Lesson video

Hi everyone, my name is Mr. Buth and welcome to your design and technology lesson for today.

In today's lesson, we are gonna be using Tinkercad, that brilliant computer aided design application that allows us to design things in 3D.

And today, we are gonna be designing compound shapes in 3D, taking two or more shapes and combining them together to make more complex shapes.

So let's have a look at today's outcome.

Today's outcome: I want you to be able to create hollow compound 3D shapes in Tinkercad.

This will of course all lead towards you building architectural models and creating your own eco house.

We have four keywords today that I want you to keep a lookout for.

The first one is solid shapes.

These are the 3D shapes used in Tinkercad, which you will often find in the shapes menu.

We also have hole shapes.

Again, these are 3D sheet shapes used in Tinkercad to create holes.

We then have group, a really important function that we need to learn how to use, and this combines shapes into a single shape.

And that means we can create our final keyword, which is of course compound shapes, and this is what we do to create two or more shapes together, and what we need to do is group those.

There are two learning cycles today.

The first one we're gonna learn about compound shapes.

And then finally we're gonna learn how we can use compound shapes to create hollow shapes, which will lead us towards designing our own eco house, so let's get going.

So a compound shape is a shape that has been combined with another shape.

And we can see Andeep here is saying, "If I combine these two shapes, I wonder what it will look like." So let's have a look.

In Tinkercad, one shape can be translated along the workplane into another shape.

You know that 'cause we've already done that.

Now you might be able to use the keyboard to do that or what you might do is click and hold on that shape and drag it towards the other one and then it will combine.

Those two shapes will interact with each other, if you like.

By combining these shapes, you can see Andeep has said, it translated the hexagon into the cylinder, and you can see what the final shape will look like.

These two shapes can be grouped by selecting both of the shapes and then using the group tool.

The group tool is at the top there and it actually looks like two shapes that have been grouped together, very similar to what we're already designing here.

And it's really important that you've selected both shapes.

If you only select one, you won't be able to group it with the other one.

And of course, you will remember how you know if you grouped a shape, sorry, if you selected a shape because you get that blue glow around the edge of both shapes.

You will also see that some handles will appear around both shapes, not just one of them.

And that's because both have been selected.

And if you of course click on the group, click on group, then both shapes will be grouped together and it'll become one shape.

And that's what you can see here.

So we've now created a compound shape.

If you've made a mistake, you can of course ungroup by clicking the undo group tool, which is just next to the group tool, so you can use that if you ever want to make a change to each of these shapes.

Quick check for understanding, 'cause there's quite a lot of information there.

Which Tinkercad tool would you use to create a compound shape? Is it A, group, B, ungroup, C, undo, or D, home? Pause the video now, have a go at this.

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

If you of course answered A, well done, you've got that correct, we need to use the group tool for two or more shapes to create that compound shape.

Well done.

Now of course, we can use some other functions before we group those shapes together.

One of those would be rotate.

So what we can do is we might want to rotate one of our shapes before we turn it into a compound shape.

And to do that, again, we click on that shape and then we'll see the rotation handles appear.

We can select that rotation handle and then our protractor appears and we can then rotate.

And you can see Andeep here, rotated this hexagonal prism and then translated it into the cylinder to make a different shape.

We can of course, scale shapes before we group them together to make a compound shape.

And again, really easy, you've got to remember to do it before you group the shapes.

So again here, we've clicked on the shape, we've then reduced the height of it and then we can make our compound shape.

And again, Andeep is telling us exactly what he has done.

"I scaled the hexagonal prism to reduce the height." And again this allows us to make more complex shapes overall.

And once you have translated rotated and scaled the shapes and you've placed them where you want them, you can then group them together again in the way that we just saw.

Andeep is telling us that he's very pleased with his compound shape because of course it looks like a building which is what we're aiming to work towards in this unit.

So another check for understanding.

How has this hexagonal prism on compound shape B been changed? So you are looking at the blue shape.

So we have compound shape A and compound shape B.

So how has B been changed when compared to A? Is it A, it's been rotated.

B, it's been translated.

C, it's been scaled.

Or D, it's changed color.

Pause the video now.

Have a go at this.

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

So let's have a look at this one.

It has of course, been scaled.

You can see it's been extended so it's been made wider, so the width has been changed.

Well done.

Now you might wanna change the color of compound shapes and there's kind of two ways you can do this.

The first is when you group those shapes, they will all become the color of the first shape you had in there.

In this case, you can see they are orange.

Now if we wanted to change the color of the compound shapes, so that's the both shapes combined, then what we do is we can click on the color palette and that's just a little button that says Solid there.

That opens the color palette.

And you can see you have a whole range of different colors you can choose from.

You can even create your own custom colors and you can even bring in colors that you already know if you know what color you want to use.

This is the color palette, and again, select any color that you want and then you can use those to create the colors that you want in your design.

