SolidWorks Tutorial 1a: Design of a 3D Printed Electronic Box

Introduction

This tutorial is for students with no prior experience with SolidWorks. In it we create a new part from scratch: A simple electronics enclosure that could be printed on a 3D printer.

We cover sketching and extrusion of sketches into the third dimension. The sketching tools include rectangles, circles, lines, points, fillets and text on a surface. We also set some constraints for features in a sketch to introduce the students to parametric design. The feature tools we cover include extruding a boss, extruded cuts and fillets.

Load SolidWorks

These instructions pertain to the Solidworks installation at Artisans Asylum as of this writing, May 2025. There are presently ten seats in the Photo/Design Shop in the Holton building and two seats in the social area in the Antwerp building.

Double-click on the SolidWroks 2024 icon on the desktop. It takes a minute or so to load, and then it will display a dialog box like the one shown below.

Click on the button that says "Part" to create a new document for a single 3D part (i.e. not an assembly or a 2D drawing.)