Hi all,

Most of the prints we've done have been modifications of .stl files found
on Thingiverse.

We have modified them in Tinkercad.

Have you found Tinkercad the best place to create 3D prints from scratch?

I wathed this YT instructional video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60xfIu-lqAs...

which was very good but the instructor did not explain how he derived all
the measurements to create the 3 parts of that wrench.

Is there any Web site which helps you derive measurements for your 3D print?

Also, if a person draws a design is there any site or software you can use
to develop that drawing into a 3D file (e.g. .stl or .obj)?

Thank you!

Our makerspace members, one of whom is a heavy Tinkercad user, has found there is an upper limit to the number of triangles/facets permitted within the program. As a result, the efforts are going into Fusion 360 (Free hobbyist version) and also Rhino3D (for more organic creations, but not free).
You may also find people recommending Blender, which has a challenging learning curve, as well as recommending SketchUp, which is problematic for creating models that can be printed. There are others (Sculptris, ZBrush, etc.) of which I am familiar only in passing.

As you've posted to an OpenSCAD mailing list, certainly you'll find people using this program for ground-up creations. I've not heard of anyone doing 3D modeling in Scratch, but I'm not familiar with the program.
Meshmixer and Fusion 360 have measuring capability, the latter being more user friendly.

The Tinkercad user frequently requests of me to modify a model, as he is unable to accomplish his objective within Tinkercad.
Respective of your measurement question, Tinkercad will present dimensions of a bounding box of a component selected, but it's not always the dimension you require. OpenSCAD will have dimension references if the code is created in a parametric manner, but that's the creator's responsibility.
I've been using Fusion 360 more frequently, as I am slowly learning the various features and capabilities and combining that knowledge with Meshmixer, OpenSCAD, Inkscape (with Paths to OpenSCAD extension) and Tinkercad.
Your last question has multiple solutions. My preferred method is Inkscape (v0.92, no higher) with the extension, but one can use linear_extrude() as well. Fusion 360 certainly supports this type of feature.

On Monday, January 31, 2022, 03:15:03 PM EST, charles meyer <reachmeplace@gmail.com> wrote:  

Hi all,
Most of the prints we've done have been modifications of .stl files found on Thingiverse.
We have modified them in Tinkercad.
Have you found Tinkercad the best place to create 3D prints from scratch?
I wathed this YT instructional video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60xfIu-lqAs...
which was very good but the instructor did not explain how he derived all the measurements to create the 3 parts of that wrench.
Is there any Web site which helps you derive measurements for your 3D print?
Also, if a person draws a design is there any site or software you can use to develop that drawing into a 3D file (e.g. .stl or .obj)?
Thank you!

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