Tutorial Lesson 1: The Environment - Thingiverse
Tutorial In this PDF we'll go over the techniques I used to create this project and assuming zero experience. My preferred program is 123D Design because it's free and works using primitives rather than coordinates. I find primitives somewhat restrictive, but far easier to use. Lessons 2 - 5 will recreate blocks 1 - 4, demonstrating the necessary functions and techniques and then allow you to complete the block on your own. You will need either a print or to be able to view the STL files of the blocks to complete this tutorial. Any similar program should work fairly similarly, so use what you're comfortable with. If you don't have 123D, you can get it here: http://www.123dapp.com/design
Lesson 1: The Environment If this is your first time opening 123D, a pop up tips window will be the first thing you see. For now, close this. The picture below will be what you see.
For the purposes of this walkthrough, these five icons are all we will be focusing on. Others will be mentioned when pertinent. 1) Transform: Moving, rotating and scaling (resizing) pieces 2) Primitives: The shapes we'll be using 3) Combine: Merge parts and subtract pieces from parts using others. That's make more sense later. 4) Snap: A function to align and connect the faces of two parts 5) Grid: Snap linear controls accuracy when adding new primitives. Angular snap controls fine accuracy when rotating parts (I like to set mine to five). The environment defaults to millimeters. If you'd like to work in inches, click 'Edit Grid' in circle 5 and select it from the units dropdown. I prefer working in metric, so I'll keep to millimeters, but things will work the same. Remember that, for the purposes of this project, all metric dimensions will divisible by 5mm and all inches will be divisible by 0.25.
Take a minute to get comfortable moving around the environment. Left-click: Selects an object Right-click: Rotates the environment Middle button (click down on mouse wheel): slide the environment sideways or up and down. Mouse wheel: Zoom in and out. Now, hover your mouse over the primitives button. A new pane will open.
Select the box. You will see this.
Note the dot. Virtually all positioning in 123D is centered and objects will try to snap to the center, edge or vertex of objects they're placed on. Plan your math accordingly. The three entries at the bottom are the three dimensions of the box and can be changed. The number of dimensions will depend on the primitive used. You can normally tab through these to change them, but if they lose focus (the blue part winds up grey), you will need to click on the entry box to work with them again. The object will stay attached to the cursor until you click where you want it. Do so now.
Click on the box to select it again. Don't click your mouse while doing this, but intentionally move your cursor off of the box and then back on again. Doing this allows you to select individual parts of box, like the edge shown below.
Select a part of the box if you'd like. Note the panel that pops up under the selected part. This is a contextual menu. It'll bring up the most commonly used options for whatever you have selected. A face and an edge will have different options. Feel free to play with these and get a feel for them. This is the end of lesson 1.
Lesson 2: Positioning and Merging In this lesson, I'll be demonstrating how to replicate Block #1. Open a file in 123D Design. Do this by either opening the program, or hitting the 'new' option under the main menu. As before, select and place a box. This time, however, give it the dimensions of Length 30, Width 30 and a height of 5. If you're using inches, use 1.25 x 1.25 x 0.25. Place this in the environment, preferably somewhere near the origin. Now, do this again, but with a box measuring 25 x 25 x 5 (1 x 1 x 0.25) and place it on the other box. Notice where the center of the new box will snap to. Experiment with this, then place it centered on first. Select the new box again and click the first icon in the context menu.
This is the transform option. Three arrows and three rotation axes will appear along with an entry box. Move the top box to one corner. Given the size difference, this will be 2.5mm or 0.125". For now, use the arrows to drag the box into place. The distance per 'click' will be determined by how closely you're zoomed in. If you're following along using inches, you've just hit a problem. No matter how closely zoomed you are, the program will not allow you to drag in increments past the second decimal place. This is one of the main reasons I prefer using metric. Because Imperial units break down by halves and computers will use decimal, using anything more precise than a 1/4" in 123D will require you to enter it manually. It will still work fine, but it is something to be aware of. If you make a mistake, hit the Escape key. Until you click off of what you're doing while in a transform function, hitting Escape will reset the part. If you want to undo something after clicking off, hit Ctrl + Z.
