by Andrew Woodruff,
with Mike Kaltschnee, Danbury Hackerspace and CTNext
Mike Kaltschnee returns to show us how to do 3D design. Bring a laptop, treat this evening as a class, and do Mike’s tutorial training steps. At the end of the evening, you will be able to use one brand of free software to design useful items. Mike says this will be “0 to 60 miles per hour in one hour”! Or come without a laptop and just follow along. You will come away from the evening knowing what 3D is all about.
In 3D design, you create a picture of an item that you want to fabricate. The picture shows the shape with all the dimensions and details. The output from your 3D design can go directly to a 3D printer or a laser cutter. A “3D design” is a single picture that includes all the details, rather than the series of views from different directions.
Mike is a cofounder of the Danbury Hackerspace, a non-profit corporation that provides 3D printers and other tools to its members. He has presented at DACS several times. In his 2015 talk “Anyone Can Make a Mobile Application!”, Mike demonstrated how to design a mobile application with simple software that does not require any coding. Mike is a mover and shaker in the Danbury area, and DACS is fortunate that he is presenting to us!
Mike will demonstrate Tinkercad , which is an Autodesk product. Tinkercad is free. And it’s easy to use. No previous “computer aided design” (CAD) experience is necessary. When you use Tinkercad, you start by selecting existing basic shapes (like a cube) and placing these on the picture. You adjust these shapes on the picture, so that each shape either adds or removes material. You can build your design up to a very complicated shape. Then you add exact dimensions. You can also group shapes together to create a model.
This will be the first “interactive DACS general meeting”! You can use any laptop computer, Windows or Mac, or even a Chromebook. All you need is a browser, because Tinkercad is not installed in the computer but rather simply runs in a browser. The hospital will provide guest internet access, and Mike will help attendees to connect to the hospital system. You will need to register a Tinkercad account, and you can set this up at the meeting. You will need to provide your email address and birthday, but the registration does not require a credit card or any commitment.
As I wrote earlier, the output from your 3D design can go directly to a 3D printer or a laser cutter. Mike will explain how you can use his Danbury Hackerspace resources to fabricate the thing that you designed. He will also provide some commercial websites that will fabricate 3D designs for a price.
Mike says his tutorial will include designs of a name tag, a barn and even a chicken. Come wrap your brain around 3D design!
DACS General Meetings begin at 7:30 pm and are free and open to the public. Members and prior attendees are encouraged to extend invitations to anyone interested in this topic. DACS holds its general meetings in the Creasy Auditorium at Danbury Hospital,. There is plenty of free parking in the Rizzo guest parking garage adjacent to the auditorium. Go to dacs.org/directions/ to find directions and parking information.