Introduction: Personalizing Your Puck

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The following information is a single lesson in a larger Tinkercad project. Check out this and more projects on Tinkercad.

Return to Previous Lesson: Reducing Friction

Lesson Overview:

Now we're going to customize your puck!

Step 1: Introduction

Computer Aided Design (CAD) isn't just about making functional items! Design is also the art of making something look AWESOME!

Every bad guy in a video game, every action packed toy, or every wild graphic on a snowboard; is an example of art from design.

Designs can be a bomb blast to your senses!

These designs often start deep in the heart of the computer at the finger tips of the designer.

That designer is you.

Let's take a break from our experiments and make something that looks amazing!

Instructions

  1. Continue to the next step.

Step 2: Paste or Import Puck

If you are continuing this puck lesson directly after the previous filleting lesson, then you were instructed to 'Copy' your object, so Tinkercad will remember it.

Try pasting, now. If your filleted puck emerges, you are ready to continue to the next step.

If Tinkercad did NOT paste your filleted puck, that's OK, because we also downloaded your puck for 3D printing in the filleting lesson.

Instructions

  1. Go to the Edit menu and click on Paste.
  2. If your puck from the last lesson does not appear, import the STL file you saved.
  3. Find the 'Import' section in the Shapes menu on the right of your screen.
  4. Click on the 'File' button, and then the 'Choose File' button. Navigate to where your browser saves its downloads. Your object file should be there.
  5. Once you have selected your file, click the import button. Your object should appear and it will behave like any other Tinkercad shape.
  6. Continue to the next step.

Step 3: Hollow Out Space for Your Design

We need to carve out a pocket for our designs to sit. This feature will allow us to make logos that will be flush with the original face of the puck.

Instructions

  1. Drag out a cylinder and resize it to 60mm in diameter and 4mm thick along the Z axis.
  2. Align the cylinder to the center of the puck along the X and Y axes, but to the upper limit of the puck along the Z axis.
  3. Group the puck and the cylinder.
  4. Continue to the next step.

Step 4: Extrusion Shape Generator

Now that we have a nice pocket to act as a frame for our logo, it's time to design a logo.

We could use a combination of geometric shapes to slowly flesh out our design, but wouldn't it be nice to just define our own shape?

Using the Extrusion shape generator, you can make any shape you want!

Drag one of these to the Workplane.

Underneath the Inspector, you'll see a little grid called the Profile. On this grid is where you'll begin defining your new shape by dragging around Vector Points and Control Points.

This is very intuitive, so go ahead and start pulling these points around. I will, however, explain what is going on in the hint, below.

Instructions

  1. Drag out an Extrusion shape generator to the workplane.
  2. Manipulate the Vector Points and the Control Points until you are satisfied with the shape.
  3. Repeat this process with as many extrusions as you need to make your logo perfect!
  4. Continue to the next step.
  5. Stuck?

HINT:

The Vector Points are the points that are touching the Circle.

Step 5: Create Extruded Negative Space and Add Geometric Shapes

Like any other Tinkercad shape, extruded shapes can be used to make negative spaces.

You can readily combine other geometric shapes, too! Extrusions act like any other Tinkercad object.

Take your time and experiment!

Instructions

  1. Consider using the Extrusion Shape Generator to create negative spaces.
  2. Use simple geometric shapes, for negative or positive shapes!
  3. Continue to the next step.

Step 6: Align Logo to Puck

Let's put your logo in place. Your completed logo will be easier to modify and move if it has been grouped.

When you've completed this step, you will have created your first branded puck, using your own personal brand!

We're going to try something different in the next step, so copy and paste your result and move it out of the way so we can save it for later.

Instructions

  1. Group the shapes that make up your logo so they are easy to align to your puck.
  2. Use the Align tool to center your logo to the puck along the X and Y axes and to the upper limit along the Z axis.
  3. Scale your logo while holding Shift and Alt if your logo doesn't quite fit.
  4. Group your logo and the puck and duplicate the results.
  5. Copy and paste your new, branded puck, and move one of the copies to the side.
  6. Continue to the next step.

Step 7: Making Complex Shapes Out of Drawings

To generate a complex logo, you might find that the Extrusion shape generator is limiting. Or maybe you want start with a logo from a favorite team, band, video game, or super hero.

Tinkercad can import existing images in the form of SVG's. SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.

When we were working with the Extrusion shape generator, we manipulated Bézier curves with Vector Points. An SVG file is a piece of artwork that is made out of Bézier curves defined by vector points.

In Tinkercad, the lines of an SVG become the walls of the shapes. Tinkercad will fill in the area that is enclosed by your drawing as a solid.

Let's try importing, now.

Instructions

  1. Continue to the next step.

Step 8: Creating or Finding Source SVG Files

The first step in this process is finding an SVG file to use.

Wikimedia is a good place to start looking for SVG files: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG

If you would like to start with another type of image, there are a number of Raster to Vector image converters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Grap...

In this example, I chose to use the following image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7...

Instructions

  1. Download or convert an SVG file for you to use
  2. Continue to the next step.

Step 9: Importing an SVG

Once you have your SVG file, it's time to import it into Tinkercad.

Instructions

  1. Import your SVG file using the Import tool in the Shapes menu.
  2. If you are importing from your computer, simply click the "Choose File" button and select the SVG file you created or downloaded.
  3. If you are importing your image from a website, click the URL button, then paste in your URL.
  4. Specify the scale of your object and how tall you want to make it. We can always scale and resize the shape in Tinkercad, just like any other shape.
  5. Continue to the next step.

Step 10: Scale and Align Imported Logo

Now we can scale the logo properly.

Instructions

  1. Scale your logo until it fits within the 60mm diameter pocket on your puck.
  2. Scale your logo so that it is 5mm tall along the Z axis.
  3. Use the align tool to center your logo to your puck along the X and Y axes and align them to the puck's upper limit.
  4. Group your shapes.
  5. Continue to the next step.

Step 11: Congratulations!

You have now learned how to incorporate vector art in to your work.

This unlocks a level of sophistication to your design that breaks any of the limits of the geometric shapes that come with Tinkercad.

Explore any SVG drawing tools at your disposal and try combining solid 2D design tools with Tinkercad's intuitive 3D interface!

Congratulations, you have completed this project! Check out other great projects on Tinkercad.