Workflow & the Timeline

Anyone on the team should be able to open your file and understand it in thirty seconds.

• Robots are built by a team — your CAD gets handed off, edited, and reviewed by other people.
• A messy file breaks the moment someone changes a dimension; a clean file flexes without exploding.
• Good habits are faster, not slower — you spend far less time hunting for things and fixing breakage.

The timeline at the bottom is the step-by-step recipe for your part. Keep it legible.

• Rename every feature — double-click it and give it a real name (`Side Rail Extrude`, not `Extrude1`).
• Work in order: sketch, then extrude, then modify. Don't jump around the model.
• Roll back to edit — drag the timeline marker back and fix the actual feature instead of patching on top of it.
• Never leave errors. A red feature means it failed to build; fix it before you move on.

An under-defined sketch is a part waiting to move on its own.

• Constrain everything until the sketch lines turn black. Blue lines can still slide around.
• Dimension from real references — the origin, a plane, or an existing edge — not from empty space.
• Sketch on actual planes and faces so the geometry updates when the part changes.
• Capture design intent: if two holes should always line up, make them share a dimension.

A tidy browser tree on the left is half the battle.

• One real part = one component. Don't pile multiple bodies into a single component.
• Name components and bodies clearly — `Drivetrain Frame`, `Front Cross Rail`, never `Component1`.
• Follow the team's tube naming, like `10x2x1`, so anyone can read the size at a glance.
• Group related components so the tree mirrors the real robot.