When my son turned five, my wife and I decided it was time for him to have his own swing set in our backyard. There was only one problem: we couldn’t find one that we liked. One kit was too small. Another was missing the monkey bars. Nothing was quite what we had in mind.

 

We decided to design and build the perfect structure ourselves. I didn’t have any experience with a project like this. We didn’t even have all the tools! But I did have SOLIDWORKS to help me plan.

 

Drawing up the model took some time. I used SOLIDWORKS weldments to model the wood structure after downloading a standard wood profile set from GrabCAD.com.  This allowed me to keep the design parametric so changes could easily be made on the fly.  I could even consult my son and quickly move elements around on the screen based on his feedback.

 

I used SOLIDWORKS Simulation to reassure us that the structure would be strong and safe.  I also used a weldment cut list to lay out exactly how much lumber needed to be purchased.

 

 

Please enjoy this video laying out some of the design tricks I used to make this swingset a reality.