Best purchase for the team?

[DatSciolyBoi]

What's the best purchase your team has ever made that has helped them for their events?

For us, we're getting a 3D printer next year which will really help us with build.

Honestly, getting a 3d printer is no good unless you have a guy on your team that's taken classes on 3d design, editing, etc. I have a 3d printer but I found out it's not too useful in science olympiad (either that or it's just easier and quicker to make stuff by hand)

[Things2do]

The best purchase for a competition? The director.

[CookiePie1]

What's the best purchase your team has ever made that has helped them for their events?

For us, we're getting a 3D printer next year which will really help us with build.

Honestly, getting a 3d printer is no good unless you have a guy on your team that's taken classes on 3d design, editing, etc. I have a 3d printer but I found out it's not too useful in science olympiad (either that or it's just easier and quicker to make stuff by hand)

Designing something in CAD isn't easy and it isn't quick, but if you invest a little time into it, you can get pretty good results. I've never taken a 3D digital design class, but I don't think it's that hard to learn, and I've designed some stuff for other scioly kids

[MadCow2357]

What's the best purchase your team has ever made that has helped them for their events?

For us, we're getting a 3D printer next year which will really help us with build.

Honestly, getting a 3d printer is no good unless you have a guy on your team that's taken classes on 3d design, editing, etc. I have a 3d printer but I found out it's not too useful in science olympiad (either that or it's just easier and quicker to make stuff by hand)

Designing something in CAD isn't easy and it isn't quick, but if you invest a little time into it, you can get pretty good results. I've never taken a 3D digital design class, but I don't think it's that hard to learn, and I've designed some stuff for other scioly kids

Pretty much taught myself tinkercad, honestly it's not hard and it's been super useful. +1 for 3D printer

[bernard]

Digital manufacturing isn't needed to perform well, but Science Olympiad is a good place to start learning it. You don't need to start by designing and 3D printing your entire building; it will probably be easier to begin using it in smaller parts, e.g. a 3D printed mount for your mousetrap. But trying to do too much with it if you're still learning can make the process frustrating.

Fusion 360 is a free CAD software with helpful tutorials on Youtube and their website. A button in the software conveniently exports your design to a slicer without need for saving a separate STL file, the CAM workspace (for creating tool paths for milling) is free, and Autodesk is regularly adding features to Fusion, such as sheet metal. Here is a tutorial that I think is good for getting started and another tutorial.

[JoeyC]

Sketchup works well. Fusion is nice, and Inventor is better if you have access to it.

[TheCrazyChemist]

What's the best purchase your team has ever made that has helped them for their events?

For us, we're getting a 3D printer next year which will really help us with build.

Honestly, getting a 3d printer is no good unless you have a guy on your team that's taken classes on 3d design, editing, etc. I have a 3d printer but I found out it's not too useful in science olympiad (either that or it's just easier and quicker to make stuff by hand)

Just saying, last year's nats winning roller coaster was almost completely 3d printed.

[JoeyC]

It's also not that hard to pickup learning 3d printing, especially as many of the interfaces are self explanatory

[TheCrazyChemist]

It's also not that hard to pickup learning 3d printing, especially as many of the interfaces are self explanatory

Our school teaches sketch up, which is not the best, but it works. I've used CAD, and it's interesting and easy, but not exactly the best for designing specific structures we need for Scioly. Or maybe that's my opinion.

[builderguy135]

3d printing is amazing for scio - sciolyperson1 and i use it for literally all of our builds. realllllly useful