My school is new to FTC this year and we’re currently wondering about some of the ins and outs of this years field construction. We’ve gone through all of the information we could find in this years game documents all ready and think that some of the dimensions are being considered the same as previous years, but could some one help specify?
How high is the outside wall of the field?
Where can you get the interlocking foam pads for the field?
Does the outside wall sit on top of the mats or do the mats sit inside the perimeter?
http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex-competitions.shtml. This page also includes plans for a build-it-yourself field. The tiles from SoftTiles Foam Mats | Foam Play Mat | Baby Floor Mats are the same, but cost more. SoftTiles is a good source if you only need a few. If you don’t care if your tiles are “official” some folks have reported that you can get cheaper alternatives from places like Wal-Mart, but they may or may not be the same “squishiness” or thickness.
The mats sit inside the perimeter. You have to cut off the interlocking tabs on the outside edges of some of the tiles. This will be obvious once you get started.
Just for the curious, the official forum post said the same thing I did. Our club has 100 or so tiles purchased from both SoftTiles and IFI – they are exactly the same, and haven’t changed over the last four years.