How to edit A 3d Model
Modify Existing STL files easily using TinkerCAD
0:00 / 0:00
Quality:
Sharing buttons:
alright what's up YouTube today we're
gonna talk about how to easily
manipulate modify add to and subtract
from STL files that you obtain on the
Internet
this is in reference to making remixes
on Thingiverse or just modifying
previously designed STL's in CAD program
to make your life a little bit easier so
if that's something you're into go ahead
and stick around
[Music]
all right so I'm in the Tinkercad
environment it's a little bit different
it's a tinkerer block setup it's a
visual type thing it's provided for free
from Autodesk you can go to Tinkercad
comm get a username and password for
free free software this isn't gonna be
as complex as something like a non shape
AutoCAD fusion 360 anything like that
but what it is good for is for visual
people and I'm a visual person so
basically what you do is you add and
subtract from this workplane environment
and Tinkercad just kind of doing it
visually not really off of pure specific
measurements it works really great for
beginners and for me it works really
well for just easily adding subtracting
or modifying STL files so a little
disclaimer here obviously STL files are
someone's intellectual property if they
have marked it as a copyright don't use
it and modify it and use it as your own
I mean just common sense guys like be a
good person it's very simple okay so
let's say I found an STL so for example
we use one of mine it found an STL I
brought it into the Tinkercad using
import and then just bring in STL file
and for some reason it's all grouped up
because the person that made it wanted
you to print it that way or whatever but
you want to modify it a little bit and
it comes in grouped in four pieces like
this one this right so now after we
import it into Tinkercad it just becomes
another object so this is just
technically another object and we can
modify it however we want
we can't ungroup it right because to
Tinkercad this is all one large object
it's like a block or a cylinder that you
added into the program but what we can
do is let's say we wanted to isolate
just this cut portion of this STL so
what I'm going to do is control V I'm
going to duplicate it all right I'm
duplicating it in place so right now
there's one over another so there's two
versions of this
thing on the work plane so if I bring
this down you can see that I'll change
the color see there's two of those now
because I didn't control B and
duplicated in place so let's say I just
wanted this circle what we have to do
then is we have to come in in in here
and just cut out everything but the
circle so what I'm using here is a block
that is selected as a hole and that hole
means it'll cut anything that it touches
I'm just going to go in here a little
bit carefully make sure it doesn't touch
the thing we want I'm gonna go in here
[Music]
make sure that it doesn't influence this
Cup at all and that would show up as a
dark area on the cup if it was actually
hitting the cup so I'm gonna come down
hold on here I'll move my head around
but right here is the snap grid area and
I can click this I can turn this off and
that gives me very fine resolution on
where I can be or where I can move this
arrow so large small it gives me what is
that a tenth of a millimeter movement
instead of or actually that gives me a
1/100 movement of a millimeter instead
of this high or low resolution snapping
to the build plate which is one
millimeter so I'm going to turn that off
I'll put my head back here in the corner
then I'm gonna move this in and out
until I don't see any gray see how that
turns gray that means that's
intersecting with that shape and I want
to preserve my cup so I'm gonna bring
that away from the cup and making sure
that I get over this part without
touching the cup oh and I don't know if
I'm gonna be able to do it I don't know
if I can do it oh that's gonna be a big
pain well that's good it's a tutorial so
I'm just gonna take this square and I'm
just gonna move it at a slight angle and
I'll put it like that then it gets rid
of that and doesn't touch the cup and
then I'm just gonna control D the square
or rectangle I guess it would be and
then I want to bring it like this and
like that so now I have it down to the
base of the workplane all the way up to
the top and what I'm gonna do here is
I'm going to select them all I just
clicked and dragged the mouse so
selected everything I'm gonna group
those and there we go okay come on go
back there we go okay so now that I have
everything together here and I have the
blocks cutting away the portions that I
don't want I'm going to go in and I'm
going to duplicate with a control D so
now I have two sets of everything except
the portions that are going to cut away
so now I'm going to select everything in
there and I'm going to do a shift and
select the cup
now I'm going to group so that's getting
away that's taking away one set of these
peripherals around the cup so now we can
go in and remove the duplicate of the
whole STL file and what we're left with
is just a free-standing cup with no
peripherals okay so that's how you
separate them apart so now let's say I
just wanted to have this one peripheral
on this this STL file well it's the same
exact process that we just did I'm going
to take it I'm just going to duplicate
it I don't have to duplicate it in place
for this one but I'll keep this TL over
here and then all we're gonna do again
is take the square or a rectangle we're
gonna remove everything we don't want
[Music]
just using a series of of rectangles
cubes as it were and then we're just
gonna group that again so that gets rid
of everything but this right then he can
go on so forth on and on and on so then
adding and subtracting to these is at
this point now this individual cup is
just a basic object as if it were in
Tinkercad so as if you created it
yourself so let's say we wanted to maybe
have this be some sort of cup holder
that you could get something out of I
don't really know but let's just put a
circular cutout in the front so it's the
same principle here as it is with any
other Tinkercad object you come up with
what you want it to look like in your
head so let's just say I don't know
something like that maybe a little
thinner and we'll align them with the
line tool so I know it's centered I like
this a whole
I'll group these two and now it's got to
cut out so I could grab something out of
that container or something if I wanted
so this is the same with adding to this
individual container no big deal
just throw it whatever you would want to
add to it and then what I do when I when
I try and add things that are thin like
an outer perimeter thin outer perimeter
what I like to do is slow down because
it's a tutorial what I like to do is I
take this object I want the outer
perimeter to go I duplicate that send
this one out I make this a hole and I
take this piece I'm going to add to it
[Music]
and I move it in to the hole version to
the cutout version of the the thing I
want to add that to you you can put this
one then in there or have the duplicate
separate and group it but I'm just going
to do this to make it easier to
understand I'm gonna group that now I
have that curve that I know will be the
curve for this on that piece already so
I know when it comes in it's not going
to go through that thin wall and it'll
just match up perfectly do it alright
I'm going to group those two and then
they're gonna become one STL file like
that and then this of course can be
modified again and again and again
so it's just it's a building block
scenario
you know just putting in what you want
figuring out how you want it to go you
can do anything in Tinkercad you just
have to figure out how to do it in
certain steps that's what makes some of
this other CAD software so powerful like
fusion 360 things like those programs
because you can basically have the
program do some of the thinking for you
so and especially with like assemblies
or anything like that any parts that
need to move together fusion 360 is
gonna gonna trump Tinkercad just because
you know you're doing a visual
representation on Tinkercad you can do
those things but it's a little bit
tougher because you're not getting
really high dimensional accuracy but
I've been using Tinkercad now for I
don't know how long like seven months
now or something and it's it works you
can design things and make it work so
yeah so basically that's how we can
isolate individual files from a imported
STL file that's how we can add and
subtract from STL files as if they were
just normal shapes in the Tinkercad
environment and yeah you can apply these
processes to anything so if you wanted
to add text or if you wanted to import
an SVG and add it to some wire subtract
it this all works that way and Tinkercad
is a great way to easily modify small
STL files so if you enjoyed this please
drop a like maybe you subscribe loved to
have you aboard keep your amps up and
your filament dry
[Music]
