Introduced the students to Creo and had very positive response

[ChadM]

It was the first time I had seen a lot of excitment in the class. I had more kids volunteer to sit and learn than I could coach on one laptop. I will rotate the other kids in to train next time I go to their classroom.

I created and showed them several demos on the projector from simple to complex:

• Checking size and dimensions of parts, and will they fit into available envelope
  
• A simple assembly motion analysis to check for interferences
  
• A four bar kinematic analysis in promechanism with several motors and gears
  
• A dynamic analysis with the FTC baton getting lifted out of its dispenser and rolling down 2 ramps with gravity and 3 cam definitions
  

Quick render of one assembly:

[JoshH]

I'm happy to hear that it sounds like you've been bitten by the FIRST bug!

Looks like you did a great overview of the tools available. I bet you just that presentation was enough to get some students headed for a career in Science and technology. Great job!

[rsaitz]

Chad, this is great news. terriffic to hear the enthusiasm. did you do this during a meeting of the team? how many kids do you think will be using Creo during the season? any plans to manage Creo data in Windchill?

Separately, has your team connected with an FTC team to help with the minibot?

Would love to hear more during the season. Perhaps one of the kids (or you) could write a blog during the season. I think it would be really interesting for others to have a window into your process.

thanks for being a mentor! You're a hero!

Robin

[ChadM]

Robin,

"My" teams are in fact FTC teams. Right now the teams are far enough behind the CAD deployment that Windchill would just make it harder, plus CDM it is not my specialty.

The high school the teams are from has a robotics class were a lot of the FTC work is done, plus after school as needed. I did the demo during one of the classes. I try to attend 1 or 2 classes per week plus helping out with the Iowa FTC org.

[PeterMartel]

I know this is well past the original posting but I'm quite sure Robin meant FRC when she said FTC, as FRC teams were working with mini bots this year (based on FTC bots as I understand it) as part of their FRC challenges.

I'm curious how many FRC & FTC got together for this. It was a brilliant idea on FIRST's part to get more links between programs going.

Peter