Dream House (Tinkercad)

1.What did we do?

For this assignment we explored Tinkercad.com! This website allows you to create 3 dimensional structures that you can print out in the 3d printer. We created our “dream houses”.

To make a new creation, these are the instructions:

First, click the new design button, then enter your last name into the top left. You can then drag the shapes into the work area. To make size adjustments, drag the anchor points. The scroll ball on the mouse controls the zoom in and zoom out of the entire work space.

To circle around, see side to side and all around the work space, click and hold the right side of the mouse. Press straight down on the mouse to pan.

Select and press delete on keyboard to get rid of a shape. Click the black cone on top of the shape to move the shape up or down.

Check and spin around to make sure all the pieces fit together and do not have any spaces between. If you have a space there will be an error and it will not print. Spinning around to check is very important through out the process.

How to create a hole or cut out of a shape:

Decide which shape you want to be the positive shape. Then click the zebra striped shape at the top. This will cause one shape to cut into the other.

Select both shapes, shift select or drag mouse and make a square around all of the shapes then click.

Design principles:

Everything needs to have a base. The object builds up with layers. Principle #2 is that anything that extends away from the base of the model needs to be at least 45 degrees because it cannot print out flat with out anything there supporting it.

When we made our dream houses, we thought about what our scale was. If we had stairs, they should match with the scale of the entire structure.

I didn’t finish creating my dream house, but some other students printed theirs out and they turned out pretty neat.

We watched a video where the teacher taught his students about erosion. He had his students make city buildings and put them along the “river” in a sand table. When the water came through, the buildings would fall into the water. This helped his students to understand the concept.

2.What did you learn?

I learned how to make a 3d structure in tinkercad that could be printed out. To me, the process seems tedious but simple. I say tedious because I am not completely used to moving around the objects and manipulating them quickly to make a structure, but that all comes with practice, of course. But overall I really like the idea that I could create something that could be printed out in 3d. There could be a lot of possibilities with this.

3.What do you want to know now?

I’d like to know all of the different things that I could make with 3d printing. Things such as pieces with functioning parts, like a door that has hinges or even a structure that could move like a drawing machine.

I would also like to know how to make a scan of something to print out.

4.How might we work with these tools in classrooms?

The example of the teacher who used 3d printing in his classroom to help the students understand erosion is a good example. 3D printing is a good way for students to learn hands on and see from a different perspective rather than just reading from a paper. It also helps students to think in scale. To me, this project feels a lot like mine craft, Students might feel the same way about it too.

(For my future reference, my login is the same as my txstate login.)