Intro

[PeterMartel]

Hi all,

Just an intro here, and perhaps a question or two.

I'm Peter Martel, a lead mentor of Wapack Youth Robotics in NH.

Came here to learn and see how PTC is being used, especially in FTC.

I'd love to see an FTC sub-community to the FIRST community.

I'm very curious how many folks are using Windchill for project management, and also how other folks are using PTC in general.

One of the reasons I like FTC is because there is actually enough time for more kids to actually use these products, even to learn how to use them during the season.

Please share your thoughts and info about your usage of PTC.

Peter

[ItzikBenShabat]

Hi Peter,

I am an FRC mentor of team 3316 in Israel. as you know, this years challange involved the FTC kit.

we used Pro Engineer (Creo elements Pro) in the design of our robot - including the minibot from the FTC kit (you can see the results in the rendered images in this link). In the entire robot we used it to design parts and manufacture them. In the Minibot it was mostly used to creat the assembly since most parts came in the kit.

In addition we used Mathcad softwear to creat documents which include usefull calculations (like motors and transmision) - follow this link to see the result.

It was a little hard on the kids to lean on their own and required instructed classes. However i found PTC University tutorials to be quite good. you should check it out.

I tried to use windchill in the project management but it didnt work all that well for us since i dont know the interface so well. However it left the impression that it can be really useful, just need to get used to it. perhaps in next years season.

good luck to ya

[PeterMartel]

Thanks Itzik.

[JoshH]

Hi there Peter,

welcome to the community!

Regarding setting up an FTC sub-community, I think that would be great! I do see one drawback, unfortunately. Given the number of FRC teams out there, I think our current little sub-group is moving along a little slowly. I would love to see much more activity with mentors as well as students. Itzik's use of Mathcad is a great example of what I think is a great example of what can be offered in this community that will enhance the FIRST experience.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling. I would love to see you bring in FTC questions, comments, team/robot photos, etc. to this group. If the FTC crowd really starts to overwhelm FRC, maybe we can split them up then.

I have to say that I really like the training manuals of FTC. I've pointed my FRC teams to them as a resource for further learning.

So again, welcome to the community!

Josh