Lesson video

Hello, everybody, welcome to "Computing.

" My name is Mrs. Franzsen, and it's really good to have you in my lesson today.

We are going to be working on some 3D modelling today.

You ready?

Then let's get started.

This lesson is called "Making a Desk Tidy," and by the end of this lesson, you will be able to create a 3D model for a given purpose.

Let's have a look at our keywords for today.

Our keywords are really important because we are going to be using these words all the way through the lesson.

So I'm going to go through the keyword and the definition, and I want you to really listen carefully because when they come up in the lesson, you'll be able to know what I'm talking about.

So our first word is cylinder.

A cylinder is a 3D shape with two circular faces connected by a rectangular section.

The next keyword is placeholder.

A placeholder is something that temporarily marks a space.

Our final keyword is hollow.

When something is hollow, it has empty space inside.

In the first part of this lesson, you will be working on accurately sizing 3D objects.

This is a desk tidy, so this is a photo of a real-life desk tidy.

It is plastic.

What 3D modelling techniques have been used to make this real-life model?

You will be using 3D objects on screen to produce your own 3D model of a desk tidy.

In Tinkercad, measurements are displayed in millimetres, so you might see the abbreviation mm on these slides.

That's millimetres.

So on the workplane, one small square measures one millimetre by one millimetre, so we would call this one millimetre squared.

One large square measures 10 millimetres by 10 millimetres, so that we would call one centimetre squared.

The dimensions of a 3D object are shown when you move the mouse over a handle, so it's like a popup.

You can see here, if I mouse over the red handle, it would show these dimensions.

This animation shows how to view the dimensions of a 3D object.

So watch the mouse cursor closely.

You can see that, as it's moving, when it stops on a handle, the dimensions pop up to give you an idea of the measurements.

Let's look at this example.

What does 42.

00 mean in this example?

Alex has got an answer for us here.

"In this example, 42.

00 is showing the depth of the shape.

The depth of the shape is 42 millimetres.

" Let's do a check here.

What is the width of this shape?

Is it A, 34 millimetres squared, B, 42 centimetres, or C, 34 millimetres?

Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

The answer is C.

So the width of this shape is 34 millimetres.

Well done if you got that one right.

Have a look at this example here.

How could you view the height of this 3D object?

Sofia has an answer.

"To view the height of this shape, you could hover over the white handle in the centre.

" Estimating is making a smart guess based on the information that you have.

Could you estimate an object's dimensions without resizing it?

Laura's got an answer for us here.

Let's see what she says about estimating.

"This shape's width and depth take up about three of the big squares on the grid.

I estimate that the width and depth of this shape are around 30 millimetres or three centimetres.

" What about estimating the height?

Now this might be more challenging.

Can you think of any ways that you could estimate the height of this shape?

Laura says, "I can't predict the height in exactly the same way, but this looks like the faces are all equal size.

I think the height is around 30 millimetres or three centimetres, too.

" Let's do a check here.

True or false?

This shape's dimensions are approximately, width 30 millimetres, depth 20 millimetres, and height 22 millimetres.

Pause the video and have a think about your answer.

Welcome back.

The answer is true.

Why?

The answer is true because the squared grid indicates that the width is 30 millimetres, and the depth is 20 millimetres.

The height is shown numerically because the height handle has been selected.

So because the height handle is selected, we know that that number is the height.

So the height is 22 millimetres, and we can work out the others from the squares on the grid.

Well done if you got that right.

You can resize objects using the handles just like this handle in the example.

You can also resize objects by typing the value you want where the measurement is shown.

So in these boxes you could change the numbers, and that would change the depth or the width of your shape.

When lifting objects, Tinkercad also displays the distance of the 3D shape from the workplane, or the base, in millimetres.

So this box here is showing the distance from the shape to the workplane, and that 17 is also in millimetres.

Okay, it's time for you to work on your task now.

We are going to be creating shapes that have to be precise, so that means we're going to be using measurements for them.

So you're gonna be building a cylinder, a shape that's based on a sphere, and a triangular prism.

I'm gonna show you the measurements for those now.

Our cylinder is going to be a width of 23.

5 millimetres, a depth of 23.

5 millimetres, and a height of 23.

5 millimetre.

You can pause the video here.

Go and build your cylinder.

When you come back, I'll show you a completed example.

Welcome back.

