F4 - CADathon 2016

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by QuatroDoesGood

I'd love to involve my team in this. It would be great practice for the 2017 FRC season. However, most of our members don't know how to CAD at all, but I would like to involve them in the design process for practice purposes. A lot know sketch up but I'm not sure if that program would be permissible for the competition given issues with .STEP conversion.

Is there penalties for communication of ideas between people that are participating and not participating? Or would it be best to divide the team up and throw them into competition and see how they fare

Well, due to constraints I am going to say no to using Sketchup. Its a different beast then using something something like Solidworks, PTC Creo, or Inventor. If you are any members of your team want to learn Solidworks there are resources available. I usually tell people to first watch the 1114 Solidworks series and then move on to 973 RAMP. If anyone is having trouble I am sure someone from F4 or myself would be happy to assist. I or someone else from F4 can even video chat you and your team and teach the basics if you would like. Ill also be around during the CADathon and will be happy to answer questions related to using Solidoworks. If your team does not have licenses for Solidworks the students can still get Inventor but, I can not assist. We have members that use Inventor but there are less of them and all of them are either participating in the event or will be busy.

As for penalties we are discussing this internally. We think we are going to disallow it under the honor system that teams do not communicate ideas. Teaching from a non team member is one thing but competitors should be separated as to keep the playing field somewhat level.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask.