CAD tutorials?

[MattC9]

I was CADing today at home and was out of ideas of what to CAD so if any one has any good FIRST related CAD ideas please shoot them to me. Also if any one has a good list of Soildworks tutorials that they could share with me, I would greatly appreciate it. I am fairly good at CAD I know my way around an assembly and parts very well but I am looking for new techniques that would help me out during build season.

Thank you

[biancs15]

Matt,

There are a set of tutorials built into SolidWorks itself. On the right side of the screen in a part file there is a rectangular box. In that box there is a link that says tutorials. This will open a set of tutorials of all ranges of difficulty.

Some ideas of pieces to make to truly test you're abilities are:

Wii Remote (nun chuck optional)
GameBoy XP
Xbox controller
A chair
A lamp of some sort (the fancier the better)
A pit area for you're team to set up when the competitions start
A room in you're house
An 8 wheel drive base
Make lego pieces and try to assemble them to make something

Some of these are not FIRST related, however they help in achieving knowledge of what you can do in SolidWorks.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Austin

[AustinSchuh]

One skill that I always find useful is being able to express a design wholly in a single sketch, in order to test it out without spending the extra time to actually model it all up.

With that being said, try designing a pneumatic claw. I'd start by drawing up the basic design in a sketch, and once I had worked out all the details, then using what I learned from my sketch to make all the parts. One of the more fun designs I made in 2007 was a pneumatic claw that also had two pistons to rotate the claw 90 degrees to the left and to the right.

Things like 4 bar linkages are fun to try to design. It's easiest to design them first in a sketch, and then make the parts for real.

If you use sheet metal, another fun trick that my brother taught me is that you can model up something using the thickness of paper as the sheet metal thickness, print it out at full scale, cut it out, bend it along the lines, and then glue it together. You can test all sorts of intricate sheet metal creations that way.

Good luck!

[mplanchard]

We just created new tutorials for FIRST both FRC and FLL. These use actual robot parts
go to www.SolidWorks.com/robotics

Each tutorial gives you a video how to and the the model files before and after.

Also, use the tutorials inside of SolidWorks, go to Help, SolidWorks Tutorials

All the robot models that we have for FRC, FTC (Tetrix), VEX, and FLL are located inside of SolidWorks 2010 in the Design Library. Don't recreate the parts from Andy Mark and SMC - use the models we have made.

To link your SolidWorks so that if shows the robot libraries - follow the steps in this video
http://blogs.solidworks.com/teacher/...-and-more.html

You are doing the right thing. Now is the time to get your modeling skills up before the competition begins. Review how we have build robots. They will give you a good start.

If you dont have SolidWorks 2010, you can apply for sponsorship at www.SolidWorks.com/SponsoredDesignContest

As always, there are plenty of people on Chief Delphi to support your SolidWorks questions, dont be afraid to ask - that is how you learn.

Good luck
Marie

[MattC9]

Thank you all this has been wonderful help especially the CAD library from solidworks it self. I have gone and re done my 6WD with bumper mounts and all (no electrons). But one last Question I had was how do you design something to be welded? I just mate the part and insert weld marks. The reason I ask is that my team is planing to try and start welding this year. Are there any special things we need to do for it?

[MattC9]

Ok i found out how to attach a picture to a post!!! So here is the 6WD. I posted the first rev. the other day but this is what i have done for the 6WD

[mplanchard]

There is a weldment tutorial in SolidWorks. Select Help, SolidWorks Tutorials.
This tutorial will teach you basic techniques. Marie