This is how Izzy's cylinder looks.

You can see that all three of her measurements match exactly.

It's the 23.

5 millimetres for all three of her measurements here for the width, the depth, and the height.

Here is our next one.

We've got a shape based on a sphere, so we have got a width of 20 millimetres, a depth of 20 millimetres, and the height is going to be 34 millimetres.

So you can pause the video here Go and build your shape based on the sphere, and when you come back, I'll show you a completed example.

Welcome back.

This is Sofia's shape based on the sphere.

You can see that her width and depth are both 20 millimetres, but her height is 34 millimetres.

Let's look at the final shape.

This is the triangular prism.

So for your triangular prism, I want you to build it with a width of 22 millimetres, a depth of 35 millimetres, and that height is going to be 16 millimetres.

Last one, pause the video here, go and build your shape, and when you come back, I'll show you an example.

Welcome back.

This is Alex's triangular prism.

So he had to make sure that his width was 22 millimetres, the depth was 35 millimetres, and then the height was 16 millimetres, and he checked those by selecting the handles to check that his measurements were correct.

Well done for all of your hard work in that task.

In the second part of the lesson, you will be using a placeholder to create a hole in a 3D object.

Let's look at our desk tidy again.

The cylinders in this desk tidy have been hollowed out to make containers instead of solid shapes.

This is to make space for the stationary and other items that you would store in the desk tidy.

So you might have seen these on a desk where people might be storing pencils, or pens, or paperclips, and that's what I used to store in my desk tidy.

Placeholders can be used to create holes in 3D objects.

So in these examples, that is how you have got holes within the shapes.

They were made with a placeholder.

How to make a cylinder-shaped container.

So the first thing we need to do is to drag a solid cylinder shape onto your workplane just like that.

It's important that you take note of the dimensions, your measurements, so your width, your depth, and your height of your cylinder because you will need it in the next step.

Next you will use a placeholder.

So a placeholder is a special kind of shape.

They are the grayed-out shapes in the shape panel, and they do this special job of creating holes.

For the second step, you are going to drag the placeholder cylinder onto your workplane.

Then you're going to reduce the dimensions so that the placeholder is slightly smaller than your solid cylinder.

So your placeholder, you can think of it as it's going to go inside your cylinder.

It needs to be a bit smaller than your cylinder is.

The next step is to lift the placeholder off of the workplane by about two millimetres to create the base of your shape.

So in my example here, you can see that the placeholder is not resting on the workplane.

It's been lifted up just a bit using the cone-shaped handle so that it's not right on the workplane.

This is to make sure there's no hole at the bottom of your cylinder once it's been hollowed out.

So you can think of this as everywhere where the placeholder is will become a hole.

So you want to make sure there's a little gap where it will make the base of your desk tidy.

This means your cylinder will be able to hold items.

The next step is to move the placeholder onto the cylinder and position it evenly on all sides.

So you can see in the example here, the placeholder has gone inside the cylinder.

It can be tricky to align your shape and the placeholder, but luckily, there's a tool to help you with this.

If you select both shapes, then you can click on the align tool, so the align tool will help you.

You can click on the two central handles here and here to align the placeholder into the centre of the cylinder, and it kind of squares it all up for you so that it looks neat, and it goes into the correct space.

So I'll show you an example here.

Now you can see the difference, that these shapes are all aligned neatly.

For the final step in this task, you need to select and group the two objects, and when you do it, you should see a hollowed-out cylinder.

So this is kind of a magic moment.

When you have selected both, you can click and drag over both shapes, and when you press group, it almost feels like magic because it hollows out that cylinder.

It puts the hole where the placeholder was.

Let's do a check here.

Which of these tools would help you align a placeholder into the centre of a shape?

Is it A, B, or C?

Pause the video here to think about your answer.

Welcome back.

The answer is C.

The C symbol is the align tool.

Well done if you've got that one right.

Let's do another check here.

True or false?

Laura has followed the shapes to create the first cylinder correctly.

Pause the video here to think about your answer.

The answer is false.

Why?

The answer is false because she hasn't raised the placeholder off of the workplane.

So there's a hole at the bottom of the cylinder, so the pencils might fall out.

This will happen if you don't raise that placeholder off of the base or off of your workplane so that there is that gap underneath like I showed you.

Well done if you've got this one right.

Okay, we're on to the task now.

