Create a Balloon Powered Car

Air power has been harnessed for centuries to power the sails of boats or create the mechanical motion of a windmill. In this project, you will harness the power of air captured in a balloon to power a 3D printed car you are going to design and print. In this project you will:

- Design a body for your 3D printed car.

- Create a path for air to exit the balloon in a way that will power your car.

- Create wheels and axles for your car to roll on.

Step 1: Car Body and Axle

Place a box on the workplane and size it to be 20mm wide, 60mm long, and 20mm tall.

Place a cylinder on the workplane and size it to 11mm in diameter and 25mm tall.

Change the cylinder to a hole.

Rotate the cylinder 90° so the long direction crosses long ways through the body.

Select the box and cylinder and align them to the bottom of the box, the end of the box and the center of the box. Tip: See the image above to see where the hole should be positioned.

Rotate your view to look at the model from the side, and change Snap Grid to 1mm. Tip: The snap grid can be changed in the lower right corner of the graphics window.

Select the cylinder and press the left arrow key on the keyboard 5 times. This will move the hole 5mm to the left away from the end of the box.

With the cylinder still selected use the black arrow on top to lift the cylinder up away from the workplane 3mm.

Duplicate the first axle hole by selecting Duplicate button on the toolbar.

Change the snap grid to 5mm.

Press the left arrow 8 times to move the second axle to the opposite end of the car.This will move the second axle 40mm from the first. (8 arrow presses x 5mm movement with each press = 40mm)

Select all the shapes and group them into a single item.

Step 2: Make Your Car More Aerodynamic

Place a wedge shape on the work plane and size it to be 5mm tall, 20mm wide, and 40mm long.

Change the wedge to a hole, and rotate it to match the image.

Rotate the wedge 180° so the flat face that is on the workplane is facing upwards.

Select the car body and the wedge and align them to the maximum on the left, to the maximum toward the top of the car and to the center width wise. Tip: See image for specific position.

Select both shapes and group them into a single item.

Place another wedge shape on the workplane and size it to 20mm wide, 10mm long and 15mm tall.

Rotate the wedge 90° counter clockwise on the Workplane.

Select both shapes and align them to the center of the car width wise.

Set the snap grid to 1mm and after selecting only the wedge, use the arrow keys to position the wedge at the front of the car.

Select both shapes and group them into a single item.

Step 3: Create the Balloon Connector

Place a workplane on the flat area on the top of the body (near the back of the body).

Drag a Cylinder to the workplane and size it to 14mm in diameter and 10mm tall.

Place a second cylinder in the center of the previous cylinder and size it to 23mm in diameter and 3mm tall.

Select both cylinders and align them vertically, then align them to the top.

With both cylinders selected group them into a single object.

Reset your workplane, by selecting the Workplane tool and clicking in the white area of the workspace.

Select the grouped cylinders and the car, then align them to be centered horizontally on the body of the car, and so the cylinders are flush to the high end.

Select the Balloon Connector and the Car body and group them into a single item.

Step 4: Create a Path for the Air

Drag in a Torus

In the torus settings dialogue, change the Radius to 15, Tube to 1, and change it to a Hole.

Rotate 90 Degrees so the torus stands up similar to a wheel, the press the D key on your keyboard to place the base of the torus on the workplane.

Click the car body, and turn the color transparent.

Move the torus so that one end is coming out of the center of the balloon connector at the top of the car, and the other end is coming out of the back of the car. Tip: It may help to start by Aligning the torus and car to be horizontally aligned, then changing to a front view and using the left/right arrow keys to move left and right and the black cone to move the torus up and down. You can find a pretty good center by doing this. You can also switch from Perspective view to Orthographic if you're having trouble finding a good viewing angle.

NOTE: Make sure the air channel doesn't break through to the axle opening or all the air will escape into the axle and your car will not move forward.

Select the car body and the torus and group them into a single item.

Step 5: Create First Wheel for Your Car

Place a cylinder on the workplane and size it to 20mm in diameter and 10mm tall.

Place a second cylinder on the workplane and size it to 10.5mm in diameter and 10.5mm tall. Tip: If using the sizing boxes to change diameter, set the grid snap to 0.5 to size the cylinder to the 10.5mm, alternatively click the box for the direction you want to change, then click into the number dimension and type in 10.5 on the keyboard.

Change the second cylinder to a hole.

Select both cylinders and align them vertically.

Group both shapes into a single item to cut the hole through the wheel.

Step 6: Create Axle and Other Wheel

Place a cylinder on the workplane and size it to 10mm in diameter and 45mm tall.

Select the cylinder and wheel and align them vertically.

Change wheel color to black and axle to silver.

Select the wheel and click Duplicate in the toolbar.

Hold the Shift key on the keyboard and select the axle in addition to the wheel.

Click the Align tool, then click the axle to align the Wheel to the other end of the axle without moving the axle.

Step 7: Position the Axle

Select both wheels and the axle and group them into a single object. This is a temporary group to help while positioning the axle.

Rotate the axle and wheel 90 degrees to line up with the axle hole.

Turn off transparency on the body and set the axle transparent.

Use the align tool to align the axle along the width of the car body.

Set the snap grid to .5mm for better movement control, set view to front, and use the black triangle and left right arrow keys to center axle in the hole of the car. Tip: Use Orthographic view while looking straight on from the side of the car to easily line them up.

