How I made the Smooth Circle or smooth cylinder in Tinkercad

Part creation update, in the description below...
The standard cylinder within Tinkercad is limited to 64 sides. I developed a technique to make it far smoother and I'm thrilled with the result. www.tinkercad....
To create your own Part, select your object, click onto the "Basic Shapes" pop up menu, select "Your Creations" and then click onto the "Create Shape" button
Follow me on twitter / jayteeau

[@matthewfolbre1635]

Best tutorial about Tinkercad I've seen.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks so much, glad you found it useful. Anything else you'd like to see within Tinkercad? Cheers, JAYTEE

[@BenHawkerTrovan]

A solution so simple and elegant that I feel stupid for not thinking of it myself. Well done.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thank you. There are different ways of doing this, but this technique does not rely on any TC customisers. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Caleena1989]

For me as a beginner in TinkerCAD I've not only learned how to make a smooth circle, but also how to center objects and save objects in my own part list :-) Thanks a lot!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@fishpotpete]

Between smoothing and aligning a hole in a cylinder, I think I've learn too much today! Both of these will save me a boat load of time... Thanks!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Awesome, we're always learning. Glad you found this useful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@terryorsi2970]

Thank you for this! Makes my prints so much cleaner.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@garyblackwood9459]

Absolutely brilliant as this has been bugging me for quite a while. thank you very much for sharing.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome Gary, glad it helped. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@strangewigglytuff]

this is genius! youre a life saver dude, i was struggling with exporting blocky models for texture mapping in blender. thank you so much!!!!!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Fantastic, glad it was helpful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@dougwagner7556]

Great trick. I tried it a slightly different way. My first duplicate was .5 degrees and then (never took the highlight off the duplicated circle) duplicated it 10 more times. It saved me from entering the degrees for each duplicate. It should also work at .4 degrees with 14 total duplicates. And .3 degrees with 19 total duplicates.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Excellent Doug. Nice improvement. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@RuudK.]

Brilliant! So simple but so effective. Thank you very much for sharing.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Glad you found it useful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@mattdicke3414]

Super helpful. Been trying to solve this for a while, and this is so simple and so effective. Thank you.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome, glad it helped you out. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@gr8dane22]

I came to your video hoping to learn one thing and learned so many things! Thank you for putting this up and your hard work!

[@JAYTEEAU]

I'm glad you did Danny. We're always learning. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Prowler2k]

Simply genius, thank you JAYTEE

[@JAYTEEAU]

@Mark Conway You're more than welcome. Hope you get some value out of it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@JestersHammer]

Perfect, exact the instructions I was looking for. And very good explained!

[@JAYTEEAU]

I'm glad it helped you. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@geoninja8971]

Awesome.... the curves in Tinkercad have always driven me nuts - I'll definitely use this tip....

[@JAYTEEAU]

Excellent, thanks for watching. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Engineerboy100]

Excellent tutorial! Thank you I will be using this smooth circle method tomorrow. :) Very cool!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you liked it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@joeduhclown]

This is great. Thanks for sharing the technique and the file.

[@AlandelMundo1003]

Learned a lot from this. Going to try this with a circle and doing it on 2 axis as a need a nice smooth sphere for an upcoming project. THANK YOU!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad this was helpful. Sounds like you're about to produce a LOT of duplicated objects. Hopefully the servers don't crash 😂 Cheers, JAYTEE

[@raeburn1277]

I'm 3 years late to this video but that's a genius solution and I will be using it a lot.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hey, thanks for watching. Glad you can make use of it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@iHayri1]

Thank you very much Sir, I was just designing a case for my GPS Speedometer and wanted to increase the sides of the cylinder and a quick Google search brought me here. Thanks for sharing, greatly appreciate it. Regards, Hayri 🙂

[@JAYTEEAU]

That's great, glad I could help. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@phantom12321800]

Oh nice. I will be doing this to refine some larger conical and round objects.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Great, glad it might help you out. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@orionred2489]

