Tinkercad: Nameplate
Technology in the Classroom
Using tinkercad in making a nameplate.
I'm going to use tinkercad to make a nameplate. Once I'm signed into tinkercad, I'm going to click create a new design. And I'm going to start with a box. I'm going to drag the box shape over. And I'm going to stretch it. And make it a little bit taller. The measurements I'm using right now are about 30, 31, and the length is around 98. I'm going to bring in another box, but this time it's going to be a whole box. And I'm going to stretch it longer and much wider than my solid box. I'm also going to make it a lot taller. Okay, the next step I'm going to zoom out a little bit. And I'm going to use the rotate compass. To rotate this empty space. I'm going to pull it out. We're going to make it 45°. If you rotate on the inside of your compass, it will jump by these increments. And if you're on the outside, it's got to be more precise. I'm going to try 45° and see what happens.
Next, I'm going to go to a top view. Because it's easier to move it this way. And I'm going to drag that empty space over, but I'm not going to completely cover my red rectangle. So now I'm going to look at the side and see what that looks like. I think that's going to work fine. I'm going to make a box to touch both of those shapes because I want to group them together. And press my group tool. And now I've cut my block into the shape of a nameplate. I'm going to bring over some text. I've got a little problem with text is going in the wrong direction, so I'm going to use the compass. I'm going to position my camera right over the text so that this rotate will rotate the text 90°. You want 90.
Now to change your text, you come over here to this box, you can type in your text. And now my name's going to be too big to fit on the nameplate. So I've got a couple options. I can simply click on the nameplate and make it longer. Which is going to be the easiest. Or you could resize your name. But for this, the name is the right height, the name plate was just a little bit short. So now I need to get the name up on the nameplate at the same angle. We used 45°, so I'm going to use that for my nameplate. Or for the name for the nameplate. Now they're at the same angle. I just need to get it to be in the right spot. So I'm going to use this little cone to lift it. And then I'm going to carefully push it back with my arrow, and then I want to reposition so I make sure everything is lined up. I'm going to go ahead and use my align tool at least center it. In this direction. And now all I've got to worry about is the height and to make sure that it's actually into the nameplate because if you go to this angle, you can see it's not touching. So I'm going to go to a top view, I'm going to click on it, and I'm going to use my arrows on my keyboard. To press those letters into the nameplate.
Now, be careful that your letters don't come out the backside. But as long as they're embedded into the nameplate, it will attach when you print. Now I have a problem because my name is too high, so I need to drop. The cone down just a little bit. And if I drop it too much, my letters are going to be embedded all the way in. So there's still selected. I can use my arrow keys again to push it back out, and I don't want it to be out too much, just enough. To where you can see the letters. And as I spin it around, that looks pretty good. It might be a little bit low, but if it's too low, you just use this cone too old to bring it up a little bit. And then you use your arrow keys to adjust it out, either up or down when you're looking at a top view. This looks like a completed project, names attached. Everything looks good, so I'm going to group everything together. I'm going to grab a spot of pure off of my project, drag a square to where it touches both shapes. Click the group tool. And now I'm ready to export. So I'm going to change the name. Click export. You want everything? As an STL. That's going to go to your downloads from there. You can get that file and share it with Google.