Once the axle is in the proper position, select all the shapes in the design, including the body and the axles and press D on the keyboard to lift them to the workplane.

Step 8: Create the Front Axle

Select the rear axle group and click duplicate on the toolbar.

Move the new axle into position on the front axle hole.

When in position select both of the axle groups, turn off transparency then select ungroup.

Step 9: Finished in Tinkercad

With this, the Tinkercad design is finished. The next series of modifications that need to be made to the car will be easier to accomplish Fusion 360. So that is where we will go next!

Step 10: Send to Fusion

Open Fusion 360 and sign in. Once opened, go back to Tinkercad. Note: There’s a lot of features in Fusion 360 that will allow us to take this design to the next level. The next few steps will demonstrate a couple.

Click Send To in Tinkercad, then click Autodesk Fusion 360 from the dialogue menu.

Ensure Include Everything option is selected then click Open in Fusion 360. Tip: Keep an eye out for confirmation dialogue boxes if you've never done this before.

Once project opens in fusion 360, click Save from the file dropdown. Note: This will save to your Default Project folder unless you create a new project folder and save it there.

Open folder on the left to see where your project is saved.

Close the Data Panel (where your saved project is), by clicking the X, or the 9 squares icon to Hide Data Window. Tip: If you need to open the Data Panel in the future, just click the 9 squares on the top left of the screen to unhide.

Step 11: Chamfers and Fillets

Select top edge on front of car, then click Fillet from the Modify menu. Note: Adding Chamfers and Fillets can be very difficult with complex shapes in Tinkercad, but Fusion 360 can handle these tasks without much effort.

Click and drag the Arrow to change the radius of the Fillet to whatever you like, then click OK.

Alternatively enter a value into the Edge dialogue box, this example uses 38mm.

Make sure nothing is selected, then click Fillet. Holding shift, click through to select all the edges outlining the top of the car.

Drag the arrow to 1mm or enter it into the Edge field, and click OK.

Click Fillet one last time, select the outer round edges of the tires, and set the fillet to 1.5mm.

Select the round edge on the underside of the Balloon Connector, then click the modify dropdown and select Chamfer.

Set the Chamfer to 4.5mm. Note: You can also adjust the Chamfer for the input and output holes where the balloon will connect. What do you think will offer the most thrust?

Step 12: Changing the Appearance

Click the Design Dropdown Menu and select the Render workspace. Note: Next we’re going to look at adding realistic materials and textures to the model in order to capture a more realistic render.

From the Render toolbar, click Appearance.

Search for Black Leather in the Appearance dialogue menu, and scroll down to find Leather - Matte (Black). Tip: If any of the colors have an arrow pointing down to the right of them, it means that you need to download them to use in your model. Click the down arrow to download.

Click and drag the Leather - Matte (Black) over one of your wheels and release. Repeat for the other three wheels. All four wheels should have some texture now. Note: Appearance only changes what the model looks like, it doesn't change the surface of the model in any way.

Repeat the above search and color application to apply Aluminum - Polished to both axles, and Paint - Metallic (Red) to the body of the car. Then click Close when done.

Step 13: Updating the Scene

Click Scene Setting in the Render toolbar.

In the Settings Tab change the Background dropdown to Environment. Tip: Feel free to play with the other settings in this menu. You can change a lot of aspects of the camera, and how the model will interact with the environment.

Click the Environment Library tab, and right click Dry lake bed, and click Apply to Scene. Tip: You can download scenes the same way you downloaded colors previously. Click Close when done.

Step 14: Rendering

Rotate and Zoom to position the car to take a picture.

Click In Canvas Render and wait for iterations to finish.

Click Capture Image in the Render toolbar to save the image. Tip: Use the checkboxes to either save to your computer or the cloud.

Step 15: Sending Files to 3D Print

Use the Render drop down to go back to Design workspace. Note: You can also export to STL from Tinkercad, but Fusion 360 provides more options and allows for finer details if needed.

Click the Utilities tab in the toolbar, then click the 3D Print in the Make Dropdown.

Select the body of the car. Tip: You can click Preview Mesh option and adjust Refinement to fine tune how accurate you want your STL file to be.

Make sure Send to 3D Print Utility is Unchecked, and click OK. Note: A save dialogue will pop up, and you can select which folder to save the body STL to. E. If you have a Slicer for a 3D printer installed on your computer use you can leave the Send to 3D Print Utility checked and select your slicer from the drop down, or select custom and click the folder below to find your slicers executable.

Repeat the above for each of the parts that you want to 3D print, then pull them into your Slicer of choice to slice them for your 3D printer. Tip: if you want to create STLs for all parts at once, Right click your main assembly (the top of the list on the left side of your modeling workspace). Click Save as Mesh and the same dialogue will come up from before with one extra dropdown: Structure. Change the dropdown to One File Per Body and when saved a STL will be created for every body in the file.

Step 16: Congratulations!

If you've followed along to this point, congrats! You should have a good understanding of some of the basics of Fusion 360 and be able to export files from Tinkercad to Fusion 360 with ease, and make quick adjustments. As you get more confident in Fusion 360 you can start to explore the other functionality. Remember, you can always undo your last action, and if all else fails, you can re-export from Tinkercad.