There are a lot of things that need to fit/work together in a robot, so it’s hard to create a competitive robot just by throwing a bunch of metal pieces together. Computer Aided Design (CAD) is the technology we use to design robots in 3D before manufacturing. Not only is it great for planning everything out, it also allows us to use precise manufacturing tools like CNC routers and 3D printers.
There are many CAD programs available for FRC teams, but the one we use is SolidWorks. It’s a very powerful piece of software that’s very common in the professional engineering world, which is what makes it so great to learn at the high school level. You can learn the skills necessary to get started from our mentors or from one of many online resources, but this guide will focus primarily on how SolidWorks is used within the team and some of the best practices to keep in mind.
If you’re super duper new to SolidWorks, it helps to first get familiar with the language that will be used in the rest of this wiki so make sure to check out our section on the SolidWorks Language.
Get Started:
- SolidWorks Setup (Mandatory)
- File Management System (CacheCAD) (Mandatory)
- File Naming Convention