Answered: VEX U - 12" x 6" x 3" 3D part(s) are pretty much unprintable

Popular consumer grade 3D printer build volume size:

Replicator 5th Gen
9.9 x 7.8 x 5.9 in

Replicator 2
11.2 X 6.0 X 6.1 in

Replicator 2X
9.7 X 6.0 X 6.1 in

Ultimaker 2
9.0 x 8.8 x 8.0 in

I could go on but I don’t feel the need to, almost all sub-$3,000 consumer grade 3D printers cannot print a single 12" x 6" x 3" part. They just don’t have a large enough build volume.

Since I believe that VEX is not a pay-to-win program, meaning that people with lots of money should not have any particular advantage over those with only some, I believe that VEX U teams should be allowed to print the 12" x 6" x 3" part(s) in slices.

Say two 6" x 6" x 3" prints bolted together as a functionally identical 12" x 6" x 3" part. This is something that almost all 3D printers can do, bringing the cost to play from $6,500 to around $1,500 if a team wishes to use all the 3D printed parts allowed in the VEX U program. Or to put it another way, if a less than extremely well funded team wants to play on a fair plane with other VEX U teams.

Simple request, will the program entertain it? Feel free to add restrictions, etc. I’m NOT asking for two parts, I’m asking for a reasonable way to create the single larger part with the lower cost printers.

I’ll leave it to you guys to lock this down.

Thanks, Cody.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This will be addressed in the August 1st update to Appendix E. The following change will be made to

Teams are allowed to fabricate their own unique VEX parts from the following additional items, for each of their robots:
d. Two 3D printed parts, each less than 3” x 6” x 6”

Karthik did you mean…

d. Four 3D printed parts, each less than 3” x 6” x 6”?

No. What I wrote above in my original response stands.

Teams are allowed to fabricate their own unique VEX parts from the following additional items, for each of their robots:
d. Two 3D printed parts, each less than 3” x 6” x 6”