Once your top piece is located properly, hover over the Combine icon in the top menu and select Merge. A new panel will open. Ignore the panel and click on both pieces, then hit enter. You should see this:
The faces at the corner should have merged cleanly. If they're still two separate faces, they were misaligned. Merging pieces isn't necessary, but is useful for manipulating many pieces as they're built. This is just to familiarize you with the function. Complete the piece to finish. Save the part when you're done. Note: When you go to save under the main menu, there will be two options. "Save" and "Save a copy." Save a copy functions like "Save as" in most programs. When hovering over them you'll get an option to save to projects or to your computer. "Projects" is a cloud save and requires an account. I tend to just save to the computer. To get a printable file, choose "Export as 3D" and choose STL
Lesson 3: Subtraction and Relative Dimensions In this lesson, we'll be replicating Block #2. Begin a new project by creating a cube that's 30mm to a side. Create another box measuring 10 x 10 x 30 and place it centered on top of the first. This new piece will become the hole through the middle of the block. Select the second box and, using the transform function, lower it 30mm down so that it vanishes into the first box, but has its face flush with the top.
Hover over the Combine icon in the top menu and select 'Subtract.' A panel will appear with "Target Solid" selected and "Source solid" on the other side. By default, the first object selected will be the target, which is the object you want to remove a piece from. Any other objects selected are source, which are what will be removed. Functionally, you can only have one object you want to remove mass from, but you can remove that mass with as many objects as you want. This is why I suggested learning the merge function. Creating a hole through a large number of parts requires this to be done for each piece. Putting a whole through the same parts that have been merged requires one function. It's much faster, cleaner and is less likely to result in a mistake somewhere. Now, after selecting the subtract function, click first on the larger box, then on the inner one and hit enter. You should see this:
If your cube vanishes, then you selected the two in the wrong order. Hit Ctrl + Z and try again. If you're in the function and want to back out, hit Escape. A trick to this kind of subtraction, where the source piece is buried inside the original, is to create a piece that intentionally sticks out. It's easier to select and prevents a tiny mistake from resulting in a very annoying wall inside a project.
This isn't always an option, of course.
Next, we'll remove one of the two vertical sections from the block. Create a new box sized 5 x 5 x 30 and center it onto one of the original box's sides. You should see this:
This is just something to be aware of. When placing objects onto a surface, all dimensions are relative to that surface. Height is always directly away from the surface, length and width need to be tested. This piece can be placed onto the grid and moved into place, or you can test the dimensions to find the correct ones and work from there. Whichever you find works best. Finish the block to complete. Note: One of the removed sections creates a shelf. It's very important that the this void is on the top of the piece and not the bottom. 3D printers build up layer by layer. Having a void over a solid is fine. Having a solid section hanging over empty air will, at best, print poorly and more likely ruin the print. Find out what the allowable overhang for your printer is. 45 degrees is usually safe for continuing slopes.
Lesson 4: Radius, Rotation and Multiple Objects In this lesson we'll replicate Block #3, the die. Begin by creating another 30mm cube. Create a new primitive, but select the sphere this time. Notice that there's only one dimension: Radius.
Cones, cylinders and spheres all work off radius. It can be very easy to be thinking in terms of width and make a mistake. Just be aware. Make this sphere with a radius of 5 (diameter 10). Using the transform function, move it halfway (again, its radius) into the sphere and subtract it from the cube as in the last lesson.
Move to the other side of the die where we'll put the six (opposing face on a 6-sided die always add up to 7). The minimum limit for this project is 5mm across, so that's what we'll want for the rest of the die. . Begin by creating a 2.5mm sphere and centering it on the face. Select the sphere and press Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + V. Like in most word processors, this will copy and then paste the selected object. When pasted, the new object will appear in the same spot as the original and be immediately in the transform function.
Move the new sphere 7mm to the left, then the original 7mm to the right. Select one of the two spheres, then while holding the Ctrl key, select the other. You will now have both selected. Hit Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste both. When you have multiple objects selected, they'll be affected as though they were a single unit. Move the two new spheres up 9mm
Paste another pair from the middle spheres and move them down 9mm. As before, select all six spheres and move them halfway (2.5mm) into the cube. Subtract them from the cube. This can be done in one step by selecting the cube first as the target, then the six spheres. This will make the 6-face of the die.
Select the whole cube and select the transform function. Click and hold on the rotation point whose axis will rotate the six-side down onto the grid. Rotate the cube 90 degrees. It's important to be exact.
