For this project, I learned how to 3D print. The last and only time I had ever 3D printed was in seventh grade, so I had no memory of what to do or what software we used. This time, I used Tinkercad in the design process and I designed a name tag for myself. For my name tag, I wanted to make it personalized, and I wanted to incorporate things I like into it. Some things I like are pigs and SpongeBob, so I decided to make the shape of the name tag an outline of a pig and the text style the same type as the one they use in SpongeBob. Overall, I thought Tinkercad was a cool tool, but it was a bit difficult for me since I had no experience using it before. I went through a lot of the tutorials they had on their website, and then I watched two additional videos to help me create my design. One of these videos was about turning 2D images into 3D objects. This was helpful for me because I was able to take a 2D image of a pig and convert it into a 3D pig. I also watched this video about downloading and importing text into Tinkercad. Because of this video, I was able to add my special SpongeBob font into my design. To get the measurements for my name tag, I actually measured some of the other DKC consultants’ name tags! This is my design below:
In order to print my name tag, I made a 3D printer training appointment with the DKC. This was actually my first time booking an appointment on the DKC website and Ally was my consultant. I had briefly done a training at the beginning of the year for 3D printing, but this was a nice refresh. I was able to print a tiny pink dinosaur. I think I’ll give him to my sister. She’ll like that.
I finally printed on April 22nd. At first, my print failed because I cut the layer in the wrong place. My pink pig started to turn white!
I had to start over which was annoying, but it was okay since the print did not take long to do. Here is the final image!!
