Lesson video

Hi there everyone.

My name is Mr. Booth and welcome to your design and technology lesson for today.

In today's lesson we are in Tinkercad, a brilliant computer aided design application and today we're gonna be looking at complex 3D shapes.

So we're gonna get far more complex with what we are designing in today's lesson and you are gonna get lots of time to do lots of activities in the Tinkercad workspace.

The outcome for today, I want you to be able to make and manipulate objects to create a complex 3D design in Tinkercad.

We are gonna be building on lots of our previous knowledge to be able to design shapes and designs that are far more complex than what we have done before.

We have four key words for today's lesson and I want you to keep a lookout for these when you are using these in Tinkercad.

The first one is mirror.

This is a brilliant function that we are gonna use and what it means is it means to flip a shape across a fixed line.

The next function we're gonna use is rotate.

And what this is gonna do is allow us to turn a shape around a fixed point.

We've already done this before but we're gonna use it today for more complex shapes.

Another new function that you haven't yet learned about is the Align tool.

Now this is gonna arrange shapes in order.

It's gonna help us align those shapes and make sure they line up correctly.

And finally, complex shapes.

Complex shapes are shapes made of many different shapes and these will include usually compound shapes as well.

There are two learning cycles today.

The first one is mirror and align 3D shapes.

So let's learn how to do that.

So as we already know, rotating a shape is where a shape is turned around a fixed point.

But we also have a tool called mirror and it's really important that you understand the difference between what rotating is and what mirroring is because there are some subtle differences that we need to understand and also why we would do one or the other.

Now we've already played around with mirroring and we know if we click on our shape there and we select one of the the rotation handles, we will get our protractor and then we can turn our shape round and rotate it in different directions.

But when we wanna mirror a shape, what we want to do is flip it across a fixed line.

Now let's imagine we're talking about yourself.

Now if you rotate, you might turn on the spot just like we've done with our shape on the left hand side of your screen.

But if we mirror you like you look in a mirror, all the features of that shape are actually flipped.

Now think about that carefully.

If you are looking in a mirror and you raise your left hand, your mirror image is actually raising their right hand.

So what's happened is we've actually flipped and that's what we call mirror.

Quite a complex, quite complex to understand.

But once we get into Tinkercad, you'll be able to play around with this and have a go at it.

So to mirror a shape in Tinkercad, what we need to do is use the Mirror tool, believe it or not, very sensible name for a tool.

And the Mirror tool is at the top there.

It's got two triangles facing each other with a line down the middle, a line down the middle is of course the mirror, and the two triangles are mirror images of each other.

So we can use that.

Now what's really important once again, is to make sure you selected your shape first.

You can't work on a shape unless it's already selected.

And how of course do you know if it's selected? It is of course it's got that blue glow around the edge and you'll also probably see some handles appear as well.

So we selected our shape, we click on mirror and what we get is we get more of these handles.

Tinkercad loves handles, doesn't it? And we call these the mirror handles and you'll see that they are arrows, double-sided arrows pointing in different directions.

So the Mirror tool handles allow users to mirror their work in different directions.

The original shape will also be shown so you can kind of see what's happening as you go along.

It'll give you almost like a preview.

And if we look at the different handles that we're using here for this shape, you can see the different directions in which it's mirrored in.

Again, the best way to get brilliant at this is for us to have a go, which we will of course in the task coming up.

Quick check for understanding, how many handles appear when using the Mirror tool.

Is it A, one, B, two, C, three, or D four? Pause the video now, have a go at this.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course three.

And why is it three? Well it's 'cause we're working in three dimensions.

So there's actually only three directions we can mirror in anyway.

Now why would we want to mirror a shape? Well it's all about creating symmetrical designs.

So you might want to have a mirror image of a shape because you want to create some kind of symmetrical design that looks absolutely brilliant.

And if you look at the design on the left hand side, what we've done is we've duplicated or copy and pasted the shape and then we've translated it out to the right hand side to bring those shapes together to make something more complex.

But I don't quite like that because it's not symmetrical.

So what we could actually do is select the shape on the right, you can see it's selected 'cause it's got that blue glow around the outside.

And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna click on mirror and we're gonna mirror it in the direction that is shown in red.

