Hi, I’m very new to VEX. From what I know we gonna learn VEX EDR.
I’ve been instructed to download VEX Coding Studio to do the programming. Is this correct? And is there anything else I need to do / download to learn and start doing the programming?
Another question: In VEX Coding Studio I’m trying to use the examples, but looks like I can’t run it unless I’m connected to the brain. Is this correct? Is it possible to simulate running it on the computer?
Last question: What’s actually the “real-use” difference between Modkit, VEX C++, and C++ Pro? Is there examples of what can be done with C++ but not Modkit (as well as can be done in C++ Pro but not VEX C++)?
Thank you for your help.
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Hello!
First off, yes, for V5, you will want VEX Coding Studio (abbreviated on this forum often as VCS). You don’t need to know too much to start coding with it, there is a directory. Secondly, unfortunately, as far as I know, you can’t simulate VCS programs on your computer. As for the programming modes, Modkit is great for starting programmers, but can’t be used currently (as far as I know) for competitions. I would recommend VEX C++ if you are new, it is a bit simpler to use but otherwise is pretty much the same thing as C++ Pro. C++ Pro is like VEX C++, but you don’t set up the motors and other devices graphically. (You can see what I mean by looking at both types). I hope this helps!
**Note: If you are not using V5, VCS is not the way to go, you will want something like RobotC or something from Robot Mesh (@Rick_TYler or one of the other Robot Mesh people can help you with that). I think that some of these other options have V5 options, but I would recommend VCS if you are starting off. **
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Thanks for your reply.
Can I program in Modkit (to familiarize myself), and then have it “converted” to VEX C++ / C++ Pro? Or I have to rewrite it from scratch (translate manually)?
And for the simulation: so that means I’ll need a full set of things during the programming session… that will be costly and time consuming (with the programming team to make sure the program works, as well as build team building it)… Is this how teams usually approach this? If there’s other better way I’m all ears 
Thanks
I don’t think that you can convert (but I may be wrong), but modkit let’s you switch between text and block programming.
I have 2 protips for you:
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Don’t use VCS. It doesn’t work well, and there are many better options. I would reccomend VEXcode as alternative. It uses the same C++ language
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Learn C++, don’t use modkit. You will be glad you did
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So there are multiple programming options with VEX currently but it sounds like what you really want is Robot Mesh Studio. VEX Coding studio is missing a lot of core features and is running almost a year old version of the v5 software, it doesn’t even support wireless downloading.
A few important things for you specifically
Mimics
No V5 hardware? No problem. Create a mimic project to program a virtual robot with physics simulation. Create a project now with a simple V5 chassis (Blockly, Python or C++)
Robot Mesh Studio provides three choices for coding your robot:
Blockly – familiar drag and drop block programing. Straightforward for beginners, but with powerful features including: functions, lists, undo/redo and threads. See generated Python code side-by-side.
Python – easy to learn, yet powerful object-oriented language
C++ – industry standard programming with the highest performance. Preemptive multi-threading supported with our FreeRTOS implementation. Vex classes for motors and sensors compatible with VEX Coding Studio C++ Pro, so copy/paste your code between RMS and VCS.
I would probably suggest for you starting with blockly and transitioning to python, transition is easy because you can see the generated python code. If you want you can also use c++ of course.
They have lots of examples and good documentation for all languages.
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If you are just dying to use vcs, you can use NotVCS to help make your code slightly more organized.
But, please dont use VCS. Use either VexCode, PROS3, or RMS.
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Looks like NotVCS is dead due to the release of VexCode
OK then I’ll do comparison study first for VexCode PROS3, and RMS
Thanks for everybody’s help
Wait is there a noticeable difference In modkit and c++ that makes it so that modkit is bot allowed?
Because I just coded my entire bot in modkit for competition