Wondering if they have anyway to model a robot for vex. I know they have Autodesk Inventor but it’s time consuming to do. So do they any other programs or ways to model a robot
If you don’t have the time, I suggest taking pictures 
Seriously, though, CAD stands for Computer Aided Design, not Computer Aided Documentation. It takes time to learn, which is why community colleges have 2-year degrees in CAD, or you can take weeks of training (paid for by your employer, of course). Basics, however, like assembling/constraining parts can be learned in a few hours, especially if you have a mentor to help out. To get started, modeling you existing robot is a good way to learn, then you can do some real design work next year.
The two major industrial CAD packages are Solidworks and Inventor. There are some artistic drawing/modeling software out there too, but someone else will have to comment, as I don’t use anything but Solidworks.
For Solidworks, you need a team sponsorship to get the software free. Go here www.solidworks.com/sw/education/all-student-competitions.htm to apply. You’ll generally get enough licenses for the entire team, and it is an annual renewal.
for Inventor, go here https://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/inventor-professional. This is a free download for each person to get their own.
If you want a VEX-specific simple CAD system, try Robot Mesh Studio Mimics. It is a snap-together VEX robot building tool, that also allows you to program the virtual robot you just built online. This is sort of a version .9 release as we have not yet finished modeling all VEX parts, but you will have nearly everything you need to build a robot online. It is free, and allows you to build and program both EDR and VEX IQ robots.
Try www.robotmesh.com/studio, create a project and select type EDR Mimics. Let me know what you think if you try it.
I created a new project, logged in etc. but how do I build a snap-together robot?
Edit: nvm figured it out. This is pretty cool!
Start with https://youtu.be/mX2fWaRrqBs. Our YouTube videos show VEX IQ parts, but it’s the same for EDR (except that you use screws and not pegs).
Bonus! Screws stay put, even if you don’t put nuts on them.
personally we prefer the purple playdoh pro series modelling clay
Well thanks everyone for the help would be trying @wranch idea
Our team prefers to use premium quality Uncle Goose Classic Series Wooden ABC Blocks made with mouth-safe ink are because they are a better bargain when you take into account the student discount
Well, I have used IQ Mimics before, but can’t get a single screw in a C-channel, the less then for it to stick.
No matter how I try selecting snap points, screws never get there on their own, neither do they keep metal connected.
Do you have a video with EDR usage? A sample EDR mimics project to look at?
Are you placing the screws and other parts with the “Auto” tool or the “Rotation and Translation” tool? If you want parts to orient to the screw, make sure you are using “Auto.” Let me know how this works.
Still having hard times doing any editation whatsoever, while I was able to build an IQ mechanism in mimics last year.
Maybe it’s about the browser (since I observe some hangs during editing attempts too)?
I am running Firefox (48.0.2) and Chrome (47.0.2526.73) on Linux…
On Linux, we only support Chrome, and test on the latest available version, which is 62.0.3202. Please upgrade your browser and try again. Let us know what happens.