With the current GUI, you click on the "Basic Shapes" arrow box, and select "Your Creations". This will show the "Create Shape" button.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Great thanks, I'll add a note. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@ericlanglais]

I came here to learn one thing and learned several things! Thank you!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome, glad it helped. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@user-zr3io2ft1x]

freaky clever thanks alot bud
I will make cones too as i use them from time to time

[@JAYTEEAU]

Awesome. Cones will work beautifully too. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@6romansoldier]

Def shouldnt neeeeeed to do this but you helped me make this tabke saw vacuum tube adapter perfectly thank youuuuu

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad it helped you out. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@rrrailservicehoscalemodelr4734]

Thanks for this tutorial. It helps to resolve a problem in a couple files I had printed. 3D modeling is very new to me.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hey, glad it helped. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@bassreaper7779]

Excellent video. I was really frustrateed with this problem. Thanks for the solution.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad it helped you out. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@davidmcgrath8372]

I felt your aha! moment right after it all came pretty, thanks for this!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@crouchy50]

Great JT!

[@NellShamrell]

This is FANTASTIC! TY so much!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@tattoosfromgrease]

GREAT video! Thanks for sharing!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thank you, glad you liked it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@erickrhoades1469]

If it could make a smooth circle out of the gate it would be a perfect program for makers.... but it's pretty close already ;)

[@JAYTEEAU]

Agreed. It's pretty slick for what it is though. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@drewfish8092]

This was a HUGE help. Thank You

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@TheTylerDax]

Flippin´ brilliant 😁

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're flippin' welcome 👍 Cheers, JAYTEE

[@raydavis3966]

Jaytee, Thank you! A real benefit to makers.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome Ray. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@TD3DMakes]

Good stuff Jaytee. Thanks for sharing!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Thierry 👍

[@Camaro45th]

Thanks for the video I just started using tinker cad and this will probably come in handy. I wonder why they wouldn’t just raise the number of sides to like 360.

[@davidfellows899]

Very kewl, and even better, VERY TIMELY! Thanks!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@user-cf1ju4jl5p]

Excellent vid I used this technique just now to make a round gasket for a grease gun.. nice work man.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Great stuff, glad it works for you. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@jm892]

Very nice idea and thanks for sharing !...

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@appletreehifi]

one word: Brilliant. Thank you very much.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome

[@cnjeepman]

Brilliant! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you found it useful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@kevinefms]

Thanks mate. This is just what I need right now.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@fissschy]

Mate - Excellent tutorial. Exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hey mate, no problems at all. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@nebulousJames12345]

because it makes sense that making a smooth surface should be so hard.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Yep, it seemed silly to me too. I understand why the simplified primitive shapes are being used, but at least give us a 'render' option 😉 Cheers, JAYTEE

[@MrNickpeck36]

Worked great, thanks so much.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Perfect, glad it worked for you. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@christiantrab6160]

I just tried this for printing a motorcyclepart - it works great, thanks!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@DCC-DUDE]

Brilliant!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you liked it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@AzteCypher]

Thank you very much for this tutorial. I had assumed that I was stuck with all those facets. I'm very happy to have been proven incorrect. Cheers!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome

[@erynstreeter3756]

Thanks for the video

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@jwc82579]

For the love of god, why did I not know this years ago! Hope to see you at the next MRRF whenever that may be! *jwcproductions*

[@JAYTEEAU]

Ha ha, thanks Jim, glad this helped. Another MRRF would be fantastic. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@malcolmgay2206]

Your a legend Thank you JT

[@JAYTEEAU]

You are very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@TheRmaguire]

Genius, was wondering how to do this. Worked a treat! Cheers

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Ross, glad it helped you out. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@robertpelland5649]

Congrats for your effort, very informative.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Robert, glad it was useful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@OMEGA2669]

Love this! Thank you!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@marymary5172]

Thank you so much, i saw your video and finally i made a gorgeous ring on my 3d printer. thanks a lot

[@JAYTEEAU]

Fantastic, glad it was helpful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@hasher22]

LIFE SAVER!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad it helped. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@TheBayAYK]

Awesome. This saved me some much sanding. Great trick and it works perfect!