This will provide better access to finish the other four sides. It also puts the particularly large cavity at the top where overhangs aren't a concern. Granted, I said that 45 degrees was usually safe and even the little pips go past that, the problem has more to do with unsupported weight in this case. Domes and spheres are very well supported and, at this size, won't cause a problem. Still, it's always best to be mindful and always work towards a solid build rather than leaving it to chance. Complete the other four sides to complete this block. Remember: opposing sides add up to 7.
Lesson 5: Snap Begin this lesson by creating a box that's 30 x 30 x 5. For this next part, create a hemisphere with a radius of 5 and place it beside the box. As an alternate, you could go through the steps from the previous lesson, but remove the cube from the sphere instead of the other way around. It's a handy trick for getting partial pieces from things like cylinders.
Click the Snap icon then, in order, select the face of the flat underside of the hemisphere and then the face that's the top of the box. The sphere's flat will move to (and if necessary, align with) the face of the box and center itself on it. This will also group them, which is similar to merging, but the pieces remain separate. Ungroup with the circled function, if you wish.
You already know the rest of what's required for block. Complete to finish. Best of luck.
Lesson 6: Loft and Edge Manipulation In this lesson, we'll be replicating the measuring stick included with this project. First, select a circle sketch under primitives.
This will function like other primitives, except that they're 2-dimensional. Place a circle with a radius of 2mm onto the grid. Select it and move it up, off the grid, 5mm. Using the same point on the grid as before, create a circle with a radius of 5mm.
You should have something like the above. Click on the bottom circle and, in the contextual menu, click on the highlight icon. Then, click on the upper circle and hit enter. This will fill the area between them and create a truncated cone.
Note that the original circles are still there and can be removed. Next, create a cylinder with a radius of 2mm and a height of 5mm and center it onto the smaller part of the cone.
As mentioned in lesson on, select the cone, move the cursor off of it, then move it back on. This will allow you to select the top edge.
The options in the contextual menu are: 1) Tweak: Move the edge as with transform, but only the edge 2) Fillet: round the corner into a radius, measured in millimeters. 3) Chamfer: Create a 45 degree bevel at the edge. Select Chamfer and set it to 0.5. Any more and the final piece will be too fragile.
Complete the block to finish. Congratulations, you now know all the methods used to create the objects that came with this project. Challenge yourself and see if you can recreate block #5.
Lesson 1: The Environment If this is your first time opening 123D, a pop up tips window will be the first thing you see. For now, close this. The picture below will be what you see.
For the purposes of this walkthrough, these five icons are all we will be focusing on. Others will be mentioned when pertinent. 1) Transform: Moving, rotating and scaling (resizing) pieces 2) Primitives: The shapes we'll be using 3) Combine: Merge parts and subtract pieces from parts using others. That's make more sense later. 4) Snap: A function to align and connect the faces of two parts 5) Grid: Snap linear controls accuracy when adding new primitives. Angular snap controls fine accuracy when rotating parts (I like to set mine to five). The environment defaults to millimeters. If you'd like to work in inches, click 'Edit Grid' in circle 5 and select it from the units dropdown. I prefer working in metric, so I'll keep to millimeters, but things will work the same. Remember that, for the purposes of this project, all metric dimensions will divisible by 5mm and all inches will be divisible by 0.25.
Take a minute to get comfortable moving around the environment. Left-click: Selects an object Right-click: Rotates the environment Middle button (click down on mouse wheel): slide the environment sideways or up and down. Mouse wheel: Zoom in and out. Now, hover your mouse over the primitives button. A new pane will open.
Select the box. You will see this.
Note the dot. Virtually all positioning in 123D is centered and objects will try to snap to the center, edge or vertex of objects they're placed on. Plan your math accordingly. The three entries at the bottom are the three dimensions of the box and can be changed. The number of dimensions will depend on the primitive used. You can normally tab through these to change them, but if they lose focus (the blue part winds up grey), you will need to click on the entry box to work with them again. The object will stay attached to the cursor until you click where you want it. Do so now.
Click on the box to select it again. Don't click your mouse while doing this, but intentionally move your cursor off of the box and then back on again. Doing this allows you to select individual parts of box, like the edge shown below.
