3D Chinese Zodiac Medallion in Tinkercad
Today you will create a Chinese zodiac medallion using Inkscape and Tinkercad. Before you leave, you will 3D print your design.
Design Goals
A diamond-shaped medallion, 42.4mm x 42.4mm x 5mm
(30mm x 30mm x 5mm if rotated to resemble a square)
3D object with designs on two sides
Vertically standing object that prints without supports in under 20 minutes
Learning Outcomes
Tracing images in Inkscape to generate SVGs
Creating a Tinkercad account for future use
Importing an SVG into Tinkercad to create a 3D object
Designing an object with images on both sides
Emphasis on Align tool in Tinkercad
Rotating an object in Makerbot Desktop to get cleaner details on your print
Find your Chinese zodiac sign, Record the animal that corresponds with your year.
Refer to the chart below and locate your birth year. Write down the animal that represents that year.
Note: Chinese years end between early January and mid-February. If you were born in that range or your year is not listed, check the Wikipedia page for the Chinese zodiac to verify your sign.
Download Favorable Chinese Characters folder, Choose your character.
Refer to the character chart below and find the character you'd like to have on one side of your medallion.
Download the zipped folder of characters attached at the bottom of the this page.
Unzip the folder, and drag your preferred character out onto the Desktop.
Search for an animal image that represents your sign.
Return to your browser.
Open Google Images (images.google.com/) and search for your animal followed by the word silhouette, vector, or outline.
Important Note: Today's workshop has many steps, try not to spend too much time looking for an image.
Click the image you like, click View Image or View original image next to the preview.
Right-click the image, choose the option from the drop-down that looks like Save As, Save Target As, or Save Image As.
Choose Desktop as the save location, rename the file if necessary, click Save.
Open the image in Inkscape.
Return to your Desktop. Right-click the image, choose Inkscape from the dropdown menu to open it in an Inkscape window.
If you're on a Mac, right-click your image > hover over Open With > select Inkscape.
Trace the image.
Click your image to select it - your image will be surrounded by black arrows and a dashed box.
Click Path > Trace Bitmap
Lower Scans to 2. Select Grays. Check the box next to Remove background. Click Update.
Review the scan. If it’s usable, click OK, then click X to exit. If not, increase the number of scans or find a new image.
Delete the original bitmap/JPG/PNG.
There are now two+ copies of the original image, click-drag the copies off to the side.
Double-click to reveal nodes - these are an indication that the image has paths.
You can also zoom in (+ on the keyboard) to see the difference between the original and traced image.
Keep the best copy with nodes/paths and delete the rest.
Scale your image.
Return to the Select tool by clicking on the black arrow at the top of the lefthand menu.
With your image selected, click the open yellow lock at the top of the window to close it.
Make sure px is selected as the unit.
Change the larger of the two values next to W (Width) and H (Height) to 14 – your image will shrink.
Hit 3 on your keyboard to zoom in on the image.
Resize your workspace.
With your image still selected, click File > Document Properties.
Under Custom size, click Resize page to content… > Resize page to drawing or selection.
Click X to exit.
Save your file as an SVG.
Click File > Save. Choose Desktop as save location, choose SVG from dropdown, click Save. Close window.
Sign into TinkerCad in Firefox, Create New design.
Open a new tab in Firefox, go to Tinkercad (www.tinkercad.com) and sign in, or create an account.
If you create a new account, exit the practice lesson by selecting the TinkerCad logo in the upper left corner.
In the Dashboard window, select Create new design.
Get acquainted with the menu and tools.
• To move shapes, click-drag avoiding arrows and black/white cubes.
• To resize shapes, click-drag the black cubes (one dimension) or white cubes (two dimensions).
• The white cube at the center/top of your shape will change the height.
• If you hold down the the SHIFT key while resizing, your shape will scale proportionally
on all three axes.
• Raise/lower shapes with the black cone.
• To rotate shapes, click, hold and drag the double-headed curved arrows.
Create your first box, Rotate it to change it into a diamond.
Click-drag a Box out from the Geometric menu to the Workplane.
Using the cube handles, change the dimensions to L:30 W:30 H:5.
Click-drag the lower left rotation handle and rotate the box (+/-) 45 degrees.
Create a second box, Rotate it.
