Introduction: How to 3D Design a Model of the Toronto City Skyline in TinkerCAD: Scene
When I found out about the Instructables Tinkercad student design contest back in Canada Day 2020, I decided to make a model in the Scene category. the Toronto skyline, because, what better way to celebrate Canada Day, than to design a 3D model of a famous Canadian city's iconic skyline!
Its really too bad that this model is simply too big to 3d print in full scale but it looks good anyway.
If you want to, you can go check out my models of the skyline on TinkerCAD:
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/iv56WOhEewK-upsca...
Other Links in final step, or go check out my TinkerCAD account, Poly-CAD Designs
Supplies
You will need
- A Computer that can access the internet
- A TinkerCAD Account
- Reasonable knowledge of 3D Object Manipulation (in other words, how to make more complex 3D objects from more basic ones)
- A 2D image of the Toronto Skyline to reference off of and a 3D one to check your proportioning
- A lot of patience, because this project will take several days at best, several weeks to a month if you are either not experienced, or extremely detail oriented [like me :D ]
(Optional)
- Cura (or other) Slicer Software and a 3D printer (if you want to 3D print the scene, which I highly don't recommend if you want a detailed print.
Step 1: Get Started
First, start a blank project in Tinkercad (the first image on the left),
You will need to set up a TinkerCAD account if you already don't have one, as this project will probably take several days at best.
Then google search for some good images of the skyline, so you'd know what you were making (in a 2d version)
This next step is totally optional but I do recommend it as it allows you to visualize the skyline in a 3D Way: once you have a 2D image, find a 3d version of the skyline (third image), so you'd know where exactly the buildings and structures were positioned.
Step 2: Make the Obvious Landmarks
You will probably want to make the obvious landmarks first, and you won't be disappointed, because I'd recommend that you make the landmarks, like the Rogers Center and the CN Tower, first, because then, you'll know where to put the other building models in relation to them. If you don't want to, feel free to skip forward to the next steps and come back to this later.
Step 3: Make the CN Tower
Step 1: Get the necessary primitives
(Note that the primitives will be very large at the start, but then you'll need to downscale them later
- A hexagonal prism (this is for the centre of the CN tower, lets say 150mm tall, and default length and width
- Three wedges also 150mm tall, and about 25mm long and 10mm wide(the side that you will attach to the hexagonal prism): Organize them so that each of the wedges has 120 degrees between it: see the image above
- Keep several cylinders on hand, you'll need a lot of them
- Two spheres, one with a length and width of about 16mm, and a height of about 5mm, and the other with a length and width of about 10mm, and a height of about 6mm. The "squashed spheres" will be referred to as oblate spheroids
Step 2: Base Structure (image 1)
Fuse the three wedges to three of the six sides of the hexagonal prism. Make sure there is one side of the hexagonal prism in between each wedge. The three wedges should form a equilateral triangle. Then downscale the new shape to a height of 90mm, and a length and width of 16mm
Step 3: Observation Section (image 2)
Get the bigger oblate spheroid, and centre it directly on top of the structure you made.
Take a cone (10mm height, 16mm length and width), turn it 180 degrees so
it is upside down, and then raise it 2mm above the workplace. Then take a cube-cutout/hole (10mm height, 16mm length and width). Then, centre the cone above the cube cutout, then group the two. Then centre the resulting shape, a truncated cone, on top of the oblate spheroid.
Then, take a cylinder, give it a length and width of 16mm, and a height of 6mm, and centre that on top of the cut cone.
Duplicate the truncated cone, turn it right side up again (180 degrees), give it a length and width of 14mm, and a height of 3mm, then centre it on top of the cylinder
Take another cylinder, give it a length and width of 11.5mm, and a height of 2.5mm, and centre that on top of the highest truncated cone, the one you made in the last sub-step
Then, group all the shapes, and fuse it with the base structure.
Give this structure a height of 110 mm and a length and width of 17mm
Step 4: Communications Tower Section
Take a cylinder, give it a length and width of 7mm and a height of 4mm, centre that on top of the structure,
Take a cube, give it a length and width of 2mm, and a height of 4mm, align that to the left side of the previous cylinder.
Take another cylinder, give it a length and width of 5mm, and a height of 35mm, centre that directly on top of the structure from Step 3
Take the remaining oblate spheroid (with a length and width of 10mm and a height of 6mm) and centre that directly on top of the previous cylinder.
Take another cylinder, give it a length and width of 5mm and a height of 20mm, centre that on top of the oblate spheroid
Take a half dome, give it a length, width and height of 5mm and a height of 2mm, centre that on top of the previous cylinder
Take another cylinder, give it a length and width of 3mm and a height of 15 mm, centre that on top of the half dome
Get a half dome with a length and width of 3mm and a height of 1.5mm, centre that on top of the previous cylinder.
Take the last cylinder and the half dome you made, group them together, duplicate them, give this new shape a height of 8mm and a length and width of 2mm, and centre that on top of the structure
Lastly, take a cylinder with a height of 20mm, and a length and width of 1mm, centre that on top of the structure
Fuse all structures in this step, give them a length and width of 10mm and a height of 95mm
Step 5: Done!