It's now going to be your turn to create your cylinder and add your hole.

So step one is adding a cylinder to the workplane and resizing it.

Then you're going to drag the placeholder cylinder onto your workplane and reduce the dimensions to make it slightly smaller than your solid cylinder's dimensions.

Then you're going to lift the placeholder off the workplane by about two millimetres to create the base of your shape, and that's really important.

Don't forget that one.

Then align the placeholder into the centre of the shape and select and group your two objects.

You can pause the video here, go and work on your shape, and add your placeholder to create your hole, and when you're finished, come back, and we can look at an example together.

Welcome back.

I hope it went well.

This is Izzy's example of her cylinder, and you can see from this angle that she has got that base in place.

So she lifted up her placeholder before she grouped her objects so that it made a nice base at the bottom of her cylinder.

Well done for all of your hard work in this task.

In this part of the lesson, you'll be combining a number of 3D objects.

Let's go back and look at our photo of the desk tidy.

The desk tidy has six hollowed-out cylinders, so we've got one, two, three, four, five, six.

All of them are cylinder shapes.

You have created one cylinder for your desk tidy so far.

Which tools could you use to create the remaining cylinders?

Let's do a check here.

Which of these tools could you use to help you to make additional cylinders to use in your design?

Is it A, align, B, duplicate and repeat, or C, paste?

Pause the video to think about your answer.

Welcome back.

The answer is B or C.

You could use duplicate and repeat, or paste.

Well done if you got that right.

Which tools could you use to create the remaining cylinders?

Laura says, "You could use copy and paste to create more cylinders.

" Sofia says, "Good idea.

You could also duplicate and repeat a cylinder.

" So either method would work.

To make a new cylinder for each section, you could, number one, use copy and paste to create more cylinders.

That's these symbols.

Or you could duplicate and repeat the cylinder, which would be more efficient than copying and pasting, as it takes fewer steps, and that would be the third symbol.

Let's do a check here.

What are the benefits of using the duplicate tool to create more cylinders?

Is it A, it is more efficient than using copy and paste, B, you could spend less time thinking about the tools needed and spend more time focusing on your design, or C, it will get the two central handles to align the placeholder into the centre of the cylinder?

Pause the video here and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

The answer is A and B.

These are good reasons to use the duplicate tool to create more cylinders.

Well done if you got that right.

It's time to consider the size of each hole for your desk tidy.

How many pencils do you want to store?

The average pencil is seven to eight millimetres in diameter.

Now it's time to create your final design.

This is Laura's example.

You can see that she has got six different cylinders.

Remember to use the skills you've learned so far to help you such as the ViewCube.

When using the ViewCube to check the design from different perspectives, Laura can see that not all of her cylinders are connected, so it's really important you change your perspective to have a look around all the sides of your design.

It's time for your final task now.

The first step is to experiment with the sizes of the cylinders to make your own desk tidy.

Then once you're happy with your design, check the measurements.

Would the size be appropriate?

If not, group and resize the whole model.

The final step is to explain to someone else how you created your model in Tinkercad and which tools you used to achieve your final design.

It's time to go and work on your desk tidy design now.

You can pause the video here, and when you come back, I can show you an example.

Welcome back.

Let's have a look at our example.

You can see Laura has moved her cylinder shapes a bit closer together so that they all line up neatly so that it all is a single desk tidy shape with every cylinder connected together.

These children are talking about how they completed the task.

Alex said, "I dragged the cylinder shape onto the workplane.

I created a placeholder and used the cone-shaped handle to raise this slightly off the workplane.

" Sofia says, "I dragged the placeholder onto my shape and used the align tool to make sure it was in the centre.

Then I selected both objects and grouped them together.

" Izzy says, "I created duplicates and resized them to make my desk tidy.

The ViewCube helped me to see which shapes were placed correctly.

" Well done for all of your hard work in this task.

You have learned and worked on so many skills today during this "Making a Desk Tidy" lesson.

I'm going to summarise our learning for us.

Dimensions in Tinkercad enable you to accurately resize and move shapes.

Placeholders can be used to create holes in objects.

Shapes can be hollowed out to make containers instead of solid shapes.

A cylinder is a 3D shape with two circular faces connected by a rectangular section.

Well done for all of your hard work today.

I really enjoyed having you in my lesson, and I hope to see you again soon.