6. 123D Design Exercises for iPad

One of the most daunting things new users experience with design tools is the feeling of being overwhelmed with tools and options with no clear direction as to where to start.

In this chapter, we walk through the steps to create some simple objects that should help get you familiar with the purpose of the tools available to you.

Although the exercises are for creating simple objects, they should get you comfortable with using 123D Design and spark some ideas on how to create your own models for 3D printing.

1. Create a new project and then slide open the Primitives panel on the right (see Figure 6.1). Tap on the cylinder shape (it looks like a soup can), which will drop it in the center of the workspace (see Figure 6.2).

FIGURE 6.1 Starting with the Primitives menu.

FIGURE 6.2 Cylinder in the center of the workspace.

2. Close the Primitives window by dragging it to the right (see Figure 6.3).

FIGURE 6.3 Primitives window closed.

3. Because we started with a solid cylinder, we’re going to use the Shell tool to hollow out the cylinder to create the void in the bowl we’re making.

4. Next, tap on the Reshape (Face Editing) menu button (third from the bottom on the left); then tap on the Shell button (the bottom button).

5. Now tap on the top of the cylinder and you should see a white grip appear; you can hold and drag the grip down to hollow out the cylinder (see Figure 6.4).

FIGURE 6.4 The cylinder has been hollowed.

6. Don’t worry about how far down you go, but try to get as close as your can to the bottom. It won’t let you go through the bottom (see Figure 6.5).

FIGURE 6.5 Scaling the hollowed cylinder.

1. Tap on the Scale control on the left menu (fourth icon from top). White grips should appear; you can hold and drag them out or in to scale the cylinder.

2. Pull it out a little as shown in Figure 6.6. Keep in mind that it will scale the model in all directions, not just the direction you drag in.

FIGURE 6.6 Scaled cylinder.

3. The next step is to smooth the bottom edges of the cylinder. Using the Chamfer tool, which is located in the Reshape (Edge Editing Tools) menu, tap on the bottom edge of the cylinder (see Figure 6.7). Like before, a white grip will appear and you can hold and drag it out or in.

FIGURE 6.7 The cylinder now has a chamfered bottom edge.

4. You’ll get an instant preview of the amount of chamfer applied. Use as much as you’d like your bowl to have.

5. Next, use the Press/Pull tool (second from the bottom in the Reshape menu) to pull down the top of the cylinder to shorten the height of your bowl (see Figure 6.8).

FIGURE 6.8 Press/Pull Tool.

6. After selecting the Press/Pull tool, tap and hold on the top of the cylinder and drag it down. Make it as low as you’d like, but try for something like what’s shown in Figure 6.9.

FIGURE 6.9 The shortened cylinder.

7. Once again, select the Chamfer tool and then tap on the top face of the bowl. Drag the grip to smooth out the edges as desired (see Figure 6.10).

FIGURE 6.10 Chamfering the top of the bowl.

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Note

You’ll see edge lines in your model, but that is more for you to be able to continue to work on those edges within 123D Design. In reality, your model will likely be very smooth and rounded where you chamfered those edges and look great when 3D printed (see Figure 6.11).

FIGURE 6.11 Chamfered top edge of bowl.

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8. Inside the bowl, the bottom is still a 90° straight edge. Let’s make it easier to get anything out of the bowl by making the bottom chamfered on the inside as well (see Figure 6.12). Save your project.

FIGURE 6.12 Smooth, chamferred inside bottom.

You should now have a nice smooth bowl, inside and out, that’s perfect for storing change or small items.

To export the project for printing, you’ll need to use the web or desktop version of 123D Design. We cover this in the next chapter. For now, save your project to the cloud, which will make it available to you in those other applications. Figure 6.13 shows the finished bowl when exported to STL and then loaded into MakerBot’s MakerWare in preparation of 3D printing.

FIGURE 6.13 The finished bowl, ready to print.

FIGURE 6.14 Starting with the bowl object.

1. Starting with your previously saved bowl model, drop a torus from the Primitives menu onto the workspace (see Figure 6.15).

FIGURE 6.15 Adding a torus.

2. You can tap to drop it anywhere you’d like, and then close the Primitives menu by swiping to the right (see Figure 6.16).

FIGURE 6.16 Bowl and torus.

3. We have to manipulate it a little before we attach it to the bowl model so you might want to move the torus a little away from the bowl to do that. You also might want to zoom out (see Figure 6.17) to be able to see all the controls and grips for what we’re about to do.

FIGURE 6.17 Zoom out to see everything.

4. The first change we’ll make is to rotate it so that it is better aligned to be a handle for our coffee mug. Tap on the Rotate control on the left menu to display the white grip controls on the torus model.

5. If your torus started out flat on the workplane, you’ll need to rotate it 90° up from the workplane (see Figure 6.18).

FIGURE 6.18 Rotating the torus.

6. You can flip between the rotate and the camera control if you need to adjust.

FIGURE 6.19 Aligning the torus with the bowl.

You’ll likely need to change your camera view for this next move because we’re going to move the torus up so that it is very close to being properly aligned with the bowl model:

1. Using the Move control from the left menu, tap the white up arrow, and drag it up.

As you can see in Figure 6.20, the torus is still a little large for a handle. We’re going to scale the torus down to the right size using the Scale tool from the left side menu.

FIGURE 6.20 Oversized the torus.

2. Tap and drag the white grips that appear on the torus to resize it as desired (see Figure 6.21).

FIGURE 6.21 Scaled torus.

3. The scaling of the torus might have changed the vertical alignment to the bowl, so use the Move tool once again to position it as desired (see Figure 6.22).

FIGURE 6.22 Moving the torus into position.

FIGURE 6.23 Highlighted torus for combining with the bowl.

Tap the bowl model and your combine should be successful (see Figure 6.24). The two objects have now been combined into one solid model.

FIGURE 6.24 Combine successful!

Congratulations! You now have a custom-made coffee mug...although unless you’re printing it with a ceramic 3D printer, I probably wouldn’t try to drink out of it. Don’t forget to save your work.

If you are using a plastic filament-based 3D printer (like a MakerBot Replicator), you will likely need to use support material if you try to print the coffee mug depicted here. Figure 6.25 shows how the supporting material is added in MakerWare for printing on a MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer.

FIGURE 6.25 Support material for printing the coffee mug’s handle.

Why is support material needed? This is due to the torus extending out from the bowl over empty space (see Figure 6.26).

FIGURE 6.26 Printed mug with support removed.

Generally, when 3D printing with an FDM-based printer, you need to ensure your angles are no greater than 45° from an edge so that the printer can build up material to print that area.

If there is no material from a previous layer to print upon, you will likely get plastic printing in air that might or might not droop down. Depending on the printer, this may be undesirable and cause the print to fail.

These limitations don’t exist if you’re using most other types of printers such as SLS, which has built-in support via the powder used to print with.

Trial and error with your specific printer will yield the best results.

In the next chapter, we move from the iPad to a desktop or laptop computer for even more options and controls with 123D Design.