Solidworks

I was lucky enough today to find on some of our school pcs there is solidworks. i went through a tutorial and found it a really great product

hopefully ill be able to get a a student version free from school, just wondering how people make robot realted parts in it?

things like claws etc i have a basic understanding of the simple buttons am i aiming to far ahead?

any info or tutorials people have on this software would be good

Thanks Alex

Robotcombat.com has some of its parts in solidworks models

I use Solidworks everyday at the moment, if you have any trouble send me an email.
I would start with just modelling your components as simple rectangular or cylindrical blocks to start with. Thats usually enough to help layout robots and get rough ideas for weights of armour etc. Once youre happy with them you can add more detail to make them more realistic with fillets and cutouts etc.
There€™s some great resources online where you can just download ready modelled parts and it saves you loads of time:
http://www.teamrollingthunder.com/Solid_Models/body_solid_models.htmlwww.teamrollingthunder.com
http://www.3dcontentcentral.comwww.3dcontentcentral.com
http://www.teamvelocityrobotics.com/K2components.htmwww.teamvelocityrobotics.com
You€™ll learn a lot if you try to disassemble their files.

Heres whats possible if you go overboard:

http://www.teamvelocityrobotics.com/Final%20Huge%20Render.jpg www.teamvelocityrobotics.com/Final Huge Render.jpg (~7mb)

Umm...WOW!!!

Insane, nice one Mark:)

Unfortunately, I cant take any credit.

It was done by Kevin Barker from Seattle
( http://www.teamvelocityrobotics.com/About.htmhttp://www.teamvelocityrobotics.com/About.htm )

thanks Mark

that looks like a photo amazing skill thats must have taken a while

cheers

Sweet!!

very good

oi thats amazing im going to show my teacher at school and say can u do this u fool cus he thinks hes amazing on cad

Good idea. Teachers love that.

Does anyone have a 3D model of a Bosch 750?

I made drawings of TANs drivesystem in Solidworks, but i still need the motors to finish it.

can i use solidworks to estimate weights of 3d parts designed in the progamme

Yes it is possable. My computer is in repair at the moment else i could give a better description.
You need to select the material. and then i believe you go to the menu tools and then click on mass properties. This will show the mass, but make sure you check if the used density is right.

In the feature tree on the left, you have at the top of all, Material - Right click - Change material.
If an object is made out several other materials, you can change the density by going into Tools - Mass properties - Options... - Use cusom settings.

Here you can also change from Milligrams to Kilograms. Millimeters to Centimeters and so on.

Has anyone other that me used Autodesk Inventor? Its a great and easy package.

I use Inventor... it does require a fairly meaty pc to run well though.

Yep use Inventor 2008, have got 2009 but its not very stable on any of the systems we have at work. I would agree with Mike very easy to pick up as long as you are unfamiliar with 2d cad.

I love the way that you can unfold sheet metal designs, send the drawings to the cutting and folding shop and have the parts in your hands. 2D CAD? I use a lot of 2D CAD and I have no problem with Inventor. BTW, If I remember correctly, John used Inventor to design Beta and even Storm II was designed with Inventor.

I even used Inventor to design the RoboDome arena and send the various part drawings to various engineering shops. All we had to do was weld the parts that were sent to us. All very neat and simple.

Mike.

whats the retail on inventor im looking for a newer cad package

We ditched all others and just use Inventor at work now. Also Little Spinner 3 was designed roughly on inventor, Yes the newer ones need a very high performance graphics cards (£400+) to work well but the older ones like 2008 are better and I have this running quite well on a laptop. The Design Accelerators help when you dont know much as you should for certian things. For example you can just say 2 centers and the power and speed and it will size chains and sprockets for you and then draw them into your design.

Mark, is that an add in? It used to be.

Yes, after 2008 most were removed from the standard editions, but thats why you pay more for the others :) Ive also done a few visual baisc scripts to add in your own tools for repeatative stuff done here, even though I dont actally have it installed on my works PC, its reserved for the mechanical enginners only :sad:

Yup, using Inventor 2009 pro for the mods on beta. Works very nicely on a basic nVidia 7900 GS graphics card. 2GB of RAM is fine for most things.
http://www.b-e-t-a.com/beta-2009.jpghttp://www.b-e-t-a.com/beta-2009.jpg

The Pro version of 2009 has the wiring and all the Design Accelerators built in. Great help for designing the belt drive for the sucker - driven by two Scorpion HK4025 brushless motors ~2.5 kwatts each:
http://www.b-e-t-a.com/beltcase.jpghttp://www.b-e-t-a.com/beltcase.jpg
(the Astro is to open and close the thottle slide on the intake)

I thought drawing the wiring was a bit OTT at first, but its actually very useful being able to lay things out and figure out how the wires need to be routed.

betas looking good john. be good to see that turbo working. You gone for a titanium base then?

Sick Mind Engineering Ltd strikes again!!!! watch out world.

can anyone tell me/guide me on how to make a claw tip in solidworks?

similar to this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27316623@N06/http://www.flickr.com/photos/27316623@N06/

thanks

I would make that with a boss feature:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFsNYV8CRzohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFsNYV8CRzo

Using arcs to get the basic shape.

Then use the hole wizard to add the mounting holes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EXpIpgpFEYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EXpIpgpFEY

Then use a chamfer to add the sharp cutting edge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyylz3ZmWFghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyylz3ZmWFg

If you get stuck send me an email.
If you want I could send you the solidworks model of your crusher arm I made to do that stress analysis a while ago.

is there a demo of inventor? i would like to have alook into it

who does demos nowadays lol c u sat kenny

lol your dad doesnt do demos he just torrents everything lol

we dont torrent, thats for people who aint as privileged as us - we 100 times higher then them lol

LOL iv just looked at the price of this software - $5200 - ill do it to u for $3000 will sort me out for battlebots then

While weve touched on the subject, I dont suppose anyone who is familiar with torrents etc can put a copy of Windows XP Professional on a disc for me (possibly for collection at the weekend) so that I can install it on my desktop PC. I would do it myself but Im unfamiliar with torrents, keygens etc plus I need an already working computer to do so and uni computers do not allow such trades :)

Reason for asking: Cmon, Im a student! I cant afford to fork out for a genuine copy lol.
Payment: A replacement disc, or a beer, or some haggis
Conditions: Shh, dont tell Microsoft

:)

y XP? and not vista?

weve got a genuine 1 somewhere will have alook after iv sorted kenny out lol

cause vista is sloooowwww

if you can get a copy for jamie of xp do me a copy aswell :)

will sort it out

kane when we moving im bored of this old forum lol

this weekend if all goes well

LJ, I like XP and while Vistas nice, Im one of those stubborn people whos in a comfort zone with XP and dont want to change until Im forced to :)

If youre able to sort me out with a copy, that would be amazing thanks :)

(Message edited by K_C_R on March 11, 2009)