Toy Design

You built the front end loader from someone else's plan. Now you pick the toy. Design it in Onshape, 3D print it, make it move, and prove every part fits without tape, glue, or sanding.

An Onshape assembly of a giant building-block knight holding a sword and shield — A toy from a previous year: a 6-inch building-block knight with a turning head, arms, hands, and legs. Thirteen printed parts. The guidance page walks through how it was made, along with a snake car.

The job

You work for BrightSpark Toys. Most teams build something that rolls — a car, a buggy, a strange vehicle. It doesn't have to be a vehicle. It does have to move.

Must Move

Wheels that roll, or joints that turn, bend, or swing. Moving parts are the point.

Must fit in 6 × 4 × 4 in

The whole toy, assembled, fits inside this box.

Print budget 100 g

Total PLA plus TPU, all parts. Your slicer tells you the number.

Must be Manufacturable

3D printed in PLA and TPU. Nothing taped together. Nothing sanded until it fits.

Final product score · 5 points

Built to Spec

Checked at your presentation: it moves the way you designed it, it fits the box, it's under budget, and every joint holds without tape or sanding. Scored separately from the five rubric stages. See how it's scored.

The three phases

The project follows the six steps of the engineering design process, in three phases.

Explore — define the problem, research and brainstorm, pick a solution. Research toys, brainstorm lots of ideas, sketch the best ones. Cross off anything that breaks a constraint. Choose with a decision matrix.
Design and test — prototype, test and evaluate. Model every part and the assembly in Onshape. Find your clearances on the Tolerance Blocks. Print small test pieces of your joints, fix the CAD, and lock in the design.
Build and present — test and evaluate, communicate. Print everything, assemble, test, and fix. Finish your notebook, build your slides, and practice.

What you hand in

Design notebook. Brainstorming, sketches, and other concepts you considered. Your decision matrix and why you chose what you chose. CAD screenshots with notes. Material and printing choices. Tests, failures, and what you changed. A reflection: what worked and what you'd do differently. See what to research and the design questions.
Onshape model. Every part plus the assembly, fully constrained and dimensioned, matching the toy you built. One shared document per team, shared with every teammate and with Mr. Hubbard, and added to the Onshape Classroom assignment.
Working prototype. Printed, assembled, and moving — within every constraint above.
Presentation. 5–7 minutes. Your design journey and key decisions, a demo of the CAD and the toy (live or recorded), why you chose your materials, joints, and clearances, and what you'd improve. Every student answers a question.

This is a team project. Stages 1–4 of the rubric are team scores. Communicate is scored for each person. See how it's scored.

Dates

Sketches due TBA

End of phase 1

CAD locked in TBA

End of phase 2

Presentations TBA

Bring the toy and the CAD

Before you print anything: read Making Parts in the shop procedures. Print small test pieces before whole parts. Failed prints waste filament, and wasted material counts on your daily grading page score.