What Can Your FRC Team Achieve with Design Automation?
Design Quicker
Complete the design stage quicker, start building sooner and get a head start on other teams!
Make Changes Easily
Quickly and easily make changes to your design to try out new ideas and suggestions.
Focus on Quality Design
Save time and free up your team members to focus on quality robot design.
FRC 4905 Get Ahead with DriveWorks Solo
In 2020, FRC 4905 Andromeda One used DriveWorks Solo to configure and design the initial drive train for their competition robot.
Andromeda One created a DriveWorks Solo configurator that allowed them to choose from a set of parameters including length, depth, height, gearbox, gear ratios and wheel types.
The FRC team make the selections and DriveWorks Solo creates the models based on the options selected.
The CAD models are completed sooner, meaning that the hardware team could get started on building the drive train earlier in the build season – giving Andromeda One a head start on other teams.
How to Automate
If you already use SOLIDWORKS® to design your robot, you already have design automation.
DriveWorksXpress is included free inside every seat of SOLIDWORKS.
Find it under the tools menu to automate parts of your robot design, save time and reduce errors.
Getting started with DriveWorksXpress is easy and there are many resources available online to help you and your team learn more.
Go Further
As part of the FIRST® Robotics Supplier Sponsorship, FIRST® Robotics Competition Teams can now request a free 12-month license of DriveWorks Solo.
Use DriveWorks Solo to automate your repetitive SOLIDWORKS tasks and free up your team and your mentors to focus on quality robot design.
In addition to the software, you will also have access to resources to support your learning, including DriveWorks Solo Technical Webinars, Online Training, How to Videos, Extensive Online Help Files and more.
New Skills & Knowledge
Not only will you improve your robot and the team’s performance, you will also add to your CAD skills.
Working with FRC is part of our commitment to give even more students extra skills that will help them in future STEM careers.
Investing in the future and supporting STEM is very important to us. We launched our DriveWorksXpress Training & Certification Program to help students gain the design automation skills they need and gain a certification to prove their knowledge and skills.
Two students from Ayer Shirley FIRST® Robotics Team (Andromeda One) were the first high school students in the world to become Certified DriveWorksXpress Associates.
We are excited to be part of the FIRST® Robotics Competition, supporting teams with useful resources, learning opportunities and new skills.
Request Your License
Activate DriveWorksXpress inside SOLIDWORKS today.
If you want to take design automation even further, request your free license of DriveWorks Solo from our team.
How else are we supporting STEM?
We continue to actively promote and support STEM. The DriveWorksXpress Training & Certification is available completely free to anyone who has access to SOLIDWORKS. Students and professionals can learn DriveWorksXpress and get certified in 3 easy steps.
Our team also attend events to teach students about DriveWorksXpress and to inspire them to follow STEM careers.
Investing in our own team and their future is also hugely important to us. We have an Investors in People Silver Award and every year we take on placement students and graduates across multiple disciplines. Many of our students continue their careers with us and most of our team started their careers here as a student.