Autodesk announces partnership with FVC!

[KathieK]

(Please move this thread if necessary - I wanted everyone to learn about this exciting new partnership, not just those who read the FVC thread!)

"Autodesk and FIRST Provide Competitive Robotics to the Masses With the FIRST Vex Challenge
Autodesk, Inc. is partnering with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to provide real-world experience and support to an expanded pool of next generation engineers with the FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC), a robotics competition for high-school-aged students...Autodesk will provide various FVC teams with its Autodesk Inventor software for use in designing, building and visualizing their projects...Autodesk is sponsoring FVC in addition to its overall $17 million
software and training contributions to the 2007 FRC."

THANK YOU, AUTODESK!

[Dan Zollman]

1. Wow, that's amazing.

2. That's interesting. I assembled one Vex bot in Inventor last year, and it struck me as impractical. It doesn't involve any part design because the parts are pre-designed and standard. It's all assembly, and it takes much longer to assemble the parts on the computer than to make a prototype with Vex. More for visualization purposes than anything.

Nevertheless, I don't think that matters. What's important is that this will get more students' hands on the software and let them design anything they want, beyond Vex.

[Sean Marks]

That is really great. Inventor is a great program and its a great accomplishment when you know how to use it well. Having the program in VEX only increases students knowledge about it. This is the beginning of something great.

Good Job AutoDesk!!

[technoL]

Wow this is cool! Now does this mean that we finally get models of ALL the Vex parts?

[JaneYoung]

Oh tralalalala yay

[Ben Piecuch]

This is another great step for FIRST and FVC! Bringing the level of design and Innovation up in FVC to equal that of FRC is exactly what the program needs. Also, it pretty much guarantees that FVC will continue to thrive within the FIRST community. I am 100% behind the VEX program and hope to see it grow to it's full potential, and that potential is to get a FVC program in every high school in the country.

Congrats to all that worked so hard on getting this partnership solidified!

BEN