Ok. Here’s the deal. My team is wanting to begin doing a lot more CADing before we start the building process. The only problem is the lack of computers. As an all homeschool team the parents tend to have one computer and its not very good. I was lucky enough to have an IT guy has a father.
As of right now I am the only student (On second thought. The only individual.) capable of doing CAD. The team doesn’t have enough money to invest in computers for the team to do CADing. Does anyone have any idea as to how my team could get a hold of some computers that are capable of using CAD?
First of all, you don’t need a super-powerful computer to run CAD. It certainly helps, but isn’t necessary. It all depends on the program (I believe Pro/ENGINEER has lower System Requirements), but I do most of my CAD in SolidWorks on a midrange laptop without a dedicated graphics card. Even if a computer is below Solidworks’ minimum requirements, for example, it will often still work.
Second, if there are any large companies in the area, ask if they would consider donating computers to education. You may need some form of written proposal in order to do this.
I would also check with local universities, many of them have labs for CAD. Not only would they be able to provide hardware they may also be able to help teach you.
This is indeed true. But it does take more than a 5 year old dell…
Thanks for the ideas guys. I will definitely check into the local universities and business. (I know there is actually a huge dell building not far from our workshop. Huh, there is a thought. )
If none of these work out and you are stuck with just one computer, have group CAD sessions. The constant criticism and another pair of eyes allows things to get done right the first time, rather than having to undergo more iterations. Depending on the people, it can give everybody a sense of involvement and contribution.
A large portion of the CAD work done on FRC 254 is done with somebody else looking over the shoulder of the one CADing. Much of the CAD for this year’s robot was done on two or three computers, with team members and mentors often working together in one corner of our lab to collaboratively design.
I also must counter this point. My old school has an old(at least 5 years) laptop that I used for CAD demonstrations to get kids to take the class. It would run Inventor just fine as well as AutoCAD. A good trick is to find older versions of the software. They tend to be less bloated with un-needed features. Also, AutoCAD does require alot less processing power then Inventor.(Not going to revive the debate of which is better, just suggesting it if you have older/slower computers)
I will definitely check into the local universities and business.