Modify Existing STL files easily using TinkerCAD
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2024
- Intro: 0:01
What is TinkerCAD?: 0:37
Importing STL: 1:42
Isolating objects: 3:00
Subtracting from objects: 8:13
Adding to complex curved objects: 9:10
Outro: 12:28
End card: 12:34
In this video I cover how I modify existing STL files. I use TinkerCAD which is a free cloud based CAD solution available from AutoDesk. All you have to do is sign up with an email and your good to go with storage for your models and a way to share them if you choose to. You don’t have too and you can keep your models private which is another bonus to the TinkerCAD work space.
I try to explain my process on how I bring in existing STL files for remixes and my own projects. This is nice when you need to modify a specific type of model someone has done already that is almost perfect for your situation…but…it’s just a little bit off. For some reason you need a hole bigger or smaller, you may need to adjust the mount of a specific thing. This works really well for short projects where you need only slight manipulation of a pre-existing STL. TinkerCAD also works great for beginners because it is a visual based solution to CAD. This has been great for me because I am a visual leaner by nature and this fits my style of progression.
I first go over how to import the STL into TinkerCAD then how to remove and modify certain objects from the STL while keeping dimensional accuracy. This technique also applies to cutting STL’s in half or preserving dimensions of a given model if you need to hack it up to print a large work piece. The work flow in TinkerCAD is very fast and makes quick work of small modifications that you just don’t know if they will produce what you expect.
I also explain how I use duplicate object to mate different work pieces with complex edges. This is especially useful when you have a rounded surface that has a thin profile. You can use this technique to make sure the backside of your thin profile does not have any protrusions and there is still a solid connection at the front of the rounded surface.
Hopefully this helped you out! If it did please consider subscribing, we’d love to have ya!
Keep ur amps up and ur filament dry!
E
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You went way too fast on this video and didn't explain well at all
pin of shame
Literally how ??? 💀💀⁉️ he explained it super well be fr
6 years later and this is still relevant. Thanks.
I am so glad I ran across your video. So easy to follow along and at the PERFECT speed. Thank you!!!
You don't know me, but you just saved my aspiring 3d design professional life! I am eternally grateful for this.
I'm glad I could help! Please keep pursuing design, so much to learn everyday!
I can edit this comment a bunch of times...moral of the story, learning how to artistically model things in three dimensional space electronically is worth it no matter the amount of frustration. Believe me, it gets easier with time. The first few frustrations are taxing but after awhile things start to fall in place and the big picture becomes relevant much quicker.
@@RevampedOutdoors I definitely agree with everything you said. That is why people like you are so important because you help others gain a new perspective on things and learn. I'm truly grateful so thank you again!
honestly one of the best tutorials I've seen. Clearly explained exactly how to do what i was looking for, and showed nice troubleshooting about curved objects. Many thanks.
Thanks! I'm glad it helped!
Hello.... So I wanted to thank you for encouraging me to use TinkerCAD to modify existing STL files! Has made a huge difference in my 3d printing!!! :)
Thanks for going nice and slow so I could follow along. Some other presenters sorta go too fast for me. I am relatively new to TinkerCad. Despite viewing multiple videos on modifying a .stl file I finally understand with your approach. Greatly appreciated !
This has been one of the best tutorials I have seen! Super easy to follow! Thank you Thank You!
Awesome I'm glad I could help!
Tnanks, man! Very nice and simple tutorial to do some basic modifications without digging into some complex CAD programs.
5 years later and still teaching people. thank you
Awesome, I'm glad the video helped!
This was an excellent video...def helped me to get started on editing an STL file so I could remove overhangs and print them on the workspace separately instead of adding supports.
This was a super helpful video and clearly explained the strategies around adding and subtracting shapes to an existing STL file. Thanks!
Pretty awesome! Never thought about cutting it up like that! Thank you!
your the man! I've been trying to figure this out for a while. Thanks!
I'm glad I could help!
Just the video I needed at exactly the right time. Cheers!
Awesome. Glad I could help!
This was really good, thanks. I'd have never thought of making the object you're connecting to a hole, connecting an object and grouping to get the curve that fits perfectly to the original object/cup.
I'm glad it helped!
Great video, easy to understand, a lot of information, thank you for making it.
