3D Printing Projects for 2026: AR/VR Modelling

 

In 2025 we had a number of projects that our students were involved in, and as part of our planning for 2026 we have started looking at what projects that we might be involving our students in.

Our 2025 Dolls House project involved taking a item that was destined for the rubbish skip and was remodelled, redesigned and rebuilt using our school technology - you can see the overview of the project in this post here.

Recently when visiting local hospice/red cross stores we found an item that potentially we could use for a project work in 2026.   We selected this item for a number of reasons.

Firstly the dimensions of the object are considerably smaller than the dolls house and some of the associated 3D Printing will be subsequently smaller.   When we worked with the Dolls House we essentially laser cut the body while we 3D Printing the matching furniture.    The main building is 30cm by 20cm.  Some of the potential replacement items such as the doors will be 70mm by 90mm.

The building has a farm theme to it.   Our school is in a significant dairy farming area in New Zealand, this will allow the students to consider items and vehicles etc. that they would see at their home location.

There are other features of this item that would lead to potential 3D Printing projects.   There are caps missing on the tops of the chimney, there are holes on the outside of the structure, which would be suited for small vegetation or trees.

The students are going to be starting projects in two tiers this coming year.   Tier one will consist of students who have had no experience with 3D Printing prior to being in the classroom.   The second group of students are tier two students who have had a years experience with using Tinkercad and 3D Printing they will be working on more complex and challenging prints and designs.   

This is the sort of task that the second tier of students will begin the year with.   When the students have completed their initial designs they will follow the process of using the Tinkercads App AR/VR to test their designs and apply it to the item.  This is something that we have completed extensively during 2025 with students using their iPads to use the Tinkercad app to design the object and then AR/VR their designs into locations to check its viability.  You can see a number of examples of this process here on our blog such as the Dolls House Furniture

From this point we will then be selecting certain project pieces to advance to the printing process before we test them in viability.   

Finally the price which we paid for this item was $5.00 at the local charity shop- the fact that pieces are already missing is a bonus, the only regret is that this item has no print markings on it and at this point we have not located the original play set as we would ideally be able to identify what needs to be replaced or designed.