Tinkercad For Dummies

Shaun C. Bryant

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781119464419
• eBook ISBN: 9781119464488
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: CAD-CAM
• Index: Computer Science

Create in 3D with Tinkercad!

If you can dream it, you can create it—using Tinkercad. This free tool gives everyone the power to create 3D models, regardless of your level of experience. With the help of Tinkercad For Dummies, you'll have the knowledge you need to plan your designs, the know-how to utilize the platform's drag-and-drop tools to create your design, and the information you need to print or export your designs to use them elsewhere.

Tinkercad is for everyone! It's simple enough to be used by kids and students, but robust enough that an adult could use it to create a complex product prototype. With more than 4 million designs posted in the Tinkercad community, the platform is also popular with teachers around the world. Why not join in on the fun?

• Create your Tinkercad account and join the community
• Use the drag-and-drop tools to build 3D images
• Export your designs to have them 3D printed
• Learn the principles of great 3D design

Tinkercad is truly fun for all ages, and this hands-on guide makes it faster and easier to start using it right away!

Part 1

Getting Started with Tinkercad

IN THIS PART …

Learn about 3D modeling, the modeling process, and various modeling techniques.

Get started with Tinkercad by creating a Tinkercad account, logging in and out of Tinkercad, and creating a Tinkercad design.

View recent designs, choose options and settings, find the help screens, and visit the Tinkercad Twitter page, gallery, and blog.

Explore the Tinkercad user interface and use the ViewCube, viewing tools, the Tinkercad grid, and keyboard shortcuts.

Explore the 3D tools in Tinkercad, including Copy and Paste, Duplicate, Hide, Show All, Group and Ungroup, Align, Flip, Workplane, Ruler, the Tinkercad Basic Shapes menu, and the Featured Shape Generators and Community Shape Generators.

Chapter 1

Exploring 3D Design

IN THIS CHAPTER

Discovering basic concepts of 3D design

Understanding 3D models

Looking at the 3D modeling process

Comparing 3D and 2D methods

In this chapter, you discover all things 3D so that you can understand the basic terminology and concepts of the 3D universe before you go rushing off to the world of Tinkercad.

What Is 3D Modeling?

3D is the abbreviation for 3-dimensional. In the world of Computer Aided Design (CAD), 3D modeling (also known as three-dimensional modeling) is the process or workflow of developing a computer-based (mathematical) model of any surface of an object, regardless of whether it’s inanimate (such as a gear wheel) or living (such as an animal or a human being).

3D modeling is done in three dimensions via specialized software and, in your case, Tinkercad. The end product is normally called a 3D model. Someone who works with 3D models may often be referred to as a 3D artist.

The 3D model has the advantage that it can be displayed on the computer screen as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering. For example, these images are often the uber-cool pictures you see in an architect’s slideshow of a new building or house he designed. They also may be used in a computer simulation of physical phenomena, such as virtual prototype testing to see whether the lighting makes a new product desirable to a given market.

The iPhone is a typical example where lighting is an important facet of the design to highlight all the lovely curves and bevels on the iPhone case. (Can you tell I’m an Apple fan?) The model can also be physically created using 3D printing devices, which is where Tinkercad comes into its own, with the ability to export 3D model files for 3D printing.

3D models may be created automatically or manually. The manual modeling process of preparing geometric data for 3D computer graphics is similar to plastic arts, such as sculpting. Now that does sound complicated, right? It’s not. The Tinkercad interface simplifies the manual 3D workflow, allowing you, the Tinkercad user, to manually create your 3D designs and take them all the way to 3D printing.

Tinkercad is classed as 3D modeling software, which is a class of 3D computer graphics software used to produce 3D models. Individual programs of this class are called modeling applications or modelers. Tinkercad is one of several 3D modeling applications or modelers that are provided by the San Francisco–based software company, Autodesk.

Figure 1-1 shows a typical example of 3D design.

Credit: ESO/ERIS Phase A Team

FIGURE 1-1: The ERIS high-resolution camera and spectrograph concept design for ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

3D MODELING IN THE REAL WORLD

As technology and computer hardware have moved forward and become much faster and much more capable, 3D models are now widely used anywhere in 3D graphics and CAD. Their use predates the widespread use of 3D graphics on personal computers nowadays, and many computer games used prerendered images of 3D models as sprites (not the soft drink) before computers could render them in real-time.

Today, 3D models are used in a diverse variety of fields:

• The medical industry uses detailed models of organs, which are created with multiple two-dimensional (2D) image slices from an MRI or CT scan.
• The movie and television industry uses them as characters and objects for animated and real-life motion pictures in film and television (think Avatar, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones).
• The video game industry uses them as assets for computer and video games. If you’ve used an Xbox, a PlayStation 4, or a Nintendo, you’ve used 3D assets in the games you’ve played, regardless of how cartoony or real-life they are.
• The science industry sector uses them as highly detailed models of chemical compounds, such as the human genome project.
• The architecture and construction industry uses them instead of traditional, physical architectural models to demonstrate proposed buildings and landscapes. However, some of those 3D models then become 3D printed models to show the new building or landscape in place i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part 1: Getting Started with Tinkercad
• Part 2: Creating a Simple Nameplate for Your Office
• Part 3: Building Your First Skyscraper, in Miniature
• Part 4: Making It Happen: 3D Printing Your Designs
• Part 5: The Part of Tens
• About the Author
• Advertisement Page
• Connect with Dummies
• Index
• End User License Agreement