Thank you! Been trying to learn how to do this but just couldn't get over the hump in editing existing files. Excellent tutorial.
Awesome I'm glad it helped!
Whoever programmed this simple software must be a genius
Thank you! This really helped me finalize my project! Have a good one.
I'm glad it helped!
Got a sub from me. This is exactly what I was looking for. Nice work man!
Awesome! I'm glad the video helped!
This is so freaking helpful. Thanks man!
Awesome video man, thank you
Hi master !! Thank u for this video tutorial solves my problem editing an stl file for 3 hours then i saw ur video … thank i just hit subscribe master
Worked great, thanks!
Thanks so much for this tutorial, for once it all makes sense and I've been able to modify some prints easily instead of tearing my hair out :-) not that I have any. I think I need your hat ;-) Great work.
I'm glad it helped out! Once it clicks it becomes an obsession! I can't seem to make a video without the hat anymore lol just feels awkward without it.
Man I had cable protectors and the file had 4 sets of it but I only wanted one and this really helped me, thank you!
Awesome! I'm glad I could help!
Vary helpful! Thanks for the toutrial
Great video. Thanks.
Excellent tutorial, very well explained, covered a lot !!!
Thanks! I'm glad it helped!
Outstanding tutorial, it helped me alot. Thanks!
I'm glad the video helped!
Wonderful. Enjoyed and learned. Thanks.
I'm glad I could help!
great job!!
Appreciate the example of cutting the curve on the cylinder, So it does not stick out on the thin wall. Good to consider, when working with small projects.
Thanks!
DUDE YES THANK YOU. SO SIMPLE.
You're welcome glad I could help out!
Thank you so much this helped *a lot*
Thanks man. That worked perfect!!!
I'm glad I could help!
Life saver man!
Excellent it worked. Thank you
Awesome glad the video is still helping people!
Thank you! I wanted to cut down a stl file and you made it super easy! (I'm new at this and need all the help I can get!)
Glad I could help!
Nice job, you have a good online teaching style.
Thanks I'm glad the video was helpful!
Great tutorial keep it up. You should have way more subscribers.
Thanks! I'm glad the video helped!
Thanks! I've been attempting, without much success, to modify stl files. Didn't realize it could be so simple!
Awesome glad it helped!
@@RevampedOutdoors Unfortunately, the stl file, split in Cura stops after several layers. Seems to be an issue with my modifications in either Meshmixer or Tinkercad. Wierd!!
Bummer, did it group well in tinkercad before exporting? That would be my only thought.
@@RevampedOutdoors Appeared to. All I am doing is importing the stl, changing the height and length and exporting. I've tried Prusa3d and Cura with no effect.
Have you tried just changing the scale in cura itself? I thought cura had a resize option but it's been awhile since I used it.
You just help me so much with this video
Awesome! Glad it helped!
Nice, thanks for sharing👍😀
Thanks! Hopefully it helps out!
Wow this was so much help thank you! +1 sub!
I'm glad I could help!
Very Clever
You’re the man!!!! Thanks!!!
I'm glad I could help!
awesome vieo man i subscribed
Thanku very much sir!!!!!!!!
Holy crap thank you so much
Glad I could help!
Some serious hat man like it:)
Thanks!
thanx bro :)
FannnnnTastiche! Thanks a bunch.
You're welcome! I'm glad I could help!
About half of my working in Tinkercad is what you could call "subtractive" in that I use so many moves with placing objects as holes. One way of thinking of them is I'm creating a die or router bit of a certain profile to sculpt away material.
muy buena la explicación de los pasos a seguir, gracias
Gracias por las amables palabras. Me alegro de poder ayudar. (Traductor de google)
Nice tutorial. I need to mirror an STL but also cut and rotate a small part of it. I think this may help me do that.
Awesome! I'm glad it helped!
Thank you
No problem! I'm glad I could help!
Good one, thanks--I have yet to figure out the (over-, non-?)importance of placing the workplane between joining objects.
Thanks, I think changing the plane really depends on what you're trying to accomplish, I rarely change the plane on most projects unless there is a reason to get a different angle on something I can't get from the standard origin. I do change the working plane quite a bit in fusion360 though because it is a lot more intuitive and easier to grab a new angle on a face to start modifying from the new face. Tinkercad is a bit harder to work in space of a design.
