Tinkercad is a 3d software, where we can view our design in 360 degrees. This navigation option gives us a free hand to design into any view we desire.                 This is same as our Ludo dice(i), as it also has six sides, which are called as (Front view, Back view, Right view, Left view, Top view, Bottom view) and with the help of our mouse we can set and rotate our design into any desired view we want. This will give us the angle to look at our design and make the required changes accordingly. In the second image (ii) there are four options as; Home view: Click onto this icon to bring back the design in normal view as we get in the beginning. Fit to view shape: By clicking on this icon we can directly view only selected shape to fit the screen. Zoom in: As we can use scroll up button or this icon (+), we get a closer view of our designs. Zoom out: We can use scroll down the button or this icon (-), the design seems to be smaller & farther away.

Adding and Modifying Shapes

Here we will have a look at how to manipulate shapes :

Adding and moving 3D Shapes

Scaling and changing dimensions

Using Shape controls

Rotating 3D Shapes

Selecting Strategies

Adding and moving 3D Shapes

We can insert the 3d shapes onto the workplane by drag and drop option, which can be done by use of mouse just by holding the left click of the mouse after selecting the shape required and dragging the cursor on the workplace. This how we can add different objects.

Moving 3D shapes is easy which can be done with the mouse, as we need to shift or move any design just click on the shape and drag it to the desired position. One other way is with the help of arrow keys, by this, we move the object with define distance only as it is been selected in snap grid option. This is usually used for a small shift of 3D shape.

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Scaling and changing dimensions

Every design me make will have different Shape and Size, and to change dimensions we will three options available. We need to choose this option accordingly.

First one is the white square which we see on the shape as we click on. At first click on the white square, it will display the predefine dimensions, but for changing the dimensions we will drag the white square; therefore, we can change the dimension but notice the change both changes will be in X-axis and Y-axis simultaneously.

The second way is with the small black square, by dragging those the change in dimension observed is only in one specific direction.

The third way is to change the dimension of shape in all 3axis (x, y, z) direction simultaneously, just press the shift key and drag the white square alone with it.

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Using Shape controls

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As we click on the 3d shape, a dialogue box opens as name shape control in which we can find addition option, that can be given to our shapes in order to get desired outputs. Option varies as per the shape selected, few options are (length, width, height, bevel, segments, rotations) and there are many more as per the shape.

In the above image, we can see the difference, as the first image cylinder is default shape, which comes with 20 sides in it. If I need a rounded cylinder then I will increase its sides as done in the second image.

Rotating 3D Shapes

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To rotate a shape, single click on it. If you’re looking at this shape from a nice diagonal angle, you should be able to see all 3 curved arrow rotation handles (pictured above).

Next, Click and hold one of the handles, and then drag in the direction you want to rotate. To do 22.5° rotations, rotate your mouse on the inside of the circle that appears. To do 1° rotation, move your mouse outside the circle and then rotate. Likewise, we can rotate any 3D shape to the desired angle.

Selecting Strategies

As we start to work with multiple shapes, it’s important to be comfortable with a variety of methods for selecting and deselecting the object. We know by doing one click onto the object we select it but suppose we need to select multiple shapes our single click won’t work. In that case, we can use shortcut CTRL+A on the keyboard, it will select all the 3D shapes on the workplane and for deselecting it just click outside the workplane.

The other option is to use a bounding box, so we need to click anywhere on the workplane and drag a box, we can see it in red dots. It will select all the shapes inside the red dotted box. For deselecting it just click outside the workplane.

You can also select multiple objects one by one by holding down the Shift key.

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