Primitives: Tinkercad
Tinkercad is a modeling program that uses primitive shapes like cubes and spheres as basic building blocks. These shapes can be added to--or subtracted from--one another to create new shapes. Don't be fooled by its misleading simplicity. Tinkercad is an essential tool for all designers, from beginners to pros.
Lesson: Creating a chess pawn
- Creating a chess pawn in Tinkercad (video)
Assignment: Create a chess pawn or other model of your choosing
- Using Tinkercad, create an original model
- Export your model as an STL file
- Import your STL file into FlashPrint, slice, and export as a GCODE file
- Print your GCODE file on your Finder
- Take clear, detailed photos of your printed model
- Upload the photos of your print to Tinkercad and make the design public (learn how)
- Copy the public link for your design (learn how)
- Use the contact form on the homepage of this site to send me the public link to your design
Tinkercad Tours
- SVG files, moving shapes, multi-color (video)
- Printing in two colors (video)
- Duplicate and repeat (video)
- Align, ruler, workplane, transparency, hide (video)
- Beyond basic shapes (video)
- Embedding a design (video)
Tinkercad resources
- Starters - Use these interactive tutorials to learn the basic functions of Tinkercad.
- Lessons - Look through these interactive Lessons and try out a few. They provide good practice in becoming comfortable with Tinkercad's user interface.
- Tinkercad blog - This blog is a good place to learn about Tinkercad features old and new.
- Ten tips for mastering Tinkercad (slideshow) - Here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of Tinkercad.
- Tinkercad TinkerTips (YouTube playlist) - Tinkercad's official YouTube channel provides you with "quick tips and essentials."
- Tinkercad tutorials (YouTube playlist) - More tutorials from Tinkercad's official YouTube channel.
- Custom fonts in Tinkercad (Instructable) - Dissatisfied with Tinkercad's limited text options? This tutorial shows you how to add custom fonts, greatly expanding your text design options.
- Uploading a photo to Tinkercad and making a design public (slideshow) - Share your Tinkercad designs with the world!
- How to embed an STL viewer into a webpage or blog (slideshow) - Shows how to embed a Tinkercad design into a web page, blog, or other online platform.