Very well done.. You showed me exactly what I was looking for in layman terms. I'm using a small footprint Printer and wondering how to cut larger projects down and installing keys to reassemble a item after printing..
Awesome! Glad I could help!
I had to do that once to repair a STL file that Nedfab couldn't fix. I used TinkerCad to put a new bottom on a vase like item.
i appreciate the in depth tutorial ! i am having the hardest time applying this to the project i am working on currently and would love a tutorial or some help with it!
Thanks! I may be able to help but it's been awhile since I worked with tinkercad. Worth a shot though.
Hello, great tuto, but you haven’t covered the case where for example you have a tube and you want to insert something in the middle. Is it possible to split the tube, insert the new part and assemble every thing without loose tube length?
Great now if we could resize part of an object that would be really great
thank you for this. if i have a model that has a design in the side of a flat wall is there a way i can make it smooth instead?
Generally if I have something like that in a design and I want a flat area instead, I will use a block to cut it away with a "hole" block group, then I will attach a new block with a group to build it back up to where I need it. I hope that makes sense!
@@RevampedOutdoors thank you so much super helpful!!
Take the square and put it in the square hole. That's right!
Very good! Thanks for the view.
Thx
No problem, thanks for watching!
mmm that into tune
Yup definitely a shining example of superb cinema.
Very well done, thank you. Question: I would like to revise my design and save it as a new file while not losing the original one. Can you tell me how this can be done?
Thanks. I think you could accomplish this a couple of ways, the first would be establishing a copy of the work and moving it away from you current work on the same project. The other option would be to go back to all your projects in your profile and duplicate the whole project itself as a copy, then you can start working on the second project without modifying the original. The third option would be to export the first project as an STL which would create a seperate file you could import st a later date to start over, this had a few problems the first being that you would no longer have the ability to work on independent parts of the design because tinkercad would not know which parts were where. I hope these suggestions help and actually make some sort of sense.
Many thanks. Great solutions.
Hi, I want to make a mold of the STL files. But I can't make a mold when I import STL files. is there an easy way?
I would have divided that particular part with three “holes”: one for the main part and two for the protruding parts.
your definitely visual with that hat on ha ha :)
Hello I have been 3D printing RPG dice for a while and I found a really cool and unique file for a sort of rounded d4 which is essentially a modified d6 but it still has the d6 number marks how would i replace those
Use the hole function go down to the depth of the number in the face of the dice. Copy the hole, switch it from hole to solid match the size to the top surface of the dice group the dice to the solid. Make a text object with the text tool for the appropriate number and inset it to the model. Make the text object a "hole" object and then group to delete from the face of the dice.
How to we make a part of a mesh object go in a bit further
This was a great visual. I have a cup and I want to make the rim/ walls thicker. How can I do that?
I think you may have figured it out based on another comment you left earlier. But just in case not, you could do it by making another similar sized cylinder and then insert it inside the walls of the cup and then make it bigger and smaller based on the thickness you would like. Then just group in the new cylinder to the cup and tinkercad should smooth it out for you. I hope this helps!
I hope this one help me because I'm modifying rustler shock tower
Is there a way to cut out like the eyes of a model that way you can print the eyes a different color?
You could in theory duplicate the model, keep that duplicate to the side cut out the eyes you want to print with a buffer around them so they can slide in after printing. Make sure to duplicate the cut out tools and use them as holes on the first model with the buffer spacing included. That way you would be able to print a model without eyes and slide the eyes in after. It would be a challenge but definitely doable.
7:00 can you just select with the cubes to delete those parts and just leave the cup? This dublicate group degroup thing looks too complicated..
You could if you just wanted the cup, but do keep in mind once it's gone in tinkercad it's gone. Tinkercad makes you create holes for deletions so once it's removed it's grouped with a negative space to be removed so if you ungroup it later it unravels like a rope. That's why I always suggest to keep a copy in the project just in case you want an extra piece at a later time. This is why more complex parametric and timeline CAD like solidworks and fusion 360 are so much more powerful and user friendly after you get over the learning curve.
Very nice tutorial. I have a stl file for a nosecone. I want to modify thickness of wall. How can I do that ? Thanks.
