I've been using tinkercad for years and I've never seen the meta fillet! I've always just made my own when needed. I learned something, here. Thanks :)
Also the "tinkercad gets things a little off" issue is with copy/pasting. Its muscle memory for me to drag a solid after pasting it so it snaps to current constraints. If you don't, sometimes it will be off by anywhere from a 1/100th to 1/2 mm. So always drag/snap after paste :)
Thanks, I had not noticed that. The next time I build something in tinkercad I'll remember that. Although I'm starting to play around more with free CAD, going to try to get over the learning curve so I have a nice offline solution.
Perfect timing, I'm just starting to get to grips with Tinkercad right now as a first foray into CAD for 3D printing! I'm thinking that I can make and save some generic boxes with lids, cylinders, connector cutouts etc that can be imported to other projects or modified for future use.
Yep, I've done some of that myself. I have an SO239 and an Anderson power poles cut out up on my thingiverse page that I made in tinker. You can also add those objects to a collection called My designs in the shape selector over on the right. So if you're making something and you need to reference one of your cutouts, it's right there.
Thanks for this video. You got me into 3D printing years ago with one of your videos on Tinkercad. Since then I've many HAM radio things, but I never knew you could dress up the corners like this. I need to revisit a couple designs.
Try playing with the radius and steps controls after your box dimensions are set. You can get some very nice and interesting effects. Then punch a hole in it as shown. Have fun.
Yeah the only problem though is, it universally smooths things, using all edges of the shape. You quickly lose control of dimensions, and you don't have control over any individual edge. So a box ends up rounded on the bottom. But it can be fun for making organic shapes that you're going to paste into something else.
Got another quicker way to replicate this box in TInkercad. Create the square box shape (don't hollow it out yet), apply the outer corner cut fillets of whatever size you want to each corner, rotating as necessary and align to the box solid . Group those together to get your solid box with the rounded corners. Then duplicate the solid box, make it a hole, reduce its size to leave the wall thickness you want, raise the hole to leave the floor thickness you want, select box components, align and group. Boom, easy peasy.
Thanks Kevin. I was having a hell of a time with those. Coming from a cad background, I was getting really frustrated with the differences between the 2D, which I'm used to, and the 3D with it's limitations. Can't you just use the "mirror" key to complete all 4 corners? I'm so used to drawing half of something and then mirroring to complete.
Yes and no. Mirror doesn't work like you're thinking it works in other CAD programs. In tinkercad you'd make a copy of the object and then use the mirror tool to flip that object to a mirror image. Then you'd have to move it into place.
that got me farther than I have ever been in TinkerCAD. Yeah its a little limited, but its free, and it takes no resources on the computer except the web browser. Thanks
Many people that get into 3D printing don't have the time patients or perhaps skill to learn a full-on CAD program. Tinkercad fills a gap, makes creating models for printing accessible to the less technically minded.
Sometimes it's faster to learn a new piece of software than to hack your way through in a program that isn't suitable. I'd suggest you try the new FreeCAD release candidate. The workflow would be something like this: New parametric part New sketch on XY plane. Draw a rectangle Pad the sketch fillet corners select top face, then use thickness to hollow it out. Should take about a minute to make this part. For more complicated stuff, mangojelly has a lot of good tutorials.
You left out the steps of trying to remember which of those 40 to 50 little icons does what, and all those dozens of menus. *Wink* Anything is always easiest in the program you're most familiar with. I've designed stuff in free CAD, in on shape, tinkercad, and blender. There's a lot of people that like tinkercad, they are the target audience for this video.
except for those using the free version, then onshape owns anything you create and it's visible to others. Tinkercad is private unless you choose to make it public, I mean they still own whatever you make but at least you can hide in a see of private files I guess..
thank you! for someone new to 3d printing and tinkercad, this was very helpful and easy to understand.