Select a part of the box if you'd like. Note the panel that pops up under the selected part. This is a contextual menu. It'll bring up the most commonly used options for whatever you have selected. A face and an edge will have different options. Feel free to play with these and get a feel for them. This is the end of lesson 1.
Lesson 2: Positioning and Merging In this lesson, I'll be demonstrating how to replicate Block #1. Open a file in 123D Design. Do this by either opening the program, or hitting the 'new' option under the main menu. As before, select and place a box. This time, however, give it the dimensions of Length 30, Width 30 and a height of 5. If you're using inches, use 1.25 x 1.25 x 0.25. Place this in the environment, preferably somewhere near the origin. Now, do this again, but with a box measuring 25 x 25 x 5 (1 x 1 x 0.25) and place it on the other box. Notice where the center of the new box will snap to. Experiment with this, then place it centered on first. Select the new box again and click the first icon in the context menu.
This is the transform option. Three arrows and three rotation axes will appear along with an entry box. Move the top box to one corner. Given the size difference, this will be 2.5mm or 0.125". For now, use the arrows to drag the box into place. The distance per 'click' will be determined by how closely you're zoomed in. If you're following along using inches, you've just hit a problem. No matter how closely zoomed you are, the program will not allow you to drag in increments past the second decimal place. This is one of the main reasons I prefer using metric. Because Imperial units break down by halves and computers will use decimal, using anything more precise than a 1/4" in 123D will require you to enter it manually. It will still work fine, but it is something to be aware of. If you make a mistake, hit the Escape key. Until you click off of what you're doing while in a transform function, hitting Escape will reset the part. If you want to undo something after clicking off, hit Ctrl + Z.
Once your top piece is located properly, hover over the Combine icon in the top menu and select Merge. A new panel will open. Ignore the panel and click on both pieces, then hit enter. You should see this:
The faces at the corner should have merged cleanly. If they're still two separate faces, they were misaligned. Merging pieces isn't necessary, but is useful for manipulating many pieces as they're built. This is just to familiarize you with the function. Complete the piece to finish. Save the part when you're done. Note: When you go to save under the main menu, there will be two options. "Save" and "Save a copy." Save a copy functions like "Save as" in most programs. When hovering over them you'll get an option to save to projects or to your computer. "Projects" is a cloud save and requires an account. I tend to just save to the computer. To get a printable file, choose "Export as 3D" and choose STL
Lesson 3: Subtraction and Relative Dimensions In this lesson, we'll be replicating Block #2. Begin a new project by creating a cube that's 30mm to a side. Create another box measuring 10 x 10 x 30 and place it centered on top of the first. This new piece will become the hole through the middle of the block. Select the second box and, using the transform function, lower it 30mm down so that it vanishes into the first box, but has its face flush with the top.
Hover over the Combine icon in the top menu and select 'Subtract.' A panel will appear with "Target Solid" selected and "Source solid" on the other side. By default, the first object selected will be the target, which is the object you want to remove a piece from. Any other objects selected are source, which are what will be removed. Functionally, you can only have one object you want to remove mass from, but you can remove that mass with as many objects as you want. This is why I suggested learning the merge function. Creating a hole through a large number of parts requires this to be done for each piece. Putting a whole through the same parts that have been merged requires one function. It's much faster, cleaner and is less likely to result in a mistake somewhere. Now, after selecting the subtract function, click first on the larger box, then on the inner one and hit enter. You should see this:
If your cube vanishes, then you selected the two in the wrong order. Hit Ctrl + Z and try again. If you're in the function and want to back out, hit Escape. A trick to this kind of subtraction, where the source piece is buried inside the original, is to create a piece that intentionally sticks out. It's easier to select and prevents a tiny mistake from resulting in a very annoying wall inside a project.
This isn't always an option, of course.
Next, we'll remove one of the two vertical sections from the block. Create a new box sized 5 x 5 x 30 and center it onto one of the original box's sides. You should see this:
This is just something to be aware of. When placing objects onto a surface, all dimensions are relative to that surface. Height is always directly away from the surface, length and width need to be tested. This piece can be placed onto the grid and moved into place, or you can test the dimensions to find the correct ones and work from there. Whichever you find works best. Finish the block to complete. Note: One of the removed sections creates a shelf. It's very important that the this void is on the top of the piece and not the bottom. 3D printers build up layer by layer. Having a void over a solid is fine. Having a solid section hanging over empty air will, at best, print poorly and more likely ruin the print. Find out what the allowable overhang for your printer is. 45 degrees is usually safe for continuing slopes.
