Week 7 — CAD: Design a Simple Car Body

Focus Concept: Using 3D tools to design a car body ready for testing
Mini-Project: 4‑Wheel Car Design

Connections to STEAM Learning

  • Computing: Combining multiple CAD tools to make a purposeful model.
  • Design & Technology: Designing for a user and for movement (a simple car).
  • Maths: Measuring length, width and wheel spacing.
  • Science: Linking shape and friction to how something might move.
  • Engineering: Thinking about where axles and wheels will go.

Building on the last six weeks, participants design a simple car body that can later be tested in SimLab.

Objectives

  • Use align, group, holes and duplicate to shape a car body.
  • Leave space for four wheels (even if wheels are not modelled in detail yet).
  • Keep the design balanced and reasonably symmetric.

Success Criteria

  • I can design a body shape that clearly looks like a car.
  • I can show where four wheels would attach.
  • I can keep the car roughly symmetric so it should move straight.

Key Vocabulary

  • Chassis — the main frame or body of a vehicle.
  • Axle — a bar that wheels spin around (mentioned conceptually).
  • Wheelbase — the distance between front and back wheels.

Part A — Plan & Sketch

  • Briefly sketch (on paper or verbally) what the car body might look like.
  • Highlight where the wheels will go and what sort of user it is for.

Part B — Make: Car Body

  • Use boxes and other simple shapes to form the main chassis.
  • Use holes to cut out wheel arches or gaps where wheels could fit.
  • Use duplicate and mirror to keep left and right sides matching.

Part C — Extend & Share

  • Add small extra details (windows, spoiler, headlights) without making the design fragile.
  • Ask learners to show where they expect the car to touch the ground and where the wheels would sit.

Resources

Equipment

  • Laptops / Chromebooks with internet
  • Mouse per device

Safety & Setup Notes

  • If you plan to print any car bodies, remind learners to avoid long, thin spikes or sharp edges.
  • Keep car sizes sensible so they could be printed in a reasonable time.