Refining and Redesigning the Christmas Tree

Challenge: Students 3D Printed a Christmas Tree can they use the example and redesign it to improve its features and presentation.

We mentioned this design briefly - the student wanted to create a unique Christmas Tree design using Tinkercad and did so.   When they had completed it we got them to think critically about the final print, what they had produced, its dimensions, lettering and other details.   Our challenge to the students was how can this be improved? What can we adapt from this design?

The students first task was to look at the dimensions - the original was 60mm wide and the lettering as a result was clustered and hard to read.  By increasing the base size to 120mm the lettering could be doubled which made it much clearly and easy to read.   The other change was the presentation of the lettering.  

In the original on the left the lettering extended out from the print this lacked the clarity and detail which was achieved by placing the lettering inside the design as shown on the right.   

The original design was 120mm high the redesign was 140mm but it was the width of the design where the improvement in scale was made.

The link at the top of the design was significantly increased as well - we had the ability to have the original looped however we increase the size of it.   Finally the last aspect of it was the baubles.  

There was a consequence increase in the length of the print time - the improve tree took four hours to print which would be near the top end for this piece given the intentions of it.