I will be a freshman next school year, and I want to learn CAD so that I can design and build robots quickly, and build when I don’t have access to parts.
I would like to know, before I start any CAD site, which is the best for VEX v5 design and why, so I can get the most out of the experience.
I know OnShape and Fusion360 are the biggest sites, but if there are others, I would love to hear about them and their pros. Thanks.
PS
I have inspected other topics, and all of them are outdated, irrelevant, or don’t make a comparison, which is why I created a new topic.
If you want to make a robot fast, use Protobot Rebuilt (completely free). If you want to gain CADing experience (with the software) outside of VEX as well (i.e., learn how to CAD other things), use Fusion 360 or Onshape (free license, but may be limited).
To my knowledge, Fusion 360 is fairly difficult to set up for VEX and has a steep learning curve. For Protobot, you can watch this video, after which you can breeze through CADing your robot.
I like onshape - it’s relatively easy to pick up and you can access it from pretty much any device (though it may be laggy if you use a bad computer, but that’s with any CAD software). Plus I can share and collaborate with people on it.
If you want to pick up onshape here’s a tutorial series:
If you’re looking for “quickly” you can use protobot - they’ve been updating it pretty nicely and it is really easy to pick up. It is dissimilar from industry CAD softwares - and it uses it’s own format, so you are kind of locked in and can’t export the designs elsewhere.
I like onshape though because it is similar to CAD softwares used in industry - which is a skill I’ll probably need later in life.
My team uses fusion 360 and it has worked great for us. There is a library of parts for Vex V5 and also it allows you to share all the files with your team so that you can just install fusion, sign in and then work on it at home. It has great tools for making things with plastic in the formof sketches and then extrusion. For manipulating pieces by positioning and cutting i find it most intuitive and seems to have the most tutorials and instructive videos online compared to Onshape and ProtoBot.
Speaking of ProtoBot, our team enjoys usig it for brainstorming, and it has received good updates recently making it more feasible to build the whole robot in it, but it has many limitations as it is still being developed.
TLDT: Fusion is the goat, but Protobot is getting better
Hello there, @Ethan26, It really does depend on what operating system you’re on if you’re on Chrome OS, Then use ON SHAPE I will link a video in video they are using V5, If you are using ,vex IQ make sure to delete V5 input “IQ” when the part you get to the instruction pieces for searching up pieces.
Hey, @TEAM-40529, and welcome to the forum. Just to clarify,
When I wrote this, I meant building them faster than with physical parts, not as fast as possible. I have used protobot before, but I’ve found it lacks the aspects of other programs
I have never heard of this site, but I will give it a shot. I have minor experience with Onshape, but have never touched Fusion.
If Fusion360 is the best option, or if I prefer it compared to others, I will be willing to climb that steep slope
I am leaning towards OnShape right now, as it seems to be the best. Thanks for the input!
Solidworks is a industry level cad system. You have to install it but you can get a free set of licenses by applying for it through the student team application. in the Vex Cad discord server there are full libraries of parts available for solid works and fusion and a couple other if i rember correctly. ive been using solid works for 5 years now for vex cad and it has been great. The only downside is that you can run it smoothly on any compter. it takes a decent amount of proccessing power.