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5. 1x1x35 C Channel

There have been many times when we needed a thin support that needs to be strong and we can’t use standoffs, that’s where the 1 by 1 C-channel comes in. With this new piece you can hold your cortex up in the center of your robot without it falling off, hold things together to build your robots frame, struts, and everything else you can do with regular C-channel but, in smaller pieces. Basically it’s like strip metal and C-channel had a baby and it’s so convenient. To design the part, we used Autodesk Inventor Professional 2017 (student version) and made a sheet metal part, we used a thickness of 0.0625 and drew the outline with measurements we got from the VEX aluminum C Channel.  We used the “flange” command to take our outline to a 3D part.  We then drew the outline for the first hole and used the “cut” command to make the hole.  We used the “rectangular” tool to multiply the holes.  We repeated this for the sides of the part and finished with the “corner chamfer” command to cut the edges off like the official VEX c-channel. By designing this part, I learned how to use Autodesk Inventor to design metal parts.  If I use Autodesk Inventor again it will be for making a new design.  I have been responsible for CADing the robots for my team for the past 5 years.  I have always used AutoCAD Mechanical to CAD our robots.  This was my first time using Inventor and it was very different from what I am used to and because of that, I will likely stay with AutoCAD Mechanical for now.  I don’t know if I will go into a career that requires design but, it’s still useful to know so if my boss ever needs me to make a part I can.