Thank you for the kind words. If you have the file already, you can make a cone the same size and then make a smaller cone and use that to cut out the center to make the new cone wall thickness as much as you want. Essentially duplicating the current file in place so the new cone is the correct dimension.
@@RevampedOutdoors Thank you very much.
What was the point of duplicating all of the original STL parts in the beginning?
Good point, I think I was thinking about how to modify and keep the beginning geometry. I think I was also thinking about moving it away from the other so there is an original version to reference while working on the modified version. I think I just never moved it out of the way. I also did the duplication to establish how to duplicate because that was a pretty important part of the steps later in the tutorial.
As a side note, I like to have the original duplicated when modifying because then you can use the original to combine with later if need be, I think I just made this one so simple that the duplication was a bit redundant at the start should have saved it for the first cutting block duplication.
@@RevampedOutdoors No problem I was just trying to follow along and I never saw where it made a difference. Thanks for the info, Tinkercad can do a lot if you try.
@@RevampedOutdoors YEAH, That makes sense to reference from original at a later time. I do that as well.
I don't know if you still pay attention to this, But here goes. Say your cup in the above example. How would I REDUCE the inner diameter WITHOUT increasing the thickness of the walls?
The only way would be to scale down the cup to compensate for the change in the inner diameter. If you don't mind the cup OD changing then I would ungroup the cylinder making the inner diameter, make the outer cylinder whatever size is required and then group them again to cut the hole out for the inner diameter. Unfortunately you will change the overall size of the cup but you could maintain your wall thickness just on a smaller overall cup. I hope that makes sense.
@@RevampedOutdoors so reduce the inner diameter by a half millimeter.I will try this in T.C.
Having a bit of an issue where when I group everything at the end it just makes the outline red but doesn't delete the areas that I have selected. Am I missing something?
Have you added the "hole" geometry to the model before grouping? Tinkercad is odd like that the "hole" box/cylinder/sphere needs to be in contacted to actually hide "delete" itself. I hope that makes sense.
@@RevampedOutdoors I think I'm having the same problem. Everything turns red when I hit group and I made sure to hit hole on the object I wanted to make a hole with
Hey man this has been a terrific video but Im encountering a really really annoying issue and that is whenever I select all whether it be via CTL+A or by dragging the mouse to highlight a selected few or all items I then go to group the items Ive selected in hopes that the shapes I inserted (which were designated "hole" shapes for the purposes of cutting out portions of my model) it never and or very slowly decides to cut out the shape Ive defined??? I am pulling my hair out over this. Dont get me wrong I am so happy to have found a good alternative to 3D Builder which decimates files the more you tinker with it now that was absolutely absurd and unnacceptable IMHO. Anyways Im selecting "hole" shapes to cut out defined sections of other shapes I drag the mouse over the selected items to group them and nothing happens it basically just selects them all? Then when I hit ungroup stuff from the past shows up (shapes I thought were gone or deleted all of a sudden reappear?????) Need help please tell me what I am doing wrong as I do not have the lock editing button selected either ?????
Tinkercad has a weird work flow, it saves by the shapes and not really the steps, technically you can go back to the original shapes with enough undos. This can get frustrating because selecting a shape once and ungroup then again brings it back twice. So basically by selecting all at once and hitting ungroup it can be double ungrouping bringing one part back twice. Best advice I can give on really large or complex designs is to group as few shapes together as possible each time. Select like 10 at a time group and then select again. That way if you need to ungroup at all its only a third of the project and not all of it. I hope that helps.
I found that very useful, although I think it didnt teach me anything new apart from one thing, what it did show me was that i was doing things correctly, my brain works the same in a visual way and I find this very easy to use. but fusion 350, I haven't got a clue yet I can work on vector software without problems but not 3d software for some reason.
I do have a question please, why is it that you keep creating duplicates of the item before you do anything , its this so you always have the last copy on the screen in case you want to go back and take something else or is there another reason please .
Can I assume once you export this out as a .stl and import into say Cura and slice the new additions are just treated as part of the original .stl so if you were adding a piece to strengthen a piece the new piece is part of the whole and not as an add on.
I particularly liked the way that you got the curve of the container right by turning that into a hollow and taking that away from the new part, useful tip which i sometimes forget. that was the new thing I learnt today!
