How many features did everyone use??? I got 4 but could have gone down to 3... Anyone get less than 3? Took about 10-15 minutes.
I'm with dschenken on this one, but I see the merit in your point of view Manjunath. My question was simply out of curiosity since I can't see a way this Challenge part can be made with any less than 3 features. I'm sure someone could build a feature tree 100 features long to get this simple part, and the case can easily be made to use more than 3 for design flexibility reasons.
I personally try to group features as best I can using common sense and as much forethought as I can muster. Dschenken, I actually HAVE had to work with another engineer's model that had 10+ individual round features of the same size, and would always remain of equal size. I'm a firm believer in naming features in a relative way, "Base extrude, Mounting Bolt Pattern, Support gusset, etc" to help simplify, organize and make sense of the model tree. It's easy to start from scratch on a model and go thru the whole design then look back and try to remember which of those extrude features was the extrude cut you're now looking to tweak. When it comes to obscure dependencies, I've been so frustrated at times that I nearly throw the computer out a window. Adjust the round radius by 0.010" and the whole part grows by 60"... 
Dependencies are incredible tools when used in the right context and with the correct setup, they can be absolutely counterproductive when abused.
Good discussion folks!
I absolutely agree with you Dschenken.
By making features simple, I meant not creating many number of rounds of same value.
Instead, not complicating the feature sketches until the sketcher starts to flicker, for which that complex geometry can me made by splitting into simpler multiple features, also keeping in mind the references that these small features will have further down the model tree.
So in general, a model having more number of features is not a bad model, or vise versa. it all depends on how easy is it to modify for others using that model; as rightly said by Mitch, should not be a frustration for others.
Continuing the feature count discussion, when I built this at the show I was torn on whether everything in this view should be sketched together or if the inside area (along the red lines) should be done as a separate feature.
Based on the way it's dimensioned, if you really want these dimensions to be the "real" controlling (think shown) dimensions, you are forced to sketch both the inside and the outside at the same time. If instead of the R100 the designer had called out R120 on the outside of the part, the inside area could have been created completely separate from the outside.
These type of modeling decisions can definitely impact how easy the model can be changed in the future. I know that for the final championship round they were going to give each of the finalist their original models back and then require them to make certain changes. I didn't get a chance to see it but maybe Toby Metcalf can get a copy of that final print too. It would be interesting to see if any of the initial modeling decisions end up causing trouble later.
Solidworks Model Mania Challenge from 2010. the Original and Revised drawings of the 2017 Battle Royale look eerily similar to the Phase 1 and Phase 2 models from the 2010 challenge in SW.
