3D printing is all the rage in the Maker community these days. I am itching myself to own both a desktop CNC and 3D printer, but haven’t found the time yet.
One of the biggest hurdles is actually not in the hardware, but at the software end. There are lots of hurdles at the hardware end, but without the ability to create and export designs, those issues are moot.There is a new option available to solve the software problem. It is called TinkerCad. You don’t have to install any software either. Just go to their website and start designing. They even have a video showing how easy it is. It really is that easy. It is kind of like playing with toy blocks, except they are resizeable.
Once you have a finished design, you can then export it directly to 3D print vendors such as Ponoko. They are even running a contest for those using TinkerCad.
Why wait any longer. Give it a try and get started printing today. I am.
UPDATE: I cannot get this HTML5 application to work on either Linux Ubuntu computers, nor older Windows XP machines. If you have any experience with TinkerCAD, please share it below.
2nd UPDATE: TinkerCad still doesn’t work on a Linux box with AMD/ATI graphics, but I have found a new 3D web app called 3DTin.com. It seems to work flawlessly so far, and is very quick. I recommend it.
Getting Started in 3D Printing the Easy Way by Provide Your Own is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
One Comment
Tinkercad sounds great, I love the idea of being able to design at whatever computer I am currently working on, regardless of whether I have the appropriate software installed. Shame about the problems with Linux Ubuntu though.