[@JAYTEEAU]

That's great to hear 👍 Cheers, JAYTEE

[@765934]

Excellent work.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks, glad you like it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@adams1625]

SMART!!! Thanks bro great idea

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Adam, glad you found it useful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@adams1625]

@@JAYTEEAU Of course! I find when I zoom in that the pattern is wavy. The flats point in and out. Is this an issue? It looks fine zoomed out though

[@JAYTEEAU]

@@adams1625 If you zoom right in, you're seeing the remnants of the flats, however, if you're 3D printing these objects, the slicer ( usually ) ignores the small variations. Cheers

[@ChickensAndGardening]

Great idea!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you like it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@starkey0417]

That was AWESOME. Thank you!!!!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@max_maldini]

Very clever! Thank you so much for sharing.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@kz6fittycent]

This was awesome! Thanks!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@TravisFPV]

Brilliant. Thanks for the tip!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@cyrillowe1271]

So Awesome thanks for this!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you liked it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@DieterWoestemeier]

Very clever! Thanks for sharing!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome, glad you found it interesting. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@spikekent]

Great hack mate. I'm sure it will be invaluable to newcomers. I find Tinkercad hard work these days, it's not the fault of Tinkercad at all, it's me. I began with Tinkercad but since moving to Fusion 360, I can't get my head around TC.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Spike, I've found it useful myself not just as a concept. I need to spend the time to model in F360 but I don't do mission critical stuff so TC is great for my little things. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@nabicht]

exactly what i was looking for

[@JAYTEEAU]

Excellent, glad it helped. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@mychair10]

Excellent, well done ,especially useful for 3D printing.very gratefull for your efforts in producing tutorials like this, keep up the good work.Subbed.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks mychair, glad you like it. Do you have a use case in mind? Cheers, JAYTEE

[@mychair10]

@@JAYTEEAU well as you know 3D prints don't like post machining so the more accurate the circle the better and the fewer walls you can getaway with! cheers.

[@JAYTEEAU]

@@mychair10 Very true ;)

[@vaderaguk]

Here because I made a round thing that wasn't round. Nice one

[@Centurion3D]

That was a great tutorial! Thx very much, that solves a lot of problems for me. Cheers👍

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome, glad you found it useful. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Ezbos2]

Brilliant!! Thank you!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@GeekTranslation]

thank you very much for this

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@eslmatt811]

I was concerned that the extra faces would increase print time, but after making a cylinder with 20, 64, and smooth. Prusaslicer does not show a difference in print time. I also found a simpler way; Duplicate rotate .5deg then duplicate 10 more times.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Excellent work, great testing and refinement. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@nemocheerio]

Thanks for this. I'm making wheels and was wondering what to do about the facets. I'm gonna give this a try in my design and see if Tinkercad can handle it. Thanks for your work.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Sorry for the late reply. I hope it worked for you. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@nemocheerio]

@@JAYTEEAU Hey, Yeah. Worked out great. I made two piece wheels that hold a section of pool noodle tire for my RC airplanes. They came out great! and 2 grams lighter than my previous ones I turned on a lathe!! Thanks.

[@JAYTEEAU]

@@nemocheerio Fantastic.

