Ultimaker developer Alex is assisting with an Ultibot-D robot project and has invited teacher Greg to collaborate. They are adventurous cheerleaders, encouraging students and adults to create with existing equipment.
Their goal is to transform a static robot model into an interactive one, which is a big objective. Therefore, they 3D printed a base model at 1/5 scale and gave it to students for exploration. The students were genuinely interested in the challenge of designing their own Ultibot and developed it into their own creation.
Interestingly, he gave the students a basic Tinkercad model, and they quickly discovered some errors in the model file. When the students asked, the mischievous teacher said, "Surprise! Yes, that's part of the challenge."
Students new to 3D printing models needed some time to get used to the operation. To help them adapt, the teachers also created some mini-lessons in Tinkercad. They also used Tinkercad and the basic tutorials provided by Autodesk. After completing the tutorials, they partnered up and created two software exploration activities: Tinkercad's "Assemble a Hamburger" project and making a lidded box.
These were great ways to familiarize students with the software. Assembling a hamburger helped them get used to movement and moving objects as efficiently as possible. While the lidded box wasn't planned, it allowed students to learn the skill of assembling shapes. Students could use the collaborative extension in Tinkercad, which allowed them to discuss online directly or collaboratively revise rapid prototype files.
The students racked their brains and came up with an idea inspired by "LEGO: Ninjago." They sketched concept art and planned out important details. They discussed what they liked from each idea and combined these ideas. Finally, they also considered a key question: how to develop an idea into a physical object? They grouped up by prototyping different parts of the robot. The students met once a week face-to-face, constantly working on their project, or came in before and after class to discuss.
After several weeks of research, the next step was to figure out how to connect the robots together. Magnets and styrofoam models hit a bottleneck on the table. Ultimately, we decided to use 3D printing. Then we found a dinosaur skeleton on a shared platform.
They particularly liked the dinosaur and printed it to play with and study its joints. They used Tinkercad to assemble these different joints and then printed them with an Ultimaker 3D printer for testing, which elevated the lesson to a new level. After discussing their different functions and actually testing them, they finally sifted out rotary balls and active catches for the neck and arms.
Next, we scaled up the joints. We calculated the size of the giant robot's shoulders and determined the scaling factor to adapt it to a usable size. However, the first set of printed joints didn't work, so they went back to the original socket to clarify the problem. It turned out that the small sockets could bend, but the larger ones couldn't. Finally, the students concluded it was a design issue, not a hardware problem. The teachers suggested that students change one variable at a time because if the joints were scaled up proportionally, the gap in the middle would also be very loose. Later, the horizontal distance of the connector was widened by two millimeters, which allowed the ball to slide into the socket.
This project is still ongoing, and students are looking for ways to separate and make robot components interactive. They first tried Littlebits encoders that could change different parts; and hope to share more results with everyone in the future.
3DMart also supported a robot project recently, and an undisclosed competition is currently underway. We'll share the developers' hard work with everyone once the results are out. Additionally, we will be meeting everyone at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 3 from 10/31 to 11/3 for the bicycle show! Come to booth G0358a to see the exhibition and get free gifts! All the latest news will be posted on our Facebook page, so follow us to stay updated!
If you're interested in Tinkercad, you can check out some complex creations by KrasherOx on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrasherOx
Original article link: https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/52717-modifying-an-stl-with-tinkercad?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Ultimaker&utm_content=Modifying%20an%20STL%20with%20Tinkercad%20|%20Ultimaker