Very good tutorial and excellent narration.. Thank you . Happy Christmas 2020
Thank you! I always try to keep a duplicate of the part every once in awhile as a sort of undo short cut. After combining a few items in tinkercad it is hard to get them apart without undo unraveling a few previous steps. Sometimes I find it easier to just modify a new grouping as opposed to unraveling and then rebuilding.
As far as strength of the sliced part, in my experience tinkercad will treat any skinned model as a solid, so only the outside skin of the mesh will be extrapolated into the final STL. So no matter what happens on the inside the finished piece will be considered solid. There are a few ways to make an STL or other 3D mesh hollow but that's usually after the fact and in a program like meshmixer or similar. I hope this helps!
@@RevampedOutdoors Thanks for that, I go down the same road for always keeping a few of the original off the workplane just incase i need a bit later, thats good to know and thanks for the comment on the actual part becoming solid, again I assumed that but you never know as when you add a piece sometimes to a file and then group it to become part of the whole I notice that you sometimes see the join lines despite them being fully integrated and I never understood why it appeared that way. thanks.
When I do this it Groups the Hole block and the STL
how do you do text?
Thanks but only problem is my stls keep looking like a broken glass pane. Any way to fix that?
Not sure I know what's happening, when does it do that?
@@RevampedOutdoors The triangle height is too high i think but i just use blender now
LOL you can do anything you want as long as you know how, what a statement
Earth shaking I know. I feel like it might be carved in granite one day.
Can you do a video on how to fill in a hole from a stl file on tinkercad?
Please forgive my ignorance, but I have never worked with any CAD programs before and I don't understand why I have to dublicate the object before I remove something, maybe you could explain, please?
I duplicate the object just as a security measure in case something goes wrong. Tinkercad is nonparametric so it is very difficult to "undo" anything, having different copies at different stages allows you to go back to a certain point in time without needing to ungrouo regroup multiple times. I hope that makes sense.
@@RevampedOutdoors Thanks a lot for the quick answer and your explanation! Makes sense, but as I've said, I have never worked with anything like this before, so I thought I might have missed something fundamental.
I am completely new to 3D printing, but I already think making things on your own might be fun and already one or two projects in mind.
Assuming I would want to make something a bit more complicated (not a statue or something, but I was thinking about making an organiser for pens, scissors etc. that I can hang onto a banister rail), would you think I can do that in Tinkercad as well or would you suggest another software for that?
It is definitely a fun hobby for sure. People have done ridiculous things with tinkercad that would be hard on even the most advanced CAD programs. If you want to get more advanced later you could always try autodesk fusion 360 as a personal license it is much more advanced and powerful but it is more complicated. Design spark mechanical is also a great option! I hope this helps!
@@RevampedOutdoors It sure does! Thanks again!
EDIT: I am also having the increasing suspicion by now that it is a fun hobby for sure, but also a highly _addictive_ one. Even more so since it can be combined so well with some of my other pastimes, especially tinkering with electronics and making things with epoxy resin.
so you select all, group, and then ??? and all the stuff (not the cup) disappears? when i select, group, delete, EVERYTHING disappears, including the stuff that's not inside the greyed out blocks. :( what did you do that im missing? great video otherwise! thanks!
The group will only "delete" (really just hides) anything that is inside a "hole" or greyed out region. Selecting items with the "hole" block will hide/delete those regions selected. Be sure to only group with the regions you want gone when using the "hole" or grey block. I hope that makes some sort of sense and helps.
Hey how do you import them in? They don't work for me
When you open a project in tinkercad you should see in the upper right hand corner three buttons, import, export and sent to. If you click on import it should open a dialog box where you press "choose file" this will open a window where you can find the .STL or .OBJ or .SVG file of what you want to import. The important part is the object has to be in one of those three file formats or it will not import into the project.
how do you change the inner diameter of the cilinder without changing the object itself?
You should be able to make a small hole cylinder and align it with the old, make it slightly larger realign and then group to cut a larger ID and retain the OD
@@RevampedOutdoors thank you for your time and answer.
No problem! Hopefully it helps.
nice tuto .. but when I export my modified file .. the resolution of the new file is way worst than the original ... what I did wrong ?
