Tinkercad to 3d printer

Tinkercad is probably one of the easiest and most intuitive 3D modeling tools out there. It runs in a web browser and is free, making it the perfect software for beginners.

To learn the basics of Tinkercad, we will design a simple wrench. It should be a familiar tool with a modest shape, which can then be easily printed on a 3D printer.

We divided the entire process into six simple steps:

1. Project
2. Design of the Ring
3. Designing handle
4. Designing a dumb key
5. We collect all together
6. Adding text

at the end of this small tutorian you can design a wrench yourself, but also learn how to create any simple 3D model in Tinkercad.

Step 1: Set up a project

All you need to get started with Tinkercad on the web app is to create a free account on their website.

At the end of this process, you are greeted by the Tinkercad tutorial screen. Skip it for now by closing it, and instead go to the home page and click "Create New Project".

Main interface

This is the main interface of the project. As you might expect, the very center is the "Workplane" on which models are created. The interface also consists of the following elements:

• Top toolbar with more general tools like Copy, Paste and Delete on the left, and operations like Group and Align on the right.
• Basic orientation navigation tools such as zoom in and out. Note that these special tools can also be used with the mouse wheel.
• Panel containing all the building blocks for design, including basic shapes such as cubes, spheres, and text.

Divide and Conquer

Now that we're familiar with the Tinkercad interface, let's get straight to the design.

"Divide and Conquer" is a key principle in 3D modeling. Basically, it tells us to break the part into smaller shapes and shape them individually. These parts will then be put together to create the final object.

This method is especially useful when modeling complex objects from the real world. For our model of a wrench, we will divide it into three main elements: a ring, a handle, and a sponge.

These blocks will be designed in the next three steps and after that they will be connected together. In the sixth and final step, we'll add text to the wrench so we can quickly determine its size.

Step 2: Designing the ring

The wrench ring can be thought of as a solid disc with a hollow circular area in the middle, sort of like a very thick washer.

To create this shape, first drag a cylinder from the Basic Shapes panel onto the work plane. When you click on a shape, its parameters are displayed in the Shape section. We won't go into them now, but it can be interesting and useful to explore features like Chamfer.

When selected, you will notice that the cylinder has five white squares or "handles", four of which are in the bottom plane of the figure and one is above the cylinder.

Dimensional adjustment

The four knobs on the lower plane can be used to adjust the length and width of the cylinder. We want our ring to be 25mm in diameter. After you click on the white square marker, a small rectangle will be displayed with the current dimensions.

Either drag the square handles until the cylinder is 25mm long and wide, or enter values ​​by clicking the size field and pressing Enter (Tinkercad will by default bind any drag to whatever value is displayed in the bottom right corner, e.g. "1mm ").

The handle above the cylinder adjusts its height. We want our wrench to be 4mm high, so tweak it the same way you did with the length and width.

Boolean operations and holes

We are making progress. The solid disk is ready, now we just need a hole in the middle.

Tinkercad works on the principle of Boolean design, which allows you to subtract objects to create empty areas and add objects to form new shapes (note that these terms are not used explicitly).

In this step we will use the subtraction operation to create a round hole in our ring. First drag another cylinder to the workbench and adjust its length and width to 12. 5mm, which is the diameter of the hole we want.

Now the most interesting part. With this new cylinder selected, click Hole in the top right window. This will make Tinkercad treat this shape as something to be subtracted.

Alignment

Now we need to place a cylinder-shaped hole in the middle of the hard drive. To do this, use the alignment tool on the top toolbar.

First, we need to select the objects we want to align. Left-click on the hard drive and, while pressing Shift, left-click on the cylinder hole. If you do everything right, both objects should be selected and selected at the same time.

Click the Align button on the top toolbar. You will notice that black round handles will appear on the work plane. Click on the bottom middle handle as shown below to align the objects to their center axes in the X and Y directions.

Grouping

When the two shapes are aligned, click the Group button on the top toolbar. You will see that only one form remains. This tool essentially connects two shapes together, and if one of them is a hole, it removes the material. If everything went well, you should have your ring ready.

We have learned quite a lot in this section. For example, we now know how to size basic shapes, create holes, align objects, and finally how to group (or merge) shapes together. These skills are 90% of everything required to design 3D objects in Tinkercad.

You will see that the next steps will involve using the same or similar approaches. So go ahead!