And then what we get is we get a really nice symmetrical design so that duplicated or copied shape can now then be translated back into the other shape.

And what we've got is we've got a new shape that looks nice and symmetrical using that original shape as the reference.

Doesn't that look brilliant? I think it looks fantastic.

And you can be really complicated with this when you want to use your Mirror tool, but sometimes you might not be able to line those shapes up.

Now I want you to have a little think at this moment.

Maybe have a little discussion with the person next to you.

How do you get shapes to line up properly on Tinkercad? Have a little think about it.

Have a chat with the person next to you.

Pause the video, come back to me when you've got an answer.

Brilliant.

So I'm sure you had a conversation.

So the first way is you could just select and translate it.

So once you selected it and you translate it around that work pane by moving it, of course you can line them up by I.

You might have even said, well actually you can use the arrow keys as well.

And if we remember the arrow keys, will nudge your shape in one millimeter increments around that work plane.

So you could use that as well.

But we also might wanna be even more accurate than that.

So we might want to make sure we can accurately align complex shapes using what we call the Align tool.

Another very sensible name from Tinkercad.

And you can see the Align tool is pointed to there.

Now what's really important again is you have to select both shapes.

You cannot align a shape on its own.

If you've got one shape, it's got nothing to align it against, you won't be able to click on the Align tool.

So what we need to do is select both shapes.

They can't be grouped either so that you need to make sure it's two individual shapes.

And then when you click on the Align tool, yes you guessed it, we will get some align handles to use.

Now this is quite complicated to understand what each of those handles actually does.

So again, I'm gonna give you some time in the task to have a play with this to figure out what actually happens.

But let's look at some of the basics of it after this check for understanding.

So what does Align do? Does it A, duplicate shapes accurately? B, mirrors shapes accurately.

C, creates shapes accurately.

or D, lines shapes up accurately.

Pause the video, have a go at this.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course lines shapes up accurately.

So now let's look at this a bit closer.

So we selected both our shapes, we've clicked on our Align tool and our align handles have appeared and we can see that the Align tool will allow us to line up shapes left, right forward, backwards and up and down.

Now the great thing about the Align tool is as you hover over those handles, it will give you a preview of where those shapes are gonna align.

Now all I wanted is I want these two shapes to align up perfectly, so they're aligned down the center across the width.

So if we look at this first one that I've hovered over, which is the bottom right handle, you can see that's not gonna work 'cause it's gonna bring everything over to the right hand side.

If I click on that center one, it's gonna bring them both into the center and they kind of kinda merge.

I don't really want that either.

And likewise with this bottom left handle, everything's gonna suddenly shoot over to the left hand side.

So I don't want that either.

But if we look at the handles across the left hand side, you can see the bottom ones would bring both down to the bottom.

I could align them in the middle if I wanted to, that would be absolutely fine.

Or I could align 'em both at the back.

All those three would work perfectly.

So it doesn't really matter which one we select, but as long as we select one of those, they will be aligned how I wanted them aligned.

And now we're onto our first task and you can see my final aligned shape is there.

So, it's been mirrored and it's been aligned.

I've got a really nice symmetrical shape that is all aligned as well.

So that's what we're gonna have a go at in this task.

So the first thing I want you to do is create a new 3D design and then name that design and give it a sensible name.

I shouldn't really have to tell you how to name your designs or what to name them anymore.

So I'm not going to.

Number three, I want you to create a compound shape.

Again, we should know how to do that.

You are then gonna duplicate that shape.

So you can see we're using all this knowledge that we've had previously and we're trying to use that to make even more shapes.

And you can see why we taught it in this order because of course you have to do that to be able to create more complex shapes.

You are then gonna rotate or mirror the shape until they meet symmetrically.

And then I want you to align your shapes as well.

You are then gonna repeat it with some different compound shapes to really get used to doing this before, eventually of course we're gonna move on to making your designing your eco-house.

So pause the video now, have a go at this task.

Come back to me when you've done that.

So how did you get on? Well, let's see how Laura got on.

So Laura duplicated her compound shape that she made.

She then mirrored it using the Mirror tool.

She then used the Align tool to align them together.

And then finally of course she created a lovely new shape.

How did you get on? I'm sure your shape looks absolutely fantastic as well.

You might have even created a range of those.

