Robotics Mentor looking for Fusion 360 group workflow suggestions

[Anonymous]

I am the lead Mentor for a First Robotics FTC Team (2 teams actually). I am looking for suggestions for setting up a student account that can be used by several students at the same time.

On meeting nights I would like to have several team members working on parts and assemblies without causing conflicts with the main assemblies. We will probably use a bottom-up design style as I think this would cause the least amount of issues.

I use Inventor and AutoCAD at my place of employment and am used to operating with Vault. That takes care of the Engineering group stepping on each other. I would like to have a similar trouble-free setup for Fusion 360 our team but am not familiar enough with the software at this point to make the best choices.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[Phil.E]

Hi,

We are currently working on some learning materials to support FIRST and Fusion 360. These are materials related to the Synthesis game simulator. Have you seen Synthesis? It's pretty cool and a great tool for teams to maximize their efforts during the weeks of competition.

http://synthesis.autodesk.com/

There is also a forum page for it:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/bxd-synthesis/ct-p/4005

I know this doesn't answer your questions exactly, but perhaps you can find some helpful information there.

Regarding use of a student account:

A single account for students would provide what you are after, but there are some things to consider:

1. All students would have read/write privilege.

2. You cannot lock a design, or check it out. Students can step on each other's changes if they are working on the same file.

That being said, there are some similarities to Vault, such as version/revision history. 

The workflow for this situation involves setting up a bottom up design where everything is linked. Hopefully this graphic is clear about the relationships. This is how my (college CAD - not FIRST) students work  in teams.

I'm glad to help if you have more questions. From my experience helping FIRST teams, you'll find a few things that need attention. 

The number one thing to watch out for is if you use the models of the controller hardware. The STEP files that are offered for the kit contain thousands of faces/edges/vertexes that bog down performance. This is due to the models showing all the silk screen and art on the controllers as 3D objects. 

Remedy: Set selection priority to Face, select only the logo/text object faces, press Delete.

When you start finding these things, if it's a bother, just write back on this thread. I'm happy to catalog all the helpful tips right here. If you have the need and/or time, I can recommend a bunch of Autodesk University class recordings for you that should help your efforts.

Good luck!