Google Sketchup

[BlacksmithWoods]

Originally Posted by BJC

I highly suggest not using google sketchup to design robots. Trust me I've tried. A much better option would be either Solidworks or Autodesk Inventor both of which are free for FRC teams to download online. I picked up Autodesk Inventor in about 2-3 weeks. Its really not that difficult to use, and from what I've heard Solidworks has a similar or better learning curve.

Seriously, don't use Sketchup, you will not be happy with your results ifyou do.

Regards, Bryan

Yes, I have been using AutoDesk Inventor, but I can't seem to get things situated in places they need to be. I was hoping that there might have been a easier alternative than that for right now until i try to get situated with learning AutoDesk Inventor.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by BlacksmithWoods

Yes, I have been using AutoDesk Inventor, but I can't seem to get things situated in places they need to be. I was hoping that there might have been a easier alternative than that for right now until i try to get situated with learning AutoDesk Inventor.

Solidworks and Inventor are quite similar in difficulty/learnability. There is another CAD program that FRC teams use--Creo--but having experience with trying to learn Pro-E (its predecessor), the learning curve is much, much steeper than Sketchup.

Out of curiosity, have you looked at the tutorials for Inventor?