3D Printing

How do I design 3D objects?

To the right you'll find our YouTube Playlist for designing in Tinkercad. We'll continue to update and expand our favorite videos throughout the school year.

What if I want to 3D print something for personal use?

At this time, we ask that everything we print be used for educational purposes.

Why did my 3D design not print correctly?

3D design involves learning, and seeing a fault 3D print is one of the most important steps that we'll never take away from the learning process. Whatever you send to us, we'll print, even if it doesn't appear just as you sent it.

With that being said, there are a lot of things to take into account when your designing in three dimensions, but the most important is understanding gravity. Think of 3D printers as fancy hot glue guns. You can adhere to a surface, then build layer upon layer. However, if there is no bottom layer for the filament to adhere to, then you get some serious droops and what looks like a bird's nest. There are a few ways to work around this: learn about overhangs and how to design with them in mind, and also understand that you can design and print in sections. Your 3D design doesn't have to be one whole piece, but instead can be a series of pieces to be assembled in the post-production phase.