Fuse the two main structures and then you have a complete model of the CN Tower!
Step 4: Make the Rogers Center:
Step 1: First, get the necessary primitives (Image in top right):
A Cylinder 22mm width and length, 7mm height (remember, the dome is about 2/3 of the whole structure)
Another cylinder (default size, but 7mm height), but set to be a cylindrical shaped hole, or cylinder cutout
A Hemisphere 22mm width and length, 12.00 mm height
Another hemisphere (default size), but set to be a hemispherical shaped hole, or hemisphere cutout
Step 2: Align the shapes with their respective holes or cutouts (image under top right image): (Duplicate the hemisphere, and cut it in half, give it a length of 24mm, and a width of 21mm, and turn it into a hole/cutout, you'll need it later) make sure the cutouts are aligned exactly in the middle of their shapes, then cut out the shapes by grouping them. You should have a hollow cylinder, and a bowl shaped structure (image under previous image)
Step 3: Turn the bowl shape 180 degrees, so its a dome. (duplicate the dome too, and cut that in half) Position it exactly on top of the hollow cylinder,give it a height of 15 mm then group the two shapes together. Then, proportion the new shape to have the proportions of the Rogers Center: a length of about 40mm, a width of about 22mm, and a height of about 21mm. (Image under step 2 image)
Step 4: Get two new rectangular prisms (both with a height of 7mm and a width of 3mm, one of them with a length of 15mm [put that on the right], the other with a length of 8mm,[put that on the left of the structure]. (bottom left image)
Step 5: Take the half hemisphere cutout you made earlier back in Step 2, then give it a height of 12mm, a length of 18mm, and a width of 21mm, and fuse it to the structure like in the fourth image (bottom middle image)
Step 6: Lastly, fuse the half-dome you made back in Step 3, to the main structure (bottom right image). Give the structure a length and width of 45mm to give it more of a true dome shape
Give the structure a height of 25mm too.
Step 7: You now have a Rogers Center Model! (top left image) Congrats, you can move on to making the other buildings!
Step 5: Make the Other Buildings
Now, all you have to do to complete the skyline is to make the other buildings. This should be fairly easy, as most of the buildings look roughly the same
Don't overdo it with the buildings, the main focus is on the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre, but do put some effort into them. For example, Roundhouse Park is a big one, do try to put some effort into that and other obvious buildings.
If you want to, you can also make the buildings on Toronto Island too, but you don't have to
Look at the 3D model of the skyline that you are referencing off of and make the models off of that.
You don't need to make all the buildings, just the obvious main buildings, make sure if you are using a baseplate, that you don't have large empty spaces, fill them up with buildings (you can design new buildings, or just cut-paste existing sections onto the empty spaces, to make it look like a real city, with a realistic building density)
Don't worry if some of the models go off the buildplate, you can always downscale the whole skyline to fit the buildplate
Go as far as you want to, but don't get too far ahead of yourself and design all of Toronto on the build plate!
Step 6: Align the Buildings
Now, once you have made the buildings, you have to secure them in their proper positions, relative to the 3D model of the skyline you found in google, or the one on TurboSquid. (Link in Step 1)
Then, once you have done that, you can group together all the shapes into one big shape, the skyline of Toronto.
Put a baseplate underneath the skyline and fuse that to the skyline.
Now, you can make the model smaller and print the skyline if you want to.(reference image) I had a ratio of about 1:2:4 (height, width and length respectively), (so you can downscale the model to the biggest printable size you want) [see image]
Note: You probably will have a model of roughly 800mm(length) x 400mm(width) x 200mm(height) before you downscale, if you based it off of my model. You dont have to be so accurate with the buildings, so the dimensions might be a little different, but you probably will still end up with a ratio of 1:2:4 (height, width and length respectively), if you covered the area I did, so yeah.
Before you print it (totally optional, its all a question of how much time and filament you are willing to use), go to the next step and double check everything
Step 7: Double Check Everything
Remember, nothing is perfect, but its still a good idea to double check everything
Look at the model from all angles
Take a quick look around your model, check if the buildings are generally in the right place, if you put all the parts onto the CN tower and Rogers Centre in the right way. Even the smallest parts count, so remember every part, feel free to go over this instructable multiple times and edit your skyline multiple times until you are satisfied with your end product.
Its not a question of perfection, its a question of whether you are satisfied with the end product.
If you are, scroll down to the final step.
Step 8: Marvel at Your Masterpiece
Take the time to bask in the glory of your amazing creation
Take a screenshot or two, from different angles, look around, its not too late to fix any mistakes
While you are at it, if you want to go check out my YouTube Channel: Techno's 3D Designs, there you can see videos on how to design more 3D objects, and also a video version of this instructable soon.
Here are the links to the TinkerCAD models I designed for this Instructable:
Participated in the
Tinkercad Student Design Contest
