1. FIRST Fair 2013
Using CAD to improve your
FRC design process
Manjiri McCoy and Jeff Strater
SW Engineers, Autodesk
© 2013 Autodesk

2. Topics for today
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CAD in the FRC design process
Why you should use CAD
Tips for simplifying CAD process
Autodesk Fusion360 introduction
Online resources
© 2013 Autodesk

3. CAD in FRC
© 2013 Autodesk

4. CAD on your team
 Do you make CAD models at all?
 If so, what is it used for? Just documenting the
design that you already built?
 Or, do you actually design parts of your robot
before you build it?
© 2013 Autodesk

5. Why use CAD for Design?
 You can avoid problems before they happen
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Too heavy
Dimensions are too big
Mechanisms don’t work as you thought they would
Components are “in the way” that nobody realized until
you tried it out
 It’s cheaper to model in software than in
hardware
 Parts list for purchasing
 This is how real businesses design stuff
 You can make really cool
marketing/documentation as well
© 2013 Autodesk

6. But, it’s too hard to model the whole robot –
that would take forever!
 Don’t model the whole thing
 Only design the parts that are critical to success, or that you
have concerns about
 If you are re-using the drive train from last year, don’t model
that, just model the parts that are critical to the game
 Don’t model in too much detail
 Tire treads are not necessary for analyzing your design
 Use the internet
 There is a lot of designs out there that you can use
 GrabCAD
 FIRST
 Parts manufacturers
 Divide up the design among multiple team members
© 2013 Autodesk

7. Autodesk
Fusion360
© 2013 Autodesk

8. Using Fusion360 for your designs
 What is Autodesk Fusion360?
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Cloud-based CAD for collaboration
Direct modeling and a simple, modern UI
Runs on Windows and Mac
Support for mechanical joints to make mechanism
design simple
 Fusion (and all Autodesk software) is free for
students
© 2013 Autodesk

9. Fusion 360 features of interest:
 Collaboration with a team
 You don’t have to share computers or thumb drives to
have multiple team members work on the same design
 Even a single team member can work on the design at
school, at home, anywhere.
 Mechanism design
 Fusion’s Joint command allows you to create
mechanisms very quickly
 Motion Link and Motion Study
© 2013 Autodesk

10. More Fusion features
 Interference detection
 Can determine if parts collide
 Contact sets also useful for this
 Mass properties
 Can show overall weight, volume, center of gravity
© 2013 Autodesk

11. Resources to use
 GrabCAD: https://grabcad.com/home
 FIRST CAD info:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/caddesign-and-animation
 BXD: http://bxd.autodesk.com/
 Fusion hub:
http://fusion360.autodesk.com/about
© 2013 Autodesk

12. Demo
© 2013 Autodesk

13. Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or
trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice,
and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2013 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.