Magic Wheelchair

Ryan Weimer’s son Keaton was born with condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Due to his diagnosis, Keaton uses a wheelchair in his daily life. In an effort to make his son feel special, Ryan started building Keaton over-the-top Halloween costumes that included his wheelchair and made him look and feel fantastic. Seeing how happy his son was and wanting to raise awareness for his condition, Ryan and his wife decided to start the non-profit organization Magic Wheelchair. The couple began recruiting build teams across the United States and beyond.

Now Magic wheelchair is giving kids in wheelchairs unforgettable experiences by creating custom costumes for them at no expense to their families.

The Magic Wheelchair project brings together builders, vendors, and professional fabricators to create epic, custom costumes for children in wheelchairs—turning everyday mobility devices into powerful expressions of imagination. Vendors are supported in packaging starter kits and offering special deals tailored for these charity builds. A vibrant community of mentors and novice builders collaborates to share best practices, designs, and content, fueling a culture of learning and creativity. The entertainment and special effects industries gain hands-on experience with 3DEXPERIENCE tools while contributing to a meaningful cause—and often bring those tools back into their professional workflows. The initiative also inspires 3DEXPERIENCE Labs and regional Fab Labs, where Dassault Systèmes employees volunteer their skills to help design and build magical costumes. Each Magic Wheelchair build becomes a unique story of technology, artistry, compassion, and community impact.

The Magic Wheelchair project began in 2015 with just eight costumes and has grown to over 100 by 2018, expanding internationally to Europe and Canada in 2021.

It has united a diverse community of elite special effects artists, Hollywood fabricators, doctors, nurses, puppet designers, garage builders, hobbyists, makers, students, and professional engineers—all rallying behind a shared mission: to collaborate and share knowledge, best practices, techniques, materials, and technologies to bring these epic builds to life.

Thanks to the powerful story behind Magic Wheelchair, founder Ryan has built a global network of fabrication houses and special effects artists, attracting top-tier talent such as Adam Savage (MythBusters) and Fon Davis (creator of many Star Wars characters).

Magic Wheelchair supports UN Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) by creating inclusive opportunities for children with disabilities, ensuring they can fully participate in society, and bringing joy through their vision to “put a smile on the face of every child.”

As part of the Magic Wheelchair project, builders are empowered with 3DEXPERIENCE applications to plan, design, and fabricate custom wheelchair costumes. A dedicated community platform—with roles tailored for tools like xDesign and xShape—supports seamless collaboration and innovation. In one standout build, the team partnered with Permobil, the manufacturer of Jonah’s wheelchair and a SOLIDWORKS customer, who provided a native CAD model of the chair. This integration saved valuable time during the design phase and ensured a precise fit. Throughout the process, the 3DEXPERIENCE Dashboard was used to manage every aspect of the build—creative ideation, team coordination, content sharing, task tracking, scheduling, and supply management—bringing imagination to life with efficiency and precision.

After starting their relationship with Magic Wheelchair in 2018, the SolidWorks Magic Wheelchair build Team has worked tirelessly to create three incredible costumes for three amazing kiddos: a to-scale monster truck for Jonah, a futuristic motorcycle for Ben, and a castle fit for a princess for Freyja. As the years go on, the team continues to expand and the costumes get more extravagant, but the reaction from the children and their families never changes: they are always thrilled. The SolidWorks team is just as happy seeing the delight the costumes bring to the kids as they are to volunteer their time.

The 3DS Magic Wheelchair Build Team has successfully built three costumes for children in wheelchairs as of 2021. DS employees volunteer their time and expertise in a variety of subjects: CAD, CNC milling, painting, mold making, graphic design, dress making, sewing, programming, electronics, and much more. The emotional paycheck they have and continue to receive for working on the projects is priceless. Using tools that connect this community of builders from all around the United States and help them do good is what “harmonizing product, nature, and life” is truly all about.