Step 3: Designing the Handle

The handle is probably the lightest part of our wrench. We just need a rectangle of the right size.

Start by dragging a rectangle from the Basic Shapes panel onto the work plane. Set the box length to 100mm and width to 10mm using either of the two procedures previously described. Then set the height to 4mm to match the ring.

That's it! The pen is ready to go.

Step 4: Design Wrench Opening

We're almost done - only one left! Looking at the mouth of the key, you can see that its design is very similar to the design of the ring. At least at first...

The throat is also a round disk, but this time with a hexagonal hole cut at an angle. Set the disc diameter to 30mm and height to 4mm.

Polygons and hexagons

In order to create the required shape, we will use the basic "Polygon" shape. By dragging the polygon onto the workplane, you will see that it is hexagonal by default. This is exactly what we need, but it is worth remembering that we can change the number of sides of the polygon by adjusting the corresponding parameter in the form window.

For now, all we have to do is turn our hexagon into a hole.

Alignment

Now place the hexagon. Let's use the alignment tool again to position the hex along one of the disk's central axes. (In other words, center it in one direction, not two directions.) Select both shapes, click the Align button, and click on the black round marker as shown below.

Both shapes still need to be separated, so we need to place the hexagon inside the disk. To keep the alignment you just made, hold down Shift and drag the hexagon so that it is partially inside the disk. The hexagon should move in a straight line.

Size and grouping

Now that both shapes are correctly positioned, we can set the dimensions of the hexagon. We will create a 15mm wrench, but you can experiment with it and choose any size you need.

It's time to do the magic of subtraction! Select the hexagon and disk and click the "Group" button in the top menu. That's all. Congratulations!

Step 5: Putting It All Together

So far, we've designed all the individual parts of the wrench. Great job! It's time to finally put it all together.

Let's start with the handle and ring. Align both shapes in the same way as we did in the last step, that is, only in the direction of its length. Then, while holding Shift, move the ring in a straight line towards the handle. Be sure to overlap the two shapes a bit (look at the image below), and when that's done, group them. This should merge the handle and ring into one. Notice that the model now has one color instead of two different ones.

And now let's attach the pharynx to our not quite finished key. In our case, the pharynx is facing the wrong way. We need to fix it by rotating it.

Rotation

First, select the shed by clicking on the previously created object with the left mouse button. In addition to the white handles, note the three curved handles with double arrows. When you move the mouse pointer over a point in the lower (XY) plane, the angle value will appear.

To rotate the shed, click and drag the handle around the shape, or enter a value manually. Here we need a 45 degree clockwise rotation (tip: holding Shift will limit the rotation you can snap to).

All that is left to do at this stage is to connect the mouth of the key and the base to the handle. The procedure is more or less the same as we did for connecting the ring and the handle.

First align both shapes and then drag the shed while holding Shift in the direction of the wrench. Once again, arrange them so that they overlap each other a little. Finally, group them.

Color change

At this point you should have a full wrench. Cool? Let's change its color one more time.

To do this, select the finished wrench and click the "Body" button in the form window. A wide selection of colors will be displayed. I suggest dark grey. Looks better, right? This doesn't really affect your final 3D model per se, but color-coded multi-element designs can make designing more organized and therefore easier.

And here it is! The perfect wrench is ready!

Step 6: Add Text

So now that our wrench looks just right, you can consider 3D printing it. Indeed, with the skills you have acquired so far, you will be able to design and print a whole set of wrenches!

But can you tell each size just by looking at the key? Most likely no. So, in this last step, we are going to add size information directly to the handle.

To do this, find "Text" in the Basic Shapes panel and drag it to the work plane. Text works like any other shape, but we can change its content. Since we want to "cut" the text out of the pen, make a hole in it.

Adjustment and positioning

Let's change the text content. In the form window, click on the "Text" field and change it to "15mm", which is the size of our wrench. The form will change automatically.

Now all that's left is to resize the text and match it with the wrench. Set its length and width to 32mm and 7mm respectively.

To place the text above the pen, let's use the alignment tool again. Select both shapes and click Align. Since we want the text to "bite" into the top of the wrench, we'll select the top round handle vertically, as shown below.

This will make the top surfaces of both shapes flush. Finish placing the text by clicking the middle round handles in the XY plane. All that's left is to cut out the text by merging the shapes and you should be done!

Export your 3D model

You are now ready to 3D print your first Tinkercad part.

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