For Challenge 4, I attempted to design a pen through the Introduction to SolidWorks activity. I had engineer friends in college who often used SolidWorks, so I’ve always been curious to get some exposure using it. For the most part, the software was straightforward once I familiarized myself with the different icons and features, and sketching the different shapes was fun. Sketching the ink refill and screw-on tip want by fairly quickly, though I got stuck on sketching the housing. I’m sure that my grip is misshapen as I couldn’t get the curves to be tangent, so I made some slight modifications to make it look right. In a way, learning SolidWorks reminded me of when I first attempted to learn Photoshop, which became challenging as I edited more complex files, but I was able to learn within a few days. I don’t I’m that far in terms of learning SolidWorks (I imagine the software has generally advanced users compared to an average user like me), but I have enough curiosity to give it another shot if I’m given the opportunity to play with it again. I’m excited to see how the pen turns out when it’s 3D-printed!
