Tinkercad Basics

Before we begin, take 15 - 20 minutes to explore Tinkercad on your own. As we go through the tools it's a good idea to have some experience.

Have fun, write down any questions you have, and check them off as they are answered throughout this lesson.

After exploring on your own are there any questions or things you hope to learn about Tinkercad?

Getting to know the dashboard is very important and often overlooked. It's a simple layout, but there are a few things to know:

1) You can organize projects into folders on the left side.

2) Naming projects is very important because you can search for projects by file name in the search bar.

How can you use the Dashboard to Organize your designs? Is it important to name your designs?

The workplane isn't as simple as it seems at first glance, but once you become familiar with it you can use it to you advantage. Important things to be familiar with:

1) You can change the units (centimeters/inches) and workplane size by clicking "Edit Grid"

2) "Snap Grid" is useful in moving objects. It allows you to snap to a specific measurement, which you can change.

Notable items from this lesson:

1) The fit to view tool allows you to zoom in and make any shape the center of your workplane. It is useful because you can use "dummy" shapes to change your view.

2) If you duplicate an object, and move or resize it and then duplicate it again, the new object will be moved and resized the same way. This makes spacing out multiple items simple or making patterns simple.

Every object can be resized in every direction. Consider what your goals are for the shape and then fit them perfectly to your needs. A few notable things are:

1) holding the shift key while resizing will allow things to grow and shrink in scale.

2) use the "snap grid" to change the amount an object's size changes.

1) There are 3 different axes you can rotate (X,Y,Z)

2) Placing your mouse inside the rotating circle makes it easy to rotate objects to 45°, 90°, and 180°. Keeping things square can be really important.

3) Using the "Undo Button" if you make a mistake rather than trying to twist things back is oftentimes easier.

The next few videos are closely related (grouping, aligning, and flipping). Before you make final decisions on a print make sure everything is placed in the perfect spot. Some important notes in this video are:

1) Any object or group of objects can be turned into a hole. Sometimes thinking about the shape of the negative space around an object can help you create the necessary mold to make the object you need.

2) Start with the basic shape you want and then refine it. With enough patience, you can create anything you want in Tinkercad.

You may think that aligning things should come before grouping, but I thought it was important to understand what grouping is before learning how aligning things works. It is important to align things if you want your print to look and function the way you expect. Here are the most important tips from this video:

1) Everything should be aligned!

2) You can align one object between two separate objects if you group the separate objects before you align the third.

Image Assessment: Create a wheel with a hole cut out of the center. Take a screenshot of your design from the "Top" view with the "Fit in view" tool focused on your wheel so that it can clearly be seen that it is aligned.

The ruler tool and workplane tool have separate functions. The things to know:

1) set the ruler anywhere on your screen and measurements of selected objects will appear.

2) The workplane tool can be placed on any face of any object and the new ground or workplane will be on that face. This allows you to place shapes flat on the surface of any object.

This is the first step that goes beyond the basic tools you will find on the screen. In this step, you will need a file to find a file to Import. I often use Thingiverse.com to find things. A few things to consider are:

1) Imported items can be turned into new creations using Tinkercad

2) You can get some great project ideas by looking at other people's projects.

Importing images sounds like you could put in a photograph of yourself and print a figurine that looks like you. Unfortunately, 3d design hasn't come that far yet (although they do make 3d scanners). What we are doing in this step is finding a very simple two-tone image (black and white; red a white; etc) Things to understand are:

1) The less detail there is in the image, the more likely it will import nicely into Tinkercad

2) If Tinkercad says the image is too large, change the highlighted (red) number to 1000 and it should import

3) Sports team and name brand logos and icons work best

4) You can draw an image with a black marker and import the file (In this way you could put your signature into Tinkercad

When your design is complete, it can be exported as a .stl or .obj file. Your teacher will tell you what types of files will work with your printer and its software. Before asking to print be sure to check these important things:

1) make sure everything that is supposed to be on the ground is flat on the ground.

2) Make sure parts that are supposed to be touching such as eyeballs on a penguin's face or words on a cube are actually touching and grouped (I find small overlooked gaps between parts often that cause a print to fail).

3) Check to make sure your design is well constructed and supported so that it will not collapse while printing.

You've reached the end of this unit! Hopefully, you learned a few things that made your prints more successful. We hope we didn't miss anything important, but also know there are a lot of tools in Tinkercad and no one tutorial or lesson teaches them all. If you have questions, a quick google search will reveal several helpful resources or you might want to share your project with friends and create a learning community amongst students at your school who are also interested in 3D printing.