I've been using tinkercad for years and I've never seen the meta fillet! I've always just made my own when needed. I learned something, here. Thanks :)
Also the "tinkercad gets things a little off" issue is with copy/pasting. Its muscle memory for me to drag a solid after pasting it so it snaps to current constraints. If you don't, sometimes it will be off by anywhere from a 1/100th to 1/2 mm. So always drag/snap after paste :)
Thanks, I had not noticed that. The next time I build something in tinkercad I'll remember that. Although I'm starting to play around more with free CAD, going to try to get over the learning curve so I have a nice offline solution.
Perfect timing, I'm just starting to get to grips with Tinkercad right now as a first foray into CAD for 3D printing! I'm thinking that I can make and save some generic boxes with lids, cylinders, connector cutouts etc that can be imported to other projects or modified for future use.
Yep, I've done some of that myself. I have an SO239 and an Anderson power poles cut out up on my thingiverse page that I made in tinker. You can also add those objects to a collection called My designs in the shape selector over on the right. So if you're making something and you need to reference one of your cutouts, it's right there.
Thanks for this video. You got me into 3D printing years ago with one of your videos on Tinkercad. Since then I've many HAM radio things, but I never knew you could dress up the corners like this. I need to revisit a couple designs.
Happy to hear you've had success and made lots of stuff.
Thanks for the thorough explanation.
Try playing with the radius and steps controls after your box dimensions are set. You can get some very nice and interesting effects. Then punch a hole in it as shown. Have fun.
Yeah the only problem though is, it universally smooths things, using all edges of the shape. You quickly lose control of dimensions, and you don't have control over any individual edge. So a box ends up rounded on the bottom. But it can be fun for making organic shapes that you're going to paste into something else.
Got another quicker way to replicate this box in TInkercad. Create the square box shape (don't hollow it out yet), apply the outer corner cut fillets of whatever size you want to each corner, rotating as necessary and align to the box solid . Group those together to get your solid box with the rounded corners. Then duplicate the solid box, make it a hole, reduce its size to leave the wall thickness you want, raise the hole to leave the floor thickness you want, select box components, align and group. Boom, easy peasy.
Thanks Kevin. I was having a hell of a time with those. Coming from a cad background, I was getting really frustrated with the differences between the 2D, which I'm used to, and the 3D with it's limitations. Can't you just use the "mirror" key to complete all 4 corners? I'm so used to drawing half of something and then mirroring to complete.
Yes and no. Mirror doesn't work like you're thinking it works in other CAD programs. In tinkercad you'd make a copy of the object and then use the mirror tool to flip that object to a mirror image. Then you'd have to move it into place.
Thanks!
that got me farther than I have ever been in TinkerCAD. Yeah its a little limited, but its free, and it takes no resources on the computer except the web browser. Thanks
Hi Kevin!
From E.Allen Co.
👋🏻👍🏻
That’s a lot work to get something simple done. I use Inventor, Solidworks and Alibre
Many people that get into 3D printing don't have the time patients or perhaps skill to learn a full-on CAD program. Tinkercad fills a gap, makes creating models for printing accessible to the less technically minded.
Sometimes it's faster to learn a new piece of software than to hack your way through in a program that isn't suitable.
I'd suggest you try the new FreeCAD release candidate. The workflow would be something like this:
New parametric part
New sketch on XY plane.
Draw a rectangle
Pad the sketch
fillet corners
select top face, then use thickness to hollow it out.
Should take about a minute to make this part. For more complicated stuff, mangojelly has a lot of good tutorials.
You left out the steps of trying to remember which of those 40 to 50 little icons does what, and all those dozens of menus. *Wink*
Anything is always easiest in the program you're most familiar with.
I've designed stuff in free CAD, in on shape, tinkercad, and blender. There's a lot of people that like tinkercad, they are the target audience for this video.
To me this is more complicated as FreeCAD :)
lol, that's traumatic.......i'll stick to nice, easy, onshape and do it way more quickly
except for those using the free version, then onshape owns anything you create and it's visible to others. Tinkercad is private unless you choose to make it public, I mean they still own whatever you make but at least you can hide in a see of private files I guess..