pic: New to CADing for FRC. Critique? Would this work?

[Akash Rastogi]

I would be wary of cutting those rather small holes and lightening patterns with a plasma cutter as they are very close together. You'll want to take out larger pieces but leave enough material in between.

177 used their plasma cutter this past season to create their drivetrain plates.

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Drop Peter a message on here and I'm sure he would be as helpful to you as he was for me. He has pictures of 177's plasma cut parts on his facebook, not sure of any public albums though. His general suggestions: practice A LOT with the plasma cutter settings, types of patterns you can cut, thicknesses and cutting speeds, keep lightening shapes rather large, large radii, watch out for weakened areas due to the heat of the cut. Bearing bores will most likely need secondary machining to have a precise fit. Here's a pic of one of their modules. Another great thing to do is discuss these things with your sponsor's machinists. They know what's best for your parts and can help you with many aspects of the design to make sure it will work with their machine.

Hope this helps! Good luck!