Matthew Bennett

At the end of Intro to Solid Modeling, our task was to reverse-engineer any lego kit of our choosing. This included modeling each individual piece, ultimately bringing them together into an assembly with no interference. Given the vast array of lego kits, it was hard not to get overwhelmed by my possibilities.

After some consideration, I’d narrowed my choices down to something out of the “Lego Speed Champions” collection, thanks to the fun I had driving those cars in Forza Horizon. Not wanting to get too over-the-top, I settled on kit 30343, the McLaren Elva.

Once the kit arrived I dug out the calipers and got to measuring, writing down all the dimensions to ensure the utmost accuracy to the original (even down to the injection molding marks). One thing I learned very quickly was that if I was off by so much as half a milimeter, the rest of the assmebly would be thrown out of wack, so I tried to be as meticulous as possible.

One thing you’ll probably only notice if you search for the actual kit, is that my final result looks nothing like LEGO’s version. While trying to find the official color codes for the individual pieces, I found out about a website called “brickset”, where people post their alternative configurations. After converting the hex values to RGB so I could accurately map each color to their respective pieces in SolidWorks, I decided to “build” an f1-style version that I saw someone make.

The real challenge came when it was time to assemble everything. Prior to suppressing the wheels, my laptop sounded like jet taking off. I took some liberties with the wheel and tire design, with the former adding a deep dish lip akin to the BBS LM, and the latter taking inspiration from Toyo’s R888R comp tire. With each part in place, I was able to get the chime of relief when doing the interference test. While actual LEGO’s would have a fraction of a milimeter for the interference fit, I was more than pleased with my result.

Throughout this project, I became extremely comfortable in SolidWorks, perfected my ability to design with intent so that unneccesary time is kept to a minimum, and gained the confidence to take the CSWA exam and pass it. I’m looking forward to gaining more knowledge with this software, and I’m eager to learn how to do FEA calculations so I can work on designing some area parts.