3D Printing: Using the new Design tool

 

Challenge: For an experienced student to create an original design using the new Tinkercad tool to add details to it.   

Background: As we start 2025 we want to look to extend our students with their 3D design and not to look to be too repetitive with their projects.  Having already had some of the students for twelve months the idea was to incorporate new designs into the classroom.

We issued a challenge for students to use the new tool in a way that we could add detail or reshape a design..

The student in this case wanted to create something that had the ability to act as a storage for items, like a stylus, and also feature the students name.   The student likes animals and thought the new tool would be able to create whiskers on the outside.   

The profile picture of the design below clearly shows the storage and the detail which allowed this to be created.

As with nearly every single post on this blog the student was working using Tinkercad, an iPad and working independently.

As shown left you can see the hollowing out of the design for storage, how the ears on the cat are angled towards each other to hold a stylus, and the three whiskers which were created with the new tool.

Size: The design measures 95mm across and was 70mm wide.   The design measured 50mm high.  The student wanted something that was not too large and could always be moved from location to location.

Timeframe: Four hours with the default (regular) settings.   The student was pleased with the dimensions and realistically it would have been not as effective if it was smaller and increasing the size would obviously have effected the print time, amount of PLA in use at a time the machines are in high demand due to their usage.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the student: We opted to use a plain base colour, so it could be spray painted.  It was a positive introduction for the student to use the new tool, and it should lead to them using it again in the future