10. Custom Creations, Part 2

What You’ll Be Doing

Learn about more Tinkercad tools

As you saw in Chapter 9, “Custom Creations, Part 1,” Tinkercad can do a lot more than just import 3D models from Thingiverse. With Tinkercad’s assortment of tools, you can create custom 3D models for anything you want to add to Minecraft—vehicles, buildings, animals, and much more. As you continue to use Tinkercad and learn about its great features, you’ll start to think about building more complicated and unusual objects.

With CAD applications such as Tinkercad, it’s usually not the tools that are the limit, but your imagination. If you can picture something in your mind, there’s a good chance you can re-create it in Tinkercad. The trick is to learn as many techniques as possible and push your CAD application to the limits to turn your ideas into 3D models. And once you’ve got a 3D model on the screen, you already know how easy it is to take it into a Minecraft world.

In Chapter 9, you learned how to use some of the very basic tools of Tinkercad—to drop objects on the workplane, resize them, and merge and group them. This chapter builds on what you learned in Chapter 9 and shows you some additional Tinkercad capabilities. You’ll learn some new ways to manipulate objects on the screen as well as how to eliminate parts of a model that you don’t want. This comes in handy, for example, when you want only half of a sphere.

So, once again, you need to open up a web browser, point it to Tinkercad.com, and log in to your account. Once there, click on the Create New Design button and open up a blank workplane.

Look carefully, and you’ll notice that the box has been dropped on the workplane so that it’s perfectly lined up with the grid. In this case, I’ve rotated the view a bit so you’re looking at the box from an angle. (To rotate the view, hold down the mouse scroll button or tap-and-hold two fingers on a touchpad or hold down the Control key while moving the mouse.) But take a look at Figure 10.2, and you’ll see that the view is changed so you’re looking at the box directly from the front and slightly above; you can’t see the box’s sides at all, but you can see part of the top.

You can rotate the view all you want in order to see the box from different angles, but this isn’t the same as rotating the box itself. To do that, you need to use the rotation controls that are visible when you select an object. Figure 10.3 shows the view rotated again and the box selected; notice the three curved double-arrows that appear near the box.

Sometimes it’s easier to try using a tool than to read an explanation of it. So move your mouse pointer over one of the rotation controls (but don’t click on it). When you do, you’ll see an image appear that looks like the face of a clock, as shown in Figure 10.4; this is called the rotation meter.

Move your mouse pointer over the other two rotation controls, and you see similar images appear. These rotation meters show you how many degrees an object has been rotated when you click-and-hold a rotation control and move the mouse. Try it. You can undo anything you do by clicking the Undo button on the top toolbar. Figure 10.5 shows the box rotated 22.5 degrees on the workplane.

Figure 10.6 shows the box rotated an additional 22.5 degrees, for a total of 45 degrees from its original orientation. To do this, simply continue to hold down the rotation control while moving the mouse in the direction you want to rotate the Box object.

If you keep the mouse pointer very near or touching the rotation meter, the rotation will move in 22.5-degree increments. To rotate an object in 1-degree increments, move the mouse pointer off (and outside) the rotation meter and move the mouse. As you can see in Figure 10.7, the rotation meter counts in 1-degree increments, allowing you to rotate your object in very small amounts.

In the previous figures, you probably noticed I was using the same rotation meter that corresponds to rotating the box on the flat workplane. (This rotation looks similar to placing a cube on a tabletop and just rotating it while keeping the cube’s bottom face flat on the table.)

The other two rotation meters allow you to rotate your object around different axes. (The plural of axis is axes, pronounced “ax-eeze.”) There are three axes when you talk about rotating a three-dimensional object: X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis.

Figure 10.8 shows a drawing of a cube and the three axes. You can see that the Z-axis is like a thin wire that runs up and down through the middle of an object. The Y-axis runs through the object from front to back. And the X-axis runs left to right through an object.

In the last few rotations, the Box object was rotated around the Z-axis. Imagine a thin wire cutting into the box, going into the bottom and coming out the top. The box was rotating on this “wire” (clockwise or counterclockwise), so we say the Box was rotated around the Z-axis.

Figure 10.9 shows the box being rotated around the Y-axis. If you imagine another wire cutting through the front (face) of the Box and coming out the backside, that’s the Y-axis.

If you look carefully at Figure 10.9, you can see that the word “Workplane” is visible, so that’s considered the “front” of the box. If that’s the front, than a thin (imaginary) wire that runs through the box’s face and comes out the back is the Y-axis. You can even see that the rotation meter appears behind the cube and is standing up, with its own center matching up to that imaginary wire running through the front and back of the box.

The third and final rotation control rotates the box around the X-axis. Take a look at Figure 10.10, and you’ll see that the rotation meter that appears is “standing up” and has its center matched up to an imaginary wire running through the box from left to right.

Now, let’s get back to the plain box sitting on the workplane. You’re going to use it to create a very unique building for your futuristic city by rotating the cube so it’s actually “standing” on a corner.

To do this, you start by rotating the Box object on the Y-axis 45 degrees. Figure 10.11 shows what this rotation looks like.

Before continuing, rotate the view a little to the left or right, and you’ll notice that the rotation of the Box object sends a small portion of the box “below” the workplane (see Figure 10.12). The workplane surface isn’t solid, and you saw in Chapter 9 that you can use the small black cone that appears above a selected object to raise and lower it. If you lower an object too far, it dips beneath the workplane.

This isn’t a big deal. Any part of a 3D model that appears beneath the workplane still exists. It’s not deleted. But if it bothers you visually, all you need to do is select the box, click on the black cone, and raise it up until the measurement indicates a value of 0.0, as shown in Figure 10.13.