So we're now onto our next learning cycle, which is complex shapes.

So if we go back to Laura's design that she did, when she grouped the two compound shapes together, she created what we call a compound shapes.

So we've got two ungrouped compound shapes there.

She's grouped them together.

That is now one shape and we call that a complex shape because it's made up of lots of different shapes.

Some of those will of course be compound shapes where you bring two or more together.

But we can now call this a complex shape.

So complex shapes, again, I've already said this can be made of lots and lots of different shapes and you're going to have to create these if you want to create successful designs.

Quick check for understanding.

What is a complex shape? A shape with only straight sides and no curves.

That's A.

B, a shape made of different shapes joined together.

C, a shape with only one type of angle or D, a shape that looks the same from every side.

Pause the video now; have a go at this.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

And it is of course B, a shape made of different shapes joined together or grouped together.

So we can use Tinkercad to create our eco-house design.

That's what we are gearing up to when we are learning all these fantastic skills and know these fantastic skills and knowledge in Tinkercad.

And if we remember, Ken Yeang suggests that an eco-house needs to include nature, use natural energy, not waste materials, have little impact on the environment as possible, make smart use of space and use water wisely.

So I want you to think about the overall shapes you want to have in your eco-house.

Let's look at what our pupils are doing.

So first of all, Aisha, she says, "I want to use a large roof to provide shelter and use cuboids at different angles underneath." Lucas says, "My design will have a flat green roof and a walkway, but I want to use hexagonal prisms." What Aisha and Lucas then do is they obviously go to Tinkercad and then they start to create lots of different ideas using complex shapes.

And you can see they've got some fantastic ideas there that are starting to look like buildings.

So we're becoming almost architects when we start to do this.

So let's have a closer look at Aisha's what she created.

So she chose her final design for the main shape of her eco-house.

And you can see this looks absolutely fantastic.

She duplicated the complex shape, she then ungrouped the cuboids and made them into whole shape.

So these are boxes in Tinkercad, of course they are cuboids, Tinkercad calls them boxes, but she ungrouped them.

So she's obviously gonna use this to be able to hollow out the inside of her design.

She scaled and aligned them carefully and then regrouped them to hollow out the complex shape.

And you can see from underneath she's got that wall thickness, which is of course what we want for our eco-house.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of these shapes shows how Aisha hollowed out her complex shape.

Is it A, is it B or is it C? Pause the video now, have a go at this.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course A, because that's showing it from underneath with the hollowed out shapes showing that wall thickness.

Well done.

Now let's see what Lucas did.

So Lucas chose his final design, but he wanted to hollow out these shapes as well.

So he decided to hollow out the complex shape to make some hexagonal tubes.

Doesn't that look fantastic? And I'm sure you can imagine how he managed to do that using all those tools, which we have used during this lesson.

So we're now onto your final task and you're gonna get quite a bit of time to do this because this is complex.

So you're gonna create a new design.

You are gonna name that design something sensible.

You are then gonna create lots of different eco-house designs.

I want you to fill that work plane with ideas.

You're then gonna choose one, choose your favorite.

You could even speak to the person next to you and get their opinion.

I want you to then hollow it out, give it that wall thickness to make it look more realistic like a building.

I will then want you to evaluate how to improve your design.

What are you gonna add, what are you gonna take away? And then of course, add change, remove shapes to make it look more realistic.

I hope you have lots of fun doing this activity.

Pause the video now, come back to me, when you've completed it.

So how did you get on? I'm sure you had a lot of fun and I'm sure you've got a fantastic design in front of you now.

Let's look at how Laura got on.

So Laura developed her complex shape and added hexagonal prisms. You can see all the different shapes we've got involved in that.

It is certainly a complex shape.

She then hollowed out the complex shape.

So you can see from underneath we've got that wall thickness and then she added doors and windows to make it look more realistic and doesn't that look fantastic and I'm sure yours does as well.

Well done everybody.

And that's the end of this lesson.

You've been absolutely fantastic today.

So let's have a quick summary.

First of all, compound shapes can be mirrored using the Mirror tool.

They can also be aligned accurately using the Align tool.

Combining compound shapes forms complex shapes.

Well done today.

You've all been absolutely fantastic.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Goodbye.