[@Dave99925]

That was a huge help. Thanks!!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@dougcotterill]

Great video Jaytee, thank you :)

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome Doug. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Steve2Q]

Brilliant..love this!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Fantastic, I hope you can make good use of it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Spartacusse]

Great idea. But I wonder, why not duplicate, rotate, and then keep hitting duplicate with the object still selected, it will duplicate the new objects already with the previous rotation added on top.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Ha ha, excellent point. My method is easy to grasp, but once you know what you're doing, your improved workflow is definitely quicker. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@EarlWallaceNYC]

Brilliant ! ! ! Thanks

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you like it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@tecknick]

Excellent idea, but surely the idea of using CAD is to simplify. A quick look in TinkerCads' shape generator will find cylinders and other basic shapes with much better definition, and can be simply dragged onto the plane and used.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks very much for the comment. The shape generators sometimes go offline making your design useless for that period of time so this was a 'workaround'. Using primitives is obviously the best solution, but if I can't rely on them then I'll find a different solution. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@rotagbhd]

I took this up a notch, I started with a 60 sided cylinder, rotated copies by 0.01 degree giving me 10 sides per degree, then rotated that six times by 1.00 degree for a total of 3600 sides (60x10x6). I tried to repeat that process with the 3600 sided cylinder but it failed while trying to save the object.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Good one 👍 I know Tinkercad will have a bit of a hard time with MANY MANY objects. What you could perhaps do is save as a part, then place the part and rotate it again a lot of times. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@EnergeticWaves]

too much math.

[@owmince-]

thank you

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@L_C_3027]

Wow that's clever as fuck bro. Nicely done!

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Man, I was pretty pleased with myself too 😉 Cheers, JAYTEE

[@Spinkeyco]

Thank you!

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome

[@ArabellaPottery]

I understood it up to the red ad orange then turning it 3 degrees. But which one did you turn at 1.5 degrees. The orange, red or both. Did you group them after each degree?

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hey there, thanks for watching. Performing a Select All is the safest way to ensure we get the correct amount of rotation. I realise we're making a lot of objects, but that goes away once we create a stand alone part. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@AddyRCBuddy]

Very nice tutorial, really helpfull! Thank you sir ✌

[@JAYTEEAU]

Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@chrissyoutubechannel8679]

I use Tinkercad lot of messing about to get smooth edges why can’t they just update a smooth tube be a lot easier

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hi Cris, there are other options under the Shape Generator section, but when the generator system goes down, so do all of your shapes. This is fiddly for sure but it's always available. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@jej3451]

Nice.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you liked it. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@hjc0706]

nice! I'm curious on why tinkercad doesn't have a smooth option.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Glad you like it. I believe it has to do with server load with the amount of polygons a completely smooth object would entail. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@x7falcon689]

Thank You so much !

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@jf6720]

Great video! Do you know is this only a problem with tinkercad, or just a problem with Cura?

[@JAYTEEAU]

Definitely an limitation of the Tinkercad engine using it's standard 'primitives'. Cura can only do what it's told. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@davidmcdermott1973]

Thanks

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@geraldwalker4035]

Do you know of a way to make an adapter for a vacuum system that smoothly changes from one size to another. I have only been able to design one that has two cylinders stacked on top of each other and the transition is quite clumsy.

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hey Gerald, thanks for watching. I would probably incorporate a cone into the mix to try and make a better external transition, but I guess it depends on the variation of the inner diameters. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@halvardu]

Thank you! :)

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@guate6]

Great video, cheers.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@billjonesnation]

amazing

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@bravotangoecho8598]

Thanks so much for explaining how to do this. I'm now trying to do something similar with the Torus, but I don't think I paid enough attention in geometry class because I'm failing. Any suggestions?

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're welcome. I just had a look and there are several predefined Torus objects available if your search for Torus. Some have more configuration options than others, but they are mostly smooth. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@bravotangoecho8598]

@@JAYTEEAU Still new to Tinkercad, so I didn't even think to look at community things. That alone was a great tip! As you suggested, I found some that will work. Thank you!

[@JAYTEEAU]

@@bravotangoecho8598 Awesome

[@Ebonyqwe]

Wow, great lateral thinking. Can I download your parts?

[@JAYTEEAU]

Hey, thanks for watching. Link in description for parts. Cheers, JAYTEE

[@MikeSiggins]

Perfect. Thanks.

[@JAYTEEAU]

You're very welcome. Cheers, JAYTEE