With the box raised up above the workplane, you may have noticed another problem with the object: One of its edges is now touching the workplane. To create the new object, you want the object to only be touching the workplane at a single point—where three edges touch. That means you need one more rotation.

You already rotated on the Y-axis, so now it’s time to rotate on the X-axis. As shown in Figure 10.14, move the mouse pointer over the rotation control that corresponds to the rotation meter that will be centered on an imaginary line running through the left and right sides of the object.

To make the new object, you need another rotation on the X-axis—about 30 degrees—as shown in Figure 10.15.

After this last rotation, however, a portion of the object is once again beneath the workplane. Just click on the black cone and move the mouse up slightly, and you end up with a box that’s been rotated so it’s balancing on a single point, as shown in Figure 10.16.

Rotating objects is one of those skills you’ll have to practice and develop over time. Eventually, it does get easier. Being able to properly rotate objects will allow you to merge rotated objects together to create unique surfaces and designs that can’t be done using the basic shapes you just drop on the workplane. (As a matter of fact, you’ll see an example of rotating objects for proper placement in a larger model in Chapter 11, “A Super Project to Test Out Your New Skills.”)

When you want to create windows and doorways in buildings, for example, you need to make holes in the walls. Suppose you want to design a pyramid for a Minecraft world, but you’d like a passage added that cuts through the front and out the back. You could do this by just “mining” the blocks and creating a path through the pyramid after it’s been added to your world…but there’s a faster way.

Figure 10.17 shows a pyramid you might want to import into a Minecraft world with MCEdit. Notice that it’s not just a basic Pyramid object dropped onto the workplane—it’s got some additional features, which you add by using the black cone, rotation controls, and the Group function.

It would be nice to have a pathway cut into the pyramid that runs from the front to the back—a semi-circular tunnel shape would be perfect. But you might have noticed that Tinkercad doesn’t have a tool that lets you “cut” or “mine” out parts of an object that you don’t like. So how can you create a semi-circular tunnel through the pyramid? It starts by creating the shape of the path you want to create.

As shown in Figure 10.18, drop a Round Roof object on the workplane.

There are a few problems with the Round Roof object, however. First, it’s too large in diameter. Second, it’s not long enough to go all the way through the pyramid. Third, it’s solid. If you merge it with the Pyramid object, it’s not going to create a hole; rather, it’ll just add its solid self to the solid pyramid. You need to tackle these issues one at a time.

The first problem, remember, is that the diameter of the Round Roof object is too large. This is easy to fix with the small white control boxes. Just hold down the Shift key as you shrink down the Round Roof object to about 6mm in diameter, as shown in Figure 10.19.

The second problem is that the Round Roof object is still not long enough to run through the pyramid. You can change this by dragging one of the corner white control boxes to create a long Round Roof object, as shown in Figure 10.20.

Notice in Figure 10.20 that the pyramid sits on a square base that has a little bit of height to it. To create the tunnel through the pyramid, select the Round Roof object, raise it up with the black cone, and then drag it so it merges with the pyramid, above the square base, as shown in Figure 10.21.

Although the Round Roof object goes into the front of the pyramid and exits out the back, it’s still solid but should be a hole. So it’s time to solve the third problem: You need to turn the Round Roof object into a hole, and to do that you select only the Round Roof object and click on the Hole button, shown in Figure 10.22.

The Hole button turns any selected object (or objects) into “negative” space—or a Hole object. When you select an object and click this button, you can still see the shape of the object, but you erase any solid space you touch. Notice in Figure 10.22 that after you click the Hole button, the Round Roof object is slightly translucent—almost invisible.

Recall from Chapter 9 that using the Group feature allows you to merge two or more selected objects. Group basically joins the objects and makes them behave as a single object.

Well, when you click on a solid object and a Hole object and then click the Group button, the Hole object removes any portion of the solid object that it touches. Figure 10.24 shows what happens after you select the (solid) Pyramid and the (Hole) Round Roof object.

You now have a tunnel through the pyramid!

You can do a lot with the Hole button, and it’s an essential tool for creating more advanced 3D models. For example, one of the most basic uses for the Hole button is cutting objects in half. One way to do this is to drop a Box object on the workplane, enlarge it so it’s bigger than the object you wish to cut in half, and then convert the Box to a hole object.

Next, you drag the box so it overlaps only half of the object you want to cut in half. (Keep in mind that you can also use the rotate controls on Hole objects. This gives you some very interesting editing abilities.)

You know the rest: Select the two objects (solid and Hole) and group them. What is left over is half of the original solid object, as shown in Figure 10.27.

As mentioned in Chapter 9, Tinkercad has enough features and tools to fill a book. I don’t have the space in this book to show you every little tool, feature, and trick that’s available. But you already know how to do a lot of things in Tinkercad:

Place and move objects around on the workplane

Resize objects

Merge and group objects

Rotate objects around three axes (X, Y, and Z)

Convert objects into Hole objects

Rename objects and share them or keep them private

Export objects for use in Minecraft

This is plenty to get you started making your own custom objects. However, in Chapter 11 you’ll learn a few more ways to use Tinkercad that you might not have considered. What you’ll learn there involves importing preexisting 3D models (from sites like Thingiverse.com) and merging them with objects you create using the basic Tinkercad categories, such as Geometric, Numbers, and Letter. By combining objects, copying and rotating some, adding hollow areas (using the Hole button), and resizing, you’ll be able to create some of the strangest, craziest, and most useful objects imaginable in a Minecraft world.