paper: GUS Team 228 - 2009 FRC Robot "Gus 11" CAD Assembly

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Jamie Kalb

I see. I like to build CAD models in lot of small sub-assemblies, then put all those sub-assemblies together in one big assembly. The main advantage is that most of the time, you only have to work with a small assembly, rather than having to open up the whole thing to make changes. The downside is that if you move or rename a file, its whole sub-assembly starts complaining, and it can take a little longer to isolate the problem.

Once again, very nice!. I can't wait to see your 2010 CAD!

Another disadvantage to subassemblies is that if a part can move (rotate, translate, etc) within the subassembly then it will remain stationary in the main assembly. For example, If I have a drive train assembly and an arm assembly, then put both of those into the overall robot assembly, then I'm unable to rotate the wheels and the shoulder joint on the arm from the main robot assembly.

Of course, this assumes I haven't missed something...