PTC Resources for FIRST Tech Challenge

If your team is working hard to find ways to design, prototype, and build a robot under these unique social-distancing circumstances, then you aren’t much different than the engineers in the workforce! How do you collaborate on the same model, provide real-time feedback and build a robot that is ready to win, all while remote? It’s a challenge, but PTC is offering you two resources that are helping industry professionals and teams of engineers around the world accomplish great things: Onshape, CAD software and Vuforia, augmented reality software.  

Using computer-aided design (CAD) software is a great way to collaborate remotely on a design! This will allow you to plan out your robot and how it can be built. Doing this work remotely or socially distanced will allow you to be more strategic with how you use any of your build time and make sure that you have the hardware you need.  

If your team is interested in learning more about design this season, consider using Onshape, a free, cloud-based, collaborative CAD tool that can be used on anytime, anywhere and on any device, including Macs and Chromebooks. Not only is Onshape accessible from any device, it also includes incredible collaborative features such as Follow Mode, and a user-friendly comments feature. Both of these features will be game changers for you and your team as you work simultaneously together, remotely to design your robot.  

If you are brand new to CAD and/or Onshape they have created an Introduction to CAD course that will take you through the modules needed to start designing and building your own robot, as well as other important skills needed in the engineering workforce including problem solving, creating 2D drawings, and spatial reasoning skills. 

 

The team over at Onshape has even designed this year’s field and game elements in Onshape, which you can easily access here. This will be a valuable tool for you and your teammates to understand how your robot interacts with the field and visualize your robot on the field before it’s even been built! 

Another way to help your team visualize this year’s field is using augmented reality (AR). Check out this year’s (AR) field and game elements using the PTC’s Vuforia View app on your phone. The field can be scaled from 1:10 to 1:1 ratio for the full field experience. If you are planning on working with a remote field, you can also view that version of the field in the experience.   

Learn more about the PTC products and resources offered to FIRST Tech Challenge students, for free.  Register each student interested in using the Parts Library created by Team 2901 at FIRST@ptc.com. 

Elizabeth McClurg

FIRST Tech Challenge, Program Specialist