Digital Fabrication
What is it?
Two popular ways to fabricate something is through 3D printing or laser cutting. In this project you can choose either one. Use this tutorial to learn fabrication through 3D printing or laser cutting. In this project, you will design an ornament for hanging on a window, a car rearview mirror, or anywhere!
Imagine
To get started, it is best to sketch a design on paper. Don't worry about being too precise, that's what the computer does so well.
Even though this is a basic sketch, it's always good to think about the overall size and approximate dimensions of your design.
Sketch Your Ideas
Sketch several designs using the design linked to the right. If you are home, you can download and print the sheet (linked right). You can always use a scrap piece of paper too.
TIP: Sketch lightly with pencil and ONLY sketch the outlines of the shape.
Create
If this is your first time using TinkerCad, you'll need to go through the first tutorial called "Learning the Moves" We suggest you run through the lesson at least once, it will prove helpful.
Click on Create a new design.
Click SIGN IN USING SOCIAL PROVIDERS (see image right) and select GOOGLE and login with your HKIS account
What you need:
Ideas, perseverance, and patience
paper & pencil for sketching ideas
laptop with Internet connection
Shared Google Drive folder titled firstname lastname [Design]. Share it with ideastudio@hkis.edu.hk
www.tinkercad.com account (HKIS Google account)
3D printer or laser cutter (available in the IDEA Studio)
Add a Basic Shape
Select a shape from the Basic Shapes menu and drag it onto the workplane (see image right). Scroll through the menu to find other interesting shapes
Resize the Shape
Click on the shape you want to adjust and use the white squares (handles) to click + drag to resize. You can also click on the value and type in the exact dimensions (mm).
Adjusting Height
To change the height, click + drag on the top-center handle, again, you can click the value and type in the height needed.
Add More Shapes
To make your design more interesting, add more shapes. Select a shape from one of the menus to the right and drag it onto the Workplane. Shapes can be combined or grouped together to create new shapes.
Move Shapes
Click + drag shapes to arrange them in different patterns or new shapes. You can also rotate a shape by using the arrows, you can rotate them in 3-dimensions (x, y, z). To rotate large angles (15°) click + drag the arrow close to the shape, for more control (1° increments) click + drag further away from the shape.
Group Shapes
To combine shapes, move shapes adjacent to or overlapping each other and click the Group button.
Change a shape to a "hole" to create a hole or edit another shape
Select shapes you want together, then click the Group tool.
Notice that the group tool seems to make "hole" shapes disappear, they are still visible when the Ungroup tool is clicked.
Align Tool
Shapes can be aligned by their edges or centered, vertically and horizontally. This is a handy tool for getting shapes in line.
Select each shape you want to align
Click the Align tool. Hover over the black dots to preview the alignment. Click the black dots to align.
Prepare Your Design for Fabrication
The last step before fabricating your design is to save and export your design in a format that can be printed or cut. Be sure to Group all the parts before you export your creation.
Create a Google Drive folder with your name and [Design] after it, like this Ada Lovelace [Design]
Share the folder with ideastudio@hkis.edu.hk
Group Objects
Group all objects by Shift+click and click the Group button.
Export
Export the grouped object to your design folder created above. Be sure to save your design for your desired fabrication format:
3D Printing = .STL - Stereolithiography files are a format for 3D printers
Laser Cutting = .SVG - Scalable Vector Graphic can be used for laser cutting and many other graphical design applications
Be sure to save the file in the Google Drive folder you just created.
Burning Question Tag
Design a bag tag that poses a burnin question for others to ponder.
Cookie Cutters
Design a custom cookie cutter to 3D print and use to make yummy cookies. This Mr. Toast cookie was decorated by Mr. Geisbrecht and the cutter was designed by Mr. Smith