Digital Design and 3D Printing
Below you will find interactive activities and videos about 3D printing and how to use the free 3D design software Tinkercad.
3D Printing: The Basics
Learn the basics of 3D printing.
Watch a 3D printer in action!
Look more closely at the process.
What can I build?
You can build anything that your heart desires. Here are some examples of designs being built in Tinkercad.
Make an Eiffel Tower!
Make a Rocket!
Build a Snowman!
Make an Ice Cream!
Make a Bowl!
Interactive tutorials:
Getting started in Tinkercad
After completing the activities above to help you get started using Tinkercad, you may want to follow along with these tutorials to better prepare you to design manipulatives of your own.
A beginner’s Tinkercad Tutorial.
An amazingly simple house!
A Tinkercad Jet!
Importing design
and image files into Tinkercad
You can 3D print from Tinkercad pretty easily in a couple of different ways. If you have a printer at home or at a local makerspace, just download the STL file from either your dashboard by clicking the model thumbnail or from within the editor. Just click Design -> Download for 3D Printing. STL is the standard file for most single-color printers, so start with that.
How to download STL files from TinkerCAD to 3D print.
Another tutorial on how to download STL files from TinkerCAD to 3D print.
How to import an image into Tinkercad in order to create an object.
You may also enjoy these 3D design tutorials from our friends and collaborators in the MIX Lab at Montclair State University.