DIY Birdhouse & Furniture with MakeByMe and HomeByMe

Get inspired and make your own projects with the Do It Yourself (DIY) apps, MakeByMe and HomebyMe (up to 5 projects free) by Dassault Systemes. Students, Educators, Makers, Hobbyists, SOLIDWORKS users, this creative app is browser-based for those who love to design & build furniture or wood projects. I’m in love with easy, fun, inspirational technology from my SOLIDWORKS colleagues.

By day, I use SOLIDWORKS Cloud Apps, xDesign and xShape, on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for my engineering work. At night, I find myself using MakebyMe and HomebyMe as a DIY-er who visits Home Depot, LOWES, and the local hardware store on a weekly basis. So I hope you will follow along and give it a try.

There are great video tutorials playlist for MakeByMe in English, French and Spanish. HomeByMe has a great playlist too.

View the MakeByMe Basics Video to understand how to select, size lumber and manipulate tools to cut, delete, rotate and move. Understand the user interface – before you start your Birdhouse.

Review the Birdhouse tutorial. Now it is time to create your Birdhouse project.

Select Create a project. Enter BIrdhouse for Project name.

Under Materials tab, select Lumber. Under Construction tab, select 1×6 (19x140mm board). Note, a 1 in x 6 in board’s actual dimensions are .75 in x 5.5 in.

Select Pine. Enter 96 for length. Select Add to project. The Birdhouse video also gives size in metric units too.

Select the uppermost rotation arrow to rotate the board 90 degrees.

Select the board and tap the cut tool on the bottom toolbar. Tap the cut tool’s move arrow < so that the dimension boxes are visible. Tap on the dimension box and type in the different lengths for each part. After you type in a value tap ok at the top of the screen to make the cut then repeat until you are done.

The Undo icon in the lower left corner is great – if you need to go back a step.

Select the remaining offcut part that remains and Delete. You can use this lumber for another project.

Save your project. As you learn, it is very important you save after each major step. The cuts are complete.

Review the Birdhouse tutorial video to understand how to rotate, translate and snap each piece.

To create the pitch for the roof select one of the sides and return to the cut tool. Rotate the blade to 10 degrees and snap it to the top. Tap ok and remove the offcut. Repeat this for the other side.

The Hole Tool works like an actual hole saw, you need to set the diameter and the position through dimensions.

As you created your birdhouse, MakeByMe recorded your steps, materials , and cut list. Select the Plans tab to get your Cut List. HomeDepot and Lowes will cut your lumber. First you purchase the board you need. In this case standard, 1x6x96. Then, in the back of the store’s lumber area, there is usually a nice sales associate that will cut it for you.

If you do not have access to wood, you can use your imagination. When I was teaching, some years I did not have a lot of money for materials. Corrugated cardboard and a good paper cutter (safe) can help students visualize their projects.

You can also take your project from MakebyMe and insert it into HomeByMe.

What an exciting time to be a DIY – er who likes projects.

Design well. Marie

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Marie Planchard

Senior Director, Early Engagement, 3DEXPERIENCE Works at Dassault Systemes

Marie Planchard is an education and engineering advocate. As Senior Director of Education & Early Engagement, SOLIDWORKS, she is responsible for global development of content and social outreach for the 3DEXPERIENCE Works products across all levels of learning including educational institutions, Fab Labs, and entrepreneurship.