Pyramid Dimension Contradiction

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

This also appears (I don't know yet to what extent) in the .STEP version of the pyramid provided by Autodesk. The top rung ends up short of 90" off the floor (bringing the whole top goal down with it), and the angles are off (exactly 60deg in the corner and almost 68deg on the side, as opposed to the other way around as advertised in the manual). The base also does not match the 94" spec in the manual. Somehow, however, the first two rungs are in the right positions. It would be nice to have some clarification on this, for sure.

I haven't yet been able to import the Pro/E files into Solidworks, so I don't know what issues that may or may not have.

The game manual's probably +/- 1" since it isn't clear on whether the dimensions represent the center or outer diameters of the pipe. I would trust the technical drawings FIRST put out over any other representation, if you really are designing for such a precise measurement. However, I think the angles are still mostly correct for the face vs corner views. If viewing the pyramid from corner to opposite corner, the dimensions of the top and base are not the same as what they are if the pyramid is viewed from a side, face to face (thus they're ~61 degrees in the corner perspective vs ~68 degrees in the side perspective).

I suppose it's more about exactly how FIRST designed the pyramid for manufacturing vs how they communicated the design to AutoDesk. If FIRST made an exact 68-degree angle on the sides, then the top would come up short (and be slightly narrower than advertised too). Yet if they made the top rung a precise width (more likely, I think), and the base a precise width, then they did some rounding with the advertised angle. If Autodesk took the rounded angle as an exact angle, there's a discrepancy in communication between FIRST and AutoDesk. I haven't tried to pull in the AutoDesk model yet; we've only been working in 2D sketches for the time being as we proof things.

But again, we're taking it as "90 inches -ish, probably". It's easy to make a tolerant design for climbing either pyramid dimension, IMO.