Can I use SOLIDWORKS now, Dad?

Peter Jensen’s son, Josiah, has always been a curious child, asking many questions. However, when he started asking his dad, “Hey, Dad, what’ya do at work today?” on regular basis is when Peter remembered feeling a little higher on his son’s totem pole of things that matter to a 12 year old boy.

When Peter worked in the aerospace industry, he would bring home posters and little gadgets that fascinated Josiah. To this day, Josiah still has an ATK F-22 poster hanging above his bed. Josiah had a myriad of questions for Peter when he walked through the door; “Was the work you did top-secret? Did you get to work on planes? Can I do that when I’m big? Did you bring me anything from work today?”

Josiah

Today, Peter works at GoEngineer, the questions are different, but Josiah’s curiosity remains. “He has always asked me about 3D software, and when I explained different software and what my job entailed, it seemed he couldn’t get enough,” says Peter.

Since working at GoEngineer, Josiah began asking about trying SOLIDWORKS himself.

He loves to hear about real life applications of SOLIDWORKS and the design challenges his dad faces as part of GoEngineer’s technical support team, and how his dad solves each issue. Yet all questions eventually lead to the inevitable: “Can I use SOLIDWORKS now, Dad?”

“Since I started to work from home, his dreams came true, and I let him design his first part. He thinks I have a cool job, and he wants to go to SOLIDWORKS World with me,” laughs Peter.

Josiah’s Initial Freehand Spaceship Drawing

Josiah has already decided he can make a plane and a car that runs off of air and anti-gravity. He even created some plans that he showed to Peter.

Josiah’s Spaceship Designed in SOLIDWORKS

“When my son created this spaceship, he had just turned 14 and had never used SOLIDWORKS,” says Peter. “I basically just let him learn by trial and error, and answered questions along the way.”

Once designed in SOLIDWORKS, the STL file was sent to GoEngineer’s uPrint SE Plus for 3D printing. Excitement mounted as Josiah’s creation was literally coming to life before his eyes.

Josiah is now well on his way to shaping his world.

He is part of an engineering robotics club that just took second place in San Antonio, qualifying the team for the state robotics competition. Josiah led the team to using 3D software to help design their robots.

For the future, Josiah wants to become an aerospace engineer or a physicist; he wants to get his PhD at MIT.

…and all this from just asking his dad a couple of questions about work.  For more stories like this, visit the GoEngineer Blog.

Tags: 3D Printing, GoEngineer, SOLIDWORKS

Categories: 3D Printing, SOLIDWORKS

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