Have you ever wished you could spend more time using SOLIDWORKS for something other than work? I thought so, and fortunately, there are some great tools you can leverage to use SOLIDWORKS with your kids. It might sound spooky, but one day they may grow up to be better than you (or I) in 3D CAD! Let’s get them started off right with a treat from your work experience. 

In this Video Tech Tip, I will walk you through the process of creating profiles you can use in your weldment structures. For the weldment structure, I’ll be building a spiderweb or at least a reasonable facsimile. Feel free to create whatever you like.

Creating the weldment is pretty straightforward in this two-dimensional case: I just created new groups for each set of conjoined members. Think of a group as something you’re going to weld together (or hot glue in this case). The real fun comes when jumping into the drawing of our part.

Leveraging display states is a great way to isolate and dimension a single piece of the weldment, and also to provide assembly instructions (in conjunction with notes). Keep in mind the age and skillset of your child and try to keep it challenging, but achievable. 

Be sure to check back next week for part two of Halloween Arts and Crafts with SOLIDWORKS weldments where I will talk about how to leverage SOLIDWORKS drawings to create weldment cut lists and bills of materials.