Presenting CADtoons: KrayonCAD for Solidworks!

Team 2485 Overclocked proudly presents CADtoons, our version of KrayonCAD for Solidworks!


Our Intent
When KrayonCAD was released for Onshape, we recognized that it was a great contribution, so much so that teams using other CAD software such as Solidworks were put at a disadvantage. There are many other forums to debate very valid reasons to move to Onshape, but we want to avoid those discussions here. Last year, we created a KrayonCAD-adjacent system for Solidworks just to use within Team 2485 for our own season, which was incredibly useful, so we wanted to allow other teams to use it as well. We cleaned up our system, resulting in the CADtoons you see now.

Why Use CADtoons?
CADtoons, like KrayonCAD, is a way to quickly visualize robot designs at the beginning of the design process through configurable subsystems. It does not give detailed CAD to use in a final robot design. As Solidworks is fundamentally different from Onshape, the solution is implemented may be completely differently. However, both systems can:

  • Explore or verify geometries by inputting new values for variables
  • See rough designs in 3D
  • Investigate how subsystems may fit together

How Do You Use CADtoons?


We’ve created an in-depth slideshow to help guide you through the process of using CADtoons and its specific variables, but to start:

  • Download the CADtoons Files
    • All of the CADtoons will be in a shared Google Drive folder that you will have “view only access” to. You will have to download the file to be able to use it.
    • You can download the whole folder or just the CADtoons that you plan to use (recommended to put them in a separate folder)
  • Once downloaded, insert the Solidworks Part or Assembly file into a SolidWorks Assembly
    • Whether it’s a part or assembly file just depended on how we decided to CAD it –most will be part files.
  • Using Equations
  • Now you can play around with the CADtoons and explore to your heart’s desire!

Subsystems Available:

  • West Coast Drive Train
  • 8-Wheel WCD
  • Frame
  • Swerve Modules
  • Wireframe Structure
  • Conveyor Belt
  • Pivot Intake
  • Roller Claw
  • Single-Flywheel Shooter
  • Spindexer
  • Rotating Arm
  • Telescoping Arm
  • 2 Stage Elevator

Note from the Creators:
While we tried our best to be as thorough as possible, there were limits to the accuracy we could have with some subsystems and may have made mistakes. Please reply in this thread to let us know if there are issues with any of the CADtoons and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

Credits:

  • Special thanks to the KrayonCAD team for their incredible work and for giving us the inspiration to pursue this.
  • Richard Lemoine (Head Design Mentor), original idea
  • Kavish Kondap (2485 Alum), original idea
  • Nicholas Soule (2485 Member)
  • Sara Sariowan (2485 Member)
  • Owen Walti (2485 Member)

Now, for what you have been waiting for: CADtoons Google Drive Folder

31 Likes

This looks awesome! I’ll try this out tonight. 254 is still on Solidworks and has employed block-CAD methods for laying out robot architectures for years (see my earlier posts).

Some requests from skimming the slide deck:

  • WCP Swerve X2 and X2S swerve modules (there’s a lot of permutations, but the dimensions are different than the Mk4’s
9 Likes

How could I resist…


As a Solidworks team, we’ve tried doing some block cad for this year but with how easy it is to drag and drop robust and parametric subsystems, this is a gamechanger. Will definitely be getting the team familiar with this tool.

2 Likes

This looks sick! I can’t wait to try this out!

1 Like

Time for a team to make one for Fusion 360

We’ll definitely try to add that, thanks for pointing that out!

This is good stuff. It’s really cool to see KrayonCAD out in the wild and to see how it has inspired other projects.

Thanks for releasing this publicly! We all prosper when resources are shared!

giphy

6 Likes