4 weeks so that after assembly, wiring, and programming, we have enough time to practice and troubleshoot.

Also, we used dropbox to share files this year. But we are transitioning into a Vault server. Alternatively, you can use the free hosting from Autodesk called Autodesk Cloud (it's new this year!) to share parts and collaborate with others.

I hope this information helps. Best of luck.

-75

[RayTurner1126]

team 1126 has every mechanical student do CAD for their subsystem. we have 1 student do the integration of all the robot CAD based on the completed subsystems that are given to him. usually 1 student on each subteam assembles all of the individual parts to make each subsystem. i guess we do it a little differently, but it works and everyone learns and uses CAD. not to say that everyone enjoys it

[ChristopherSD]

Each student typically works with one function of the robot. In last year's case, we had one on drive-train, one on gripper, one on arm, etc.. The new kids usually work on random additions that the build team adds without the design team's consent.

By the way, if anyone knows of a good website where I can find practice CAD drawings for some of the new team members, please let me know.