Our latest project with Fusion was to choose any object and create it with OnShape. OnShape is a CAD software, which means it is meant to be used to create 3D models of things in a computer. This software is useful for 3D printing and industrial manufacturing because you can make one design and then have it be printed or manufactured.
I, the ambitious person I am, decided to make sunglasses. It took me about 5 hours of learning and 10 hours of designing, but it all came together into a questionable looking pair of sunglasses.
What I Built

I built a pair of sunglasses. The design is inspired by one of my sunglasses at home. I like the wide lenses that cover a lot of your face.
Unfortunately, they do not come with a lens, but they are made as if a lens will go in there. When I built it, I included a slot for the lens to go right into.
How I Made the Sunglasses
It took me 10 hours to build the sunglasses because this is my first time doing CAD. It’s harder than it looks, and I learned that the hard way.
I started by drawing out the shape of the front frame, I left the temple sticks for later as a separate part. I only drew half of it out because I would later mirror it to make the full shape.

After drawing the shape out, I performed something called extrusion.
Extrusion is the premise of OnShape and CAD in general. You begin by drawing a 2D shape, and then you extrude that into a 3D shape.
Next, I work on the holder for the lens. To do this, I cut into the frame just slightly so that there can be a way for the lens to fit right in to the frame. This makes it easier to later work on the lens.
After the main part of the frame is done, I need to make the “door hinge” part to allow the sunglasses to connect to the temples. To do this I create a small part that sticks out of the frame and put a hole into it.

This will allow me to soon attach the temples to the sunglasses frame.
Next I mirror the half over, and I’m done the main frame.

After mirroring it over, I start to work on the temples. I begin, again, with a sketch of the shape of it.

This is a very basic sketch but that’s okay because after this, I can extrude it into a 3D version of this that has a Z-axis. Once that is done I can perform something called a fillet which will give the important detail. It turns sharp angles into smooth curves.

I also add the part that will soon be connecting to the connector part we added earlier to the main frame. The temple is almost done. All I need to do is put the hole down the middle and cut out a section the same size as the connector on the main frame.

Now our temple is done. To get the temple for the other side, I just duplicated this part studio and mirrored it.
The next step is to assemble everything together. To do this, we go to the assembly tab and add all the pieces in. Then, we add mate connectors to connect the temples to the main frame.

And there you have it, a perfect pair of sunglasses.

Above is the Mechanical Drawing which shows all the angles of the sunglasses from a 2D “Drawing” style which is useful for manufacturers who can easily understand what they are dealing with just by seeing this drawing.

This is my Bill of Materials(BOM) which has all the information about each part of my sunglasses assembly.
Reflection
The biggest thing this project taught me was patience. I kept on trying to go fast and when something wouldn’t work for me, I’d get really annoyed. Slowly as I worked on it, I got better at slowing down, understanding the problem, and building up from there.
When you understand what specifically you are doing, it is so much easier to fix the problem. When you don’t actually know the problem, then it is just really annoying to do.
Even though my sunglasses don’t really look good, I am very proud of them because this was my first time doing CAD, and I was able to take this from idea to 3D model and ready for manufacturing, all by myself.
AI Transcript
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vYapEw0pTBEKJ8PKU6ysRHlsPKElSyx76OjCtVkRq8c/edit?tab=t.0