Cad Team Questions

[Francis115]

Our team uses Tortoise SVN to share files. I think it's the easiest way to update and share files in real time.

[pigpenguin]

What are you using to run your sub version server?

[Boe]

Before i start my team uses solidworks and it worked out great for us

1.) How many kids are on your CAD team?

four dedicated CAD people (three students one mentor) and a few people trying to learn

2.)When do you complete the whole robot by?

the plan is a week before ship but was more like 3 or 4 days before ship

3.) What do you use for transferring files from different computers do you have a data base or something so all computers can access the files?

Our team started using dropbox this year and it worked out great. It gave us plenty of space for everything we needed and let everyone have the CAD as it was being edited. Only bad thing was it got screwed up when two people edited the same part/assembly at the same time

4.) What is your CAD schedule? Like when is your deadline for everything completed ?

we try to have most of it CADed by the end of week three (didnt happen this year )

[NXTGeek]

I'm the CAD person for my team. I like to use Dropbox for syncing and collaboration (though I had a few scares when two computers work at the same time on the CAD), but I'm sure there is a safer way than that. This year the CAD was mainly to help design specific robot systems, for visualization, and most importantly for the machinist drawing files. I didn't need a "deadline" but after the robot was bagged I made everything pretty, and then constructed some animations to play from a monitor in our pit. I also had a virtual model of the CAD running on two iPads that we talked to judges and other people with. After the regional ended (and we won ), I constructed a video to be submitted for the Autodesk 3D Design Award. You can view the video here:
http://youtu.be/rdu5FFzNecI

[Peck]

1.) How many kids are on your CAD team?
20 to 35 know the basics of cad with SW. about 10 really know it well

2.)When do you complete the whole robot by?
Looks close to complete: maby a week before hands off, officially done about 5 minutes before it enters the bag. (well, we sometimes tweak at our rejional)

3.) What do you use for transferring files from different computers do you have a data base or something so all computers can access the files?
The school proves a "share" folder that we can use for specific computers. We also use flash drives and external hard drives.

4.) What is your CAD schedule? Like when is your deadline for everything completed ?
start cad work: the moment we know what we might want.
stop cad: the rejional

[Solidstate89]

Originally Posted by stundt1

Hey CD I have a few questions about your CAD team.

1.) How many kids are on your CAD team?

2.)When do you complete the whole robot by?

3.) What do you use for transferring files from different computers do you have a data base or something so all computers can access the files?

4.) What is your CAD schedule? Like when is your deadline for everything completed ?


Thanks Guys !!!!!!

1) Well that changes every year. We had 3 last year but two were seniors so we had 1 guaranteed this year. Two more rookies joined up this year but they happened to be seniors. They integrated well and were fast Inventor learners but as I said - they're seniors so they'll be graduating and next year we'll be stuck again with one guaranteed student. As an aside, I'm the only full-time CAD mentor on the team as well. Bit of a disadvantage as even though I have quite a few years of experience with Inventor they were all during my high school years. Professionally I use Unigraphics NX.

2)The day before it ships is usually when we're done with the robot. Sometimes it takes longer and our team works off of images and dimensions we take before the robot is shipped so we can continue working on the smaller stuff even without the robot. All of the major stuff is absolutely finished by then but inserting all of the sprockets and bushings, etc are sometimes done after the fact.

3)Every student at LHS has a personal log-in that they use. Years ago when I was still a student on the team the teacher petitioned IT to create a shared Warlocks student account with slightly elevated privileges (we can store .ZIP folders in the CAD log-in while regular student log-ins can't for example). And if I ever need to transfer the files from my laptop to the server or from the server to my laptop I use a flash drive with Teracopy installed.

4) Due to our small team we're usually behind the build team. I realize it doesn't work like that in the real world (something I know all too well) but it's just not something we've been able to push against since our team's inception. With the exception of a couple designs, they are all built and tested first and then come to us later when they need modifications made to it. Or we have to go to them to get the dimensions of the part they just created on their own so we can add it to our assembly. It's completely bass-ackwards but we just don't have the man-power to do anything about it. The 3D Assembly is usually finished when it's finished. Like I said above, we like to have it finished (or at least MOSTLY, with all of the large important stuff completed) at or on the ship date. But it's not unusual for us to do some last minute tweaks to the assembly before we upload it.

[sanddrag]

I'd like to get into a bit of discussion on what the ideal/optimal file management solution is for CAD among other things (programming, photos, video, etc) Currently, I'm thinking a local server in the school's CAD lab with WAN-routed ports so we could remote into it from anywhere, etc. Thoughts?

Can a mod split this post out to a new thread?

[Peck]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I'd like to get into a bit of discussion on what the ideal/optimal file management solution is for CAD among other things (programming, photos, video, etc) Currently, I'm thinking a local server in the school's CAD lab with WAN-routed ports so we could remote into it from anywhere, etc. Thoughts?

please make a seporate thread as that is not the purpose of this thread.

[Ariful]

Hell, I tried to do CAD in our Rookie year and it was just horrible. I learnt quite a lot too.
We have the power to do CAD, but not people to do it. It is a big problem that we have to learn how to fix.

[Peck]

best way to get more people who know how to CAD: make them. If you need help making them, feel free to ask.