Are you allowed to use 3D printed parts, and if so. which parts can you use and for what purpose?
For functional use - no.
Please read the game manual to find a list of approved robot materials.
it says you can use the stuff for color markers, wire protection, and decorations but does not specify if your allowed 3d printing or not.
so i’m just wondering if some kinds of 3D printing are banned or not.
3D printed part are not permitted as functional parts of your robot. You can use it for non-functional decoration - and it is at the discretion of the head referee whether you need to remove it or not.
The manual is quite clear as to what parts you may use on your robot to play the game.
okay thanks for your help
To add to his question. Could you 3d print wire mounts?
I was thinking of that too but I’m not sure if the answer is yes or no
R7:f
Commercially available items used solely for bundling or wrapping of 2-wire, 3-wire, 4-wire, or V5 Smart Cables, and pneumatic tubing are allowed. These items must solely be used for the purposes of cable protection, organization, or management. This includes but is not limited to electrical tape, cable carrier, cable track, etc. It is up to inspectors to determine whether a com-ponent is serving a function beyond protecting and managing cables
It would depend on what is considered “Commercially available items”. I would consider 3d printers commercially available items but I don’t know what the ruling would be sense it’s not the printer that we are putting on the robot. It’s the thing it makes.
But what if you use the printer as nonfunctional decoration…
Need a wheel? Print it.
Need one more cube to win the game but dont have it? Print it.
Need a Spider Intake??
Print it.
Exactly - so the wire-management doodads you 3D-print are not “commercially-available items” and thus not legal for use on a robot.
(Unless you start selling them! “Commercially available” means “it’s available for purchase”, which is not mutually exclusive with “you made it” if you are the one making and selling the thing. Selling custom cable-management devices online seems like both a cool contribution to the VRC community and a good fundraiser for the team selling them, so I’m a bit surprised I haven’t seen anyone doing this yet.)
Only for nonfunctional decoration, such as a statue of your mascot or maybe a clip to hold wires in place.
@DrewWHOOP are you positive that your aloud to use the 3d printer for wire clips because the game manual says your only aloud to use commercially available wire clips and technically speaking that’s not commercially available.
I know of at least one team that has made something that they designed and 3d printed commercially available.
Yeah, I’ve printed some of those myself and they’re really great! But that’s a bit different than a team selling a custom cable-management device for the purpose of making it legal to use on their own robot.
maybe
I wasn’t and still am not completely sure. All of the materials needed to make it are commercially available though, and discouraging students from engineering their own solution would be silly.
Engineering is about dealing with design and cost constraints. In challenge, 3d printed parts are not permitted.
it isn’t any more functional than zipties, which are legal as nonfunctional decoration, so, while it doesn’t seem to be legal, maybe it should be.
I agree with Drew2158C