Change the Snap grid value at the bottom right of the screen to 0.5 – everything will move around the grid and scale up/down in increments of 0.5mm.
Create a box with L: 20, W: 20, H: 1.5 to the left of the original diamond.
Rotate the box (+/-) 45 degrees to create a smaller diamond.
Turn the smaller diamond into a hole, Duplicate it.
With your smaller diamond selected, click Hole in the Inspector menu – it will become transparent.
Hold down ALT and click-drag a new smaller diamond off to the right side of the larger original diamond.
Align the left diamond-shaped hole to the larger solid diamond.
Click-drag a selection box around the left diamond-shaped hole and the larger diamond.
Click Adjust > Align.
Click the larger diamond to set it as an anchor – it will not shift around and the other shape will align to it.
Change your perspective (right-click and drag) to get a view similar to the picture below and click all of the black circles that are marked. This will center both objects horizontally and vertically, and align to the top edge of the larger diamond.
If elements are aligned, the black handles will be grayed out.
Group the diamonds.
With the overlapping diamonds selected, click Group in the top menu to remove the smaller diamond.
Import the favorable Chinese character.
Move both remaining diamonds away from the center of the Workplane.
Under Import in right-hand menu, click Choose File, locate your SVG file, and click Open.
Change Height to 2, click Import.
Align your character to the larger diamond.
Click-drag a selection box around the character and larger diamond.
Click Adjust > Align.
Just as before, center along the horizontal and vertical axes and align the top edges.
If your character looks a little off balance after you use the Align tool, select the character and tap the directional keys on your keyboard to reposition it.
Group your character and the larger diamond.
With your character and larger diamond selected, click Group in the top menu to merge them.
Rotate the larger diamond.
With your larger diamond selected, click-drag the top floating rotation handle, rotate (+/-) 180 degrees.
Align the right diamond-shaped hole to the larger solid diamond, Group them.
As before, use the Align tool with the remaining diamonds.
Click Group.
Import your Chinese zodiac animal SVG.
• As before, use the Import menu to upload your animal SVG.
Align your animal shape to the remaining diamond, Group them.
As before, use the Align tool with the animal and diamond shapes.
If your animal shape seems too small, hold down SHIFT and resize it with the black cube handles to keep the design centered. Realign your shapes.
If you want to move your animal shape, select it and use the directional keys to reposition it.
Group both shapes.
Create a hanging hole.
Under Holes, click-drag out a Cylinder. Squish the cylinder to 3mm in length and width – leave height alone.
Click-drag the cylinder to position it where you want your hanging hole.
Group everything.
Hit (CTRL + A) to select everything, hit (CTRL + G) to group everything and set the hole.
Download your medallion.
Click Design > Properties and change the name of your file, click Save changes.
Click Design > Download for 3D Printing > STL > Save your model to the Desktop.
Open your STL file in Makerbot Desktop.
Open the Start Menu > double-click Makerbot Desktop.
Click Add File in the top right menu.
Locate your file on the Desktop, click Open.
Click Move to Platform.
Rotate your model.
Click your model, it's selected when it has a yellow outline.
Click Rotate twice to open the menu.
Type -45.0 next to Z, hit ENTER.
Click +90° next to Y.
Click Lay Flat.
Click the X to close the window.
Why are we rotating the model?
A Makerbot Replicator 2 has a set nozzle diameter of 0.4mm. It prints layers with a vertical resolution ranging from 0.1-0.4mm. Any horizontal details with a resolution lower than 0.4mm will be eliminated from the finished print - corners will not be sharp, small elements will disappear entirely.
By rotating the object, we slice it up into several more layers to keep our details crisp.
Compare the images below - both are shots of the same file with the same print settings, but the first is flat on the buildplate, and the other is is vertically oriented.
We have to wait a bit longer for the print, but we get a better looking product and eliminate the need for support material.
Change the settings.
Click Setting in the top right menu.
Look at the picture and make sure your settings match the marked areas.
Click Save Settings.
Export the File.
Click Print in the top right menu.
Click Export Now.
Save your file to the Desktop.
We'll come around and collect the files on SD cards.
Survey!
Please fill out a survey to help us improve our workshops and learn about makerspaces in libraries.
Thanks for visiting!