a little bit of

TINKERCAD
By
Annie
2015

TinkerCAD
Imagine being able to print your own
products, custom made to meet your
personal needs.Due to the invention of
TinkerCAD it is now a possibility.
TinkerCad is an effortless program
used to design 3D objects that are
ready for printing.

TinkerCAD is a computer aided design program that lets

you create, view and design digital models online that
can be 3D printed. TinkerCAD allows you to share your
3D designs on Twitter, Facebook, Thingiverse, Shapeways
and Ponoko. This creates an interesting, online
community. No longer do people have to keep their
designs private they can amaze others and receive
great feedback that will help improve their own tinkering
skills.
TinkerCAD is based online and
browsers that work well with
TinkerCAD is Google Chrome 10 or a
newer version and Mozilla Firefox 4 or
newer. It is important that you also
have the correct operating system so
you can be sure that TinkerCAD will
function correctly; these include
Microsoft Windows Vista or newer,
Apple OS X 10.6 or newer and Google
Chrome OS on Chromebook. Most
people have access to either one of
these providing them with the
opportunity to unlock their great
design potential. TinkerCAD is easily
accessible and an easy modelling
program.

TinkerCAD is a very new form of simple modelling. The

founder of TinkerCAD was Kai Backman who in 2009
began research into the new 3D printing technology. He
observed how his frustration began to rise when it was
very difficult to design even the simplest objects. There
were many computers aided design programs around at
that time, but none of them were child-friendly or easy to
use. One year later he realised that this problem was
occurring to a lot of people so he and his workforce
friend; Mikko Mononen, founded TinkerCAD. Without these
two peoples influence 3D printing would not have been
an option for household or school printing.

TinkerCAD is a simple to use programme that has a few

instructions involved. To begin the process of designing a
model you simply need to create a free account on
TinkerCAD. This account allows you to create and view
models, share your models and view others models. After
logging in you will be immediately taken to your account
where all your designs will be saved. To create a new
design you have to press new design and you will be
transferred to an empty workplace.

A number of 3D shapes and holes will be in the main

menu including numbers and letters. You can drag these
objects into the workplace to change their dimensions
and rotate them by clicking on them.TinkerCAD also
provides holes which are shapes that can remove parts
from other objects. These are proved to be very useful
when making some models. To change your view, you
simply click the arrows in the top left-hand corner. To
zoom in and out click the plus and minus also in the top
left-hand corner. All designs will automatically be saved
to your account.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to the

TinkerCAD programme. TinkerCAD is a free programme
that only requires the internet connection and a web
browser. Only requiring these needs, TinkerCAD is easily
accessed and provides people with the opportunity to
unlock their designing potential. Designs can also be
exported into a variety of files for 3D printing which
include STL, OBJ and VRML. TinkerCAD models are not
just for 3D printing. You can export files into SVG for
laser cutting and Minecraft. Another advantage to
TinkerCAD is the ability to group a number of shapes so
they can become a single shape or ungroup them so
they can become lots of individual shapes for 3D
printing.

Also being provided with pre-made objects that are

clearly labelled saves a lot of time and make the job
easier. If you are serious about TinkerCAD it has many
measuring tools to measure shapes length and density
to create specific size objects. The largest advantage,
however, is that there is no software to download which
can save a lot of time and money.Although TinkerCAD is
amazing there are a few disadvantages to consider.
These include the problem of limitations like the inability
to draw on the workplace and the struggle to get a
good view of the model. Designs access can also be
limited as they are only saved online and it can be
difficult to design complicated shapes. For example, if
you want to resize, revolve or align any shape you have
to do it with the manually and you are incapable of
entering specific values.

TinkerCAD is the future of 3D printing. According

to a survey that was recently taken is that 13 out
of 25 people agree that some things are easy on
TinkerCAD and 8 out of 25 people believe that it
is definitely the future.Only three people
disagrees with these statements. TinkerCAD will
create a new, easier way of life. Everyday utility
objects will be available at the tip of your finger.

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