TINKERCAD TUTORIALCreating Shapes

Let’s start with a simple cube (called ‘box’) as this is likely to be the basis of many buildings.

To create your build in Tinkercad you will need to manipulate simple 3D shapes, scaling, grouping, intersecting and extruding them, then adding more shapes to increase the level of detail. Tinkercad has a series of pre-designed shapes available for you to use. The main shapes are found under the ‘Geometric’ menu on the right hand side of the screen.

Select the shape by clicking on it in the menu with the left mouse button. As you move the mouse across the workplane, a transparent cube will move with the cursor.

Click anywhere on the workplane to place your shape. If you want to change the position of your shape at any point, simply click and drag it across the work plane to a new position.

If you change your mind about the shape and want to remove it, left click to select it and then press ‘backspace’ on your keyboard or go to the ‘Edit’ menu on the left side of the top toolbar and select ‘delete’.

You also have an ‘undo’ and ‘redo’ function, to the right hand side of the top toolbar.

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TINKERCAD TUTORIALCreating Shapes

Zoom in on your shape using the scroll wheel on your mouse, or the ‘+’ button. When the shape is selected (left click with mouse) it has various handles and arrows around it. We can use these to resize, rotate and stretch our shape.

The small white squares are used for changing the shape’s size. You will notice as you hover over a white square the dimensions of your shape appear. As you resize your shape, these dimensions will change allowing you to create accurate builds.

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TINKERCAD TUTORIALCreating Shapes

Click on any of the four white squares around the base of the shape to change its width and/or length.

Clicking on the white square on top of the shape will allow you to change its height.

Tip: If you hold shift while you click and drag, the shape will resize to scale, maintaining its proportions.

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TINKERCAD TUTORIALCreating Shapes

If we adjust our view we can see that our shape is sat directly on top of the grided workplane.

The small black arrow above the shape can be used to lift our shape above the plane or lower it below.

Again, you will notice measurements changing as you move your shape.

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TINKERCAD TUTORIALCreating Shapes

You can also rotate your shape using the arrows at the left hand corners. Each arrow will rotate your shape along a different plane. If you hover over an arrow it will show you this direction.

The top left arrow will rotate along the vertical plane, left to right. Click and drag the arrow to spin your shape.

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TINKERCAD TUTORIALCreating Shapes

Rotate the workplane to the side and you can also rotate your shape along the vertical plane from front to back.

All of these functions can be applied to any shape found in the ‘Geometrics’. Explore the other shapes available in the ‘Shape Generators’, ‘Tinkerplay’, ‘Holes’, ‘Letters’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Symbols’ and ‘Extras’ menus on the right.

The bottom front left arrow will rotate along the horizontal plane, left to right. Click and drag the arrow to spin your shape.

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