Hello all.
I was given the CAD file for a vertical motor holder by another VEXU team. I talked with them and i printed multiple variations of the holder as (to quote him) “im to lazy to do it” till we figured out a model that worked well. I gave feedback on issues and such and he fixed them.
Turns out the notch on the motor core hit the C channel and a second peice was needed to space the motor farther out. He gave me a second file meant to be printed separately to add as a spacer, but i ended up editing the files together into a single unit.
The team name is branded on the side and was ghe main stipulation for being able to print of keeping it on, which i did. I made 14 infact.
I posted giving kutos to him in a discord server and was told that i couldnt use the motor holders since they are not my entirely my design. Couldnt find anything in the manuals or on here for it, but it was not stolen as he made the file open to others and i got permissions to use it.
So technically, no. The rules say the part must be designed entirely by your team. However, previous Q and A’s have said that (for example) you cannot 3d print vex parts from the given cad because you did not design it, but if you modify it and print it, than it is legal.
Since it sounds like you were actually involved in the process in helping to design it, it’s a borderline yes. However, it is important to note that questions from previous years Q and As do not necessarily carry over, it’s just a good reference point for making educated guesses.
Generally, there is little to no emphasis on making sure that your custom fabricated parts are actually designed and made by your team. I think another important rule I this case is G4, the robot must represent the skill of the team. So if you do not feel confident in your ability to design the same part, you definitely should not use the part.
You might be able to either modify or recreate the part so that you have designed it and there would be no question left to the legality of the part.
This does beg the question of collaboration. Are teams allowed to collaborate to generate a certain component that they both equally share? If not, then would that imply the RECF does not incentivize collaboration? What percent of this collaboration applies? And equally, what is the practical degree of collaboration until someone raises an eyebrow?
I’m going to be honest with you… Nobody in VEXU really cares. If you can legally slap a 50 Ib pressurized air tank on your robot and pass inspection, then they wouldn’t dare to allow you to pass inspection over a 3D printed file another team gave you to modify yourself.
Honestly… I would rather prefer the concept of collaboration and sharing over the brazen “anti-collaboration” between teams. Genuinely, I have never met a competitive team “restrain” information intentionally over my past 8 years in VEX. Like, look at JAR-Template, LemLib, 5225’s Odometry document, etc. from previous vex world champions. Most of the time it’s excitement and openness to share ideas, which promotes a healthy exchange of mutual-benefit. Otherwise, VEX systems would be nothing more than a rinse-and-repeat of people not being able to learn beyond what they are capable of learning simply because of an artificial anti-collaboration walled garden, which is not the case.