Lesson 4: Radius, Rotation and Multiple Objects In this lesson we'll replicate Block #3, the die. Begin by creating another 30mm cube. Create a new primitive, but select the sphere this time. Notice that there's only one dimension: Radius.
Cones, cylinders and spheres all work off radius. It can be very easy to be thinking in terms of width and make a mistake. Just be aware. Make this sphere with a radius of 5 (diameter 10). Using the transform function, move it halfway (again, its radius) into the sphere and subtract it from the cube as in the last lesson.
Move to the other side of the die where we'll put the six (opposing face on a 6-sided die always add up to 7). The minimum limit for this project is 5mm across, so that's what we'll want for the rest of the die. . Begin by creating a 2.5mm sphere and centering it on the face. Select the sphere and press Ctrl + C, then Ctrl + V. Like in most word processors, this will copy and then paste the selected object. When pasted, the new object will appear in the same spot as the original and be immediately in the transform function.
Move the new sphere 7mm to the left, then the original 7mm to the right. Select one of the two spheres, then while holding the Ctrl key, select the other. You will now have both selected. Hit Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste both. When you have multiple objects selected, they'll be affected as though they were a single unit. Move the two new spheres up 9mm
Paste another pair from the middle spheres and move them down 9mm. As before, select all six spheres and move them halfway (2.5mm) into the cube. Subtract them from the cube. This can be done in one step by selecting the cube first as the target, then the six spheres. This will make the 6-face of the die.
Select the whole cube and select the transform function. Click and hold on the rotation point whose axis will rotate the six-side down onto the grid. Rotate the cube 90 degrees. It's important to be exact.
This will provide better access to finish the other four sides. It also puts the particularly large cavity at the top where overhangs aren't a concern. Granted, I said that 45 degrees was usually safe and even the little pips go past that, the problem has more to do with unsupported weight in this case. Domes and spheres are very well supported and, at this size, won't cause a problem. Still, it's always best to be mindful and always work towards a solid build rather than leaving it to chance. Complete the other four sides to complete this block. Remember: opposing sides add up to 7.
Lesson 5: Snap Begin this lesson by creating a box that's 30 x 30 x 5. For this next part, create a hemisphere with a radius of 5 and place it beside the box. As an alternate, you could go through the steps from the previous lesson, but remove the cube from the sphere instead of the other way around. It's a handy trick for getting partial pieces from things like cylinders.
Click the Snap icon then, in order, select the face of the flat underside of the hemisphere and then the face that's the top of the box. The sphere's flat will move to (and if necessary, align with) the face of the box and center itself on it. This will also group them, which is similar to merging, but the pieces remain separate. Ungroup with the circled function, if you wish.
You already know the rest of what's required for block. Complete to finish. Best of luck.
Lesson 6: Loft and Edge Manipulation In this lesson, we'll be replicating the measuring stick included with this project. First, select a circle sketch under primitives.
This will function like other primitives, except that they're 2-dimensional. Place a circle with a radius of 2mm onto the grid. Select it and move it up, off the grid, 5mm. Using the same point on the grid as before, create a circle with a radius of 5mm.
You should have something like the above. Click on the bottom circle and, in the contextual menu, click on the highlight icon. Then, click on the upper circle and hit enter. This will fill the area between them and create a truncated cone.
Note that the original circles are still there and can be removed. Next, create a cylinder with a radius of 2mm and a height of 5mm and center it onto the smaller part of the cone.
As mentioned in lesson on, select the cone, move the cursor off of it, then move it back on. This will allow you to select the top edge.
The options in the contextual menu are: 1) Tweak: Move the edge as with transform, but only the edge 2) Fillet: round the corner into a radius, measured in millimeters. 3) Chamfer: Create a 45 degree bevel at the edge. Select Chamfer and set it to 0.5. Any more and the final piece will be too fragile.
Complete the block to finish. Congratulations, you now know all the methods used to create the objects that came with this project. Challenge yourself and see if you can recreate block #5.
