Astrological Sign Themed Chess Set
For my Cornerstone 2 engineering course at Northeastern University, I designed a fully original Zodiac-themed chess set in SolidWorks. Each of the six chess piece types is represented by an astrological sign, replacing traditional chess figurines with symbols from the celestial zodiac.
I modeled seven individual parts from scratch in SolidWorks: Aries, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Libra (split into a separate top and bottom component). Each piece was then assembled with a shared base using SolidWorks mates and constraints. A top-level board assembly brought all six pieces together into the final product. To complete the project, I produced formal engineering drawings for the individual parts and a full assembly drawing with a Bill of Materials.
To build the pieces I applied a range of SolidWorks tools and techniques: Mirror Entities for Aries’s symmetric horns, Draft on the Bishop’s arrow shaft, Revolved Boss/Base to create the circular bases for all six pieces, Fillet and Chamfer for edge refinement throughout, and Spline as my tool of choice, used on both the King and Taurus to sculpt their curved forms. Most of the project involved trial and error as I worked to learn new SolidWorks concepts, which helped me develop a better understanding of the software’s capabilities.
This engineering drawing shows all six chess pieces, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus, and Aries, with front, side, and isometric views for each. The pieces are drawn at a 2:1 scale on an A0 sheet, with labeled heights ranging from 1.16″ for the smallest pieces up to 3.05″ for Leo, reflecting the intentional height variation used to distinguish each piece during play.
