7P7-3D Design

I used the website Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com/) to design my 3d model. Tinkercad had a library of shapes that I used to get my base, stem, top, and slides. But for the holes where the springs are and where the slides fit, I had to use the function 'hole' on my shapes. Once I was satisfied with the way my design looked I set them apart and grouped them so they would both be printed but would not be connected to each other. Then I exported my design as an Stl. and turned it in to google classroom. Although Mr. Renner, my teacher, had to send it back for some fixes in the way it was laid on the printing plain so I fixed that and turned that Stl. in again. Once it was turned in Mr. Renner printed it with his 3d printer. After it was finished I took the springs out of 4 pens and used those because they were small enough. Finally, my last step for making this project, naturally, was playing with it.

While I was making my 3d fidget I learned a ton of things, most of which was vocabulary. The first thing I learned was what an Stl. was, this is a file format created by 3d systems that allows you to save 3d objects. I also learned that there is a snap grid, a snap grid is that as you move your objects it will only move in those increments on the printing plain. With this I learned that you can change that snap grid to whatever measure you want or you can even turn it off which helped me a lot.

Of the 7 standards that Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students has set  (Empowered Learner, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker, Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator) my project ties Innovative Designer. This is because I was using Tinkercad, an online website throughout this entire project. I also came up with an original idea that solved a problem, that problem being my habit of biting my nails my design solved this by giving me something else for my hands to do. My final reason is that over the course of this project there were multiple times that I was double and triple checking the measurements to make sure that it would work properly.

In this project I had a good idea of what I wanted to do and how to do it, but there were some hitches along the way. For instants, I turned in my Stl. the way I thought it would print but Mr. Renner explained to me that I needed to rotate the top of fidget so that a stronger part of my design was on the printing plain. This made me realize that for two small points cannot hold up something heavy. Another example was that I could not 3d print springs that would work for my project so I had to get pens and steal their spring. (thank you pens!)

Given a chance to do this again I would have the springs ready as soon as it was printed, I did have to glue the springs in after the first day so I would do that sooner. I really liked my design and I was bummed when the stem broke of the base, this was an accident by one of my classmates but it made me think that if it really was a great design then it should be durable. So, Given a chance to do this again I would get my springs glued right away, and design the stem so that is is sturdier.

The Hastings High School Career and Technical Education Program offers Agriculture, Business Management, Computer Programming, Construction Trades, Culinary Arts, Digital Multimedia, Engineering Design, Finance, Insurance, and Marketing. My project connects to Construction Trades, in the CTE program at Hastings High School. My 3d design helped prepare me for careers such as biology and scientific modeling, 3d CAD modeling, 3d design. and architecture/construction modeling.