Year 7 · Digital Challenges
Welcome! Today you’ll learn how to build things in three dimensions using TinkerCAD — a free, easy-to-use design tool. By the end you’ll have designed your very own chair!
Foundations
Everything around you exists in space. The number of dimensions tells us how many directions we can move in. Let’s break it down.
Interactive Challenge
Drag each item into the correct category — 1D, 2D, or 3D. When you’re done, hit Check Answers to see how you went.
Items to sort
Getting Started
Follow these steps to set up your TinkerCAD account.
Go to tinkercad.com in your browser.
Click “Log In” in the top-right corner of the screen.
Select “Student accounts”.
Sign in with your school Google account.
Tutorials
Work through these built-in TinkerCAD tutorials to get comfortable with the tools before starting your chair design.
Select the “Tutorials” button on the left-side menu.
Work through the following tutorials — your teacher will show most of these in class, but exploring them yourself is great practice:
Each tutorial has instructions on the left side with navigation arrows at the top to move through the steps.
The Challenge
One that copies the look and exact dimensions of the red chair shown below, and another that is modern, unique and funky — completely your own invention!
You can either use a collection of Solid cubes, modify their dimensions and create a union group, or use Holes to remove sections from a cube.
Union groups are very useful for your funky chair design — they let you combine shapes to create really unique, complex forms.
Basic or incomplete model. Limited control of tools; significant errors in structure, scale, or detail.
Simple or predictable design. Limited creativity or unclear purpose.
Functional and mostly accurate model. Demonstrates competent use of tools with some minor errors or limitations.
Clear design idea with some creativity and functional thinking.
Accurate, detailed, and complex model. Demonstrates strong control of tools, precision, and appropriate use of advanced features.
Highly original and creative design. Strong consideration of both aesthetics and function.
Entry requirement: this task is only available once your chair assessment is complete and submitted.
Design a keyring in TinkerCAD that could genuinely be sent to a 3D printer. Unlike the chair, this one is real — a printer has to be able to build it, and the finished object has to survive life in a pocket or a school bag. That means the design constraints below are not suggestions.
Your design must fit inside a 2 cm × 4 cm footprint. Use the ruler and the shape dimension boxes in TinkerCAD to check this rather than guessing by eye. Anything larger will not be printed.
Include a hole for the keyring loop to pass through. Drop a Cylinder onto your design, switch it to Hole, position it near an edge, then group the shapes to cut it out. Leave enough solid material around the hole so it cannot tear away.
Avoid points, spikes and sharp corners. Round your outline off using cylinders, spheres or the rounded-corner shapes in the shape panel. A keyring lives in a pocket, so every edge it can catch on is a design fault.
Going Further
We live in 3D — but mathematicians and physicists talk about a 4th dimension. It’s mind-bending stuff that goes beyond what we can physically see or hold. Click the animation below to watch a short video that will blow your mind!