Tinkercad has a polygon limit on the mesh size of the stl being imported there is a chance that it reduced the size of the file by making it a lower count in polygons. Usually it will say that it is too big of a file size but the new versions may do that automatically. Tinkercad is great but it doesn't handle complex geometry very well. You could try exporting it as a different format like obj if it allows you too maybe then it will export at a higher resolution, I hope this helps!
@@RevampedOutdoors Thanks a lot, I will try another file format :) .
If there is text or a hole that you don't want... How do you erase the text or fill the hole?
Text is a tough one especially if it is on a curved surface. Usually if there is text I don't want that is indented I will try to match the base shape and then join the new shape with the curve of the original to "hide" the lettering. This is a lot of trial and error in tinkercad though because tinkercad doesn't really do anything with faces of objects so you have to manually align. If the text is proud to the surface I will try and match the surface with another shape and then scale up my cutting shape which I will use as a "hole" and cut away the lettering. If there is a hole I don't want I will make a cylinder and match it to the hole height and make it a slightly larger diameter and then join the two to make it one object and that should get rid of the hole. Then you can use another cylinder as a new hole in the location you want. I hope this helps, tinkercad forces you to use a lot of work arounds for things like modification, that's why I have switched almost exclusively to Fusion 360 because it let's you do way more dimensional CAD.
Do you know how to bevel the inside edge of the end of a tube. There is already an option to bevel the outside edge but the inside edge at the ends is always square
In tinkerCAD I would try to do a cone, flip it 180 degrees vertical and resize it evenly until it fit inside the tube and then cut the cone away from the tube.
On fusion 360 I would hit a button to do it lol
To fillet the end, I have used the ring tool before and adjusted the cross section points to make it bevel inverted and then aligned it with the tube and then cut it away. I hope that makes sense, it's kind of hard to explain. I should do a few more videos on tinkerCAD I'll add this to a list of quick videos to make.
Cool. Thx! I'll give it a try
I know I'm 2 years into the future but any way to shrink the space of an stl I get an error telling me that the file is too large (there's a cap on uploading stl files).
You can use fusion 360 to decrease the amount of triangles that compose the mesh of an STL, sometimes that brings down the overall file size, you can also clip it into sections with fusion. You can also reduce the mesh size in Meshmixer as well. As far as tinkercad specifically, there's not much it can do if the STL is too large.
@@RevampedOutdoors I've just tried meshmixer and it works a dream :D now I can delete two other pointless motorcycles instead of just having the 1, I also subbed.
Awesome, I'm glad it worked out! I think Meshmixer is one of those powerful programs that doesn't get enough credit. Thanks for subbing! I'll try to be as informative as I can!
@@RevampedOutdoors anytime man you put out some good content keep up the good work 💪💯
Nice video but I have a designed saved as a STL file but I know need to edit it because I have left a gap between objects it is a very complex design and I cant just re design it, any ideas.
I might have a few ideas, which program did you design it in? Is it still in TinkerCAD or did you compile the STL in a separate program? There are some tricks with splitting and connecting STL's in TinkerCAD that might be able to increase tolerances with some paitence after the STL is made. Other programs like Fusion 360 could possibly work by importing the STL but that gets kind've crazy with complex meshes. If you want you can send me a copy to the email revampedoutdoors@gmail.com and I can get a better idea what is going on. It's hard to tell if I can't see and know what edits you're trying to do.
i try to bring in a STL file in tinkerCAD but it said that the file was to big. Why is it saying its to big?
The STL itself is made of a bunch of triangles, the file you are trying to edit is made of too many triangles. You can use a few different programs to reduce the size of the file by reducing the amount of triangles but then the STL will be less high resolution. Fusion360 can reduce the mesh. I hope that helps.
@@RevampedOutdoors thanks
Can I save the projects as gcode file with tinkercad?
You can save projects as an STL or OBJ and then slice it in a program called a slicer to make it into a gcode file that a 3d printer will be able to use. There are many example of free slicers the best are generally considered, Cura, Ideamaker, craftware or slic3r, there are a few others but those are most popular. I hope this helps.
@@RevampedOutdoors Thank you for your help
@@RevampedOutdoors what software I can use to convert to x3g file? I update my makerbot now wont crate x3g file.