Sketch to Solid

Sketch to Solid is a twelve-week studio where students learn to think, draw, and build like product designers. Beginning with rapid idea generation and a personal design journal, they practice framing problems in terms of goals and limits, then learn the visual language of engineering: quick concept sketches, formal multi-view and pictorial drawings, and fully dimensioned plans another person could build from.

Precision comes next. Students measure in both customary and metric units, work with dial calipers to thousandths of an inch, and discover how statistics turn a pile of test results into a design decision. From there they move into parametric 3D modeling, creating digital solids, verifying surface area and volume, and assembling multi-part mechanical puzzles that must fit together perfectly before anything is printed.

The course closes with an empathy-driven capstone: teams partner with the real needs of a young child with limited motor control to design, prototype, test, and defend a custom play experience, presenting measured evidence for every choice and publishing their process in a digital portfolio.