If you wanted a multicolor design, there is an option for this.

So if you click on multicolor, which you can see is kind of halfway down on there, there it is.

Then what will happen is it will turn the shapes to whatever their original color was, which allows you then to have multicolored compound shapes.

If you want to change the color of those compound shapes, you first need to ungroup them so they are individual shapes again, change their colors and then just remember to regroup them afterwards to make them a compound shape once again.

So we're now onto task A.

I've given you a lot of information there and what I want you to do is I want you to create a new 3D design.

So you need once again to be logged into Tinkercad, create a new 3D design, make sure you will show you give it a sensible name.

For example, I would call this Compound Shapes.

That would be sensible wouldn't it? Then I want you to do is I want you to place two shapes onto the workplane.

I want you to translate, rotate, and scale them, so we're remembering how to do all those different functions.

And then I want you to group them to make a compound shape.

Once you've done that, I want you to change the color of the compound shape.

And then, what I want you to do is I want you to change individual shapes by grouping them and then regrouping them.

I want you to have a go at all of this, pause the video and come back to me when you've done all that.

So let's look at how Andeep got on with this.

So Andeep translated, rotated, scaled two shapes together to create the compound shape.

He then ungrouped them, changed the color of them, changed the color of the individual shapes and then grouped them again together and then clicked multicolor to get those different colors for each of the shapes.

I'm sure you did this as well and I'm sure you created some fantastic compound shapes.

Well done with that task.

So we're now onto our second learning cycle, creating hollow shapes.

So a hollow shape is a shape that has a hole in it, a bit like how a box has a hole in it, but a dice is usually solid.

You think about those two as different analogies.

Now when you carry on with your computer aided design lives and you end up working on computer aided design, maybe at secondary school, you will find we actually call this shell, we actually call it to shell.

But in this case, we're just gonna call it hollowing out shapes because that's far easier to understand.

So when a shape is added to a workplane, it will always default to a solid shape and you can tell it's defaulted to a solid shape because the little dropdown menu that appears when I've added my cylinder will have solid circled.

On there, the function of solid is circled and you can see it right there.

The hole function can be used to hollow out a 3D shape and create holes.

It's very rare that if you want to create a complex design that you're not gonna cut some holes in it to make what you want to make, so we need to learn how to make holes in shapes.

So to create a hollow or a hole, two shapes are needed.

We need to take one shape away from another and this can be done by duplicating the original shape.

So to do that, click on the shape that you want to duplicate.

Make sure you selected it, make sure you've got that blue glow around the edge of that shape.

Click on duplicate and magically another shape will appear.

You might need to move it out the way 'cause it might duplicate over the top of the other one.

But you will find you will have two of exactly the same shape.

Now as well as duplicate, you can also use copy and paste.

So if we have a closer look at our editing tools that we can use to duplicate shape, so let's just have a look at these.

So we've got copy, we've got paste, and we've got duplicate and they can all be used to create copies of shapes.

What's really important to remember though is you've gotta have that shape selected first before you can do any of these functions.

And we'll have a little go at this in a moment.

So we've now got two shapes.

So if you remember what I said is I said you've gotta take one shape away from another.

So we need to turn one shape into a hole, so we have a solid and then we have a hole, and we're gonna take the hole away from the solid.

The hole shape also need to be scaled to make it smaller than the original shape.

Now what I want you to do now is have a think about why.

Why do we need the hole to be smaller than the original solid shape? I want you to pause the video here, maybe have a chat with the person next to you and think about why we need to make the hole smaller.

So pause the video and come back to me when you think you've got an answer.

So why did you think that we have to make the hole smaller? Well it is of course, it's because we've gotta take one away from the other.

And if they're exactly the same size and we take the hole away from the solid, there'll be nothing left because the hole will delete everything from the solid.

So now we've scaled it, you can see if we placed the hole now in the solid, you can see we've almost got like this wall thickness.

You can almost see where the ghosted image is in the middle, where it's gonna take away the hole.

And of course, if we then group them because we already know how to make compound shapes 'cause technically this is a compound shape even though we are taking one shape away from the other, that creates the hole.

And as you can see here, we've created a hollow tube, which is brilliant, and that's how we can create holes in shapes.

What we can also do, remember, is we can translate those shape.

So by raising the hole up, we're translating it upwards, and then grouping that together, we can create what looks like a cup shape.

We can do that the reverse way round as well.

For example, if we wanted to create a hollow on the inside and you have to look from underneath to be able to see it, once again, we've translated the hole down and then grouped together to make the compound shape, and what we've got now is we've got like an inverted cup.

Check for understanding, lots of information there.

Which of the following tools let's users create copies of their work, of their shapes? Is it A, is it B, is it C, or is it D? Pause the video now have a go at this.

Come back to me when you have your answer.

Fantastic, well done.

It is of course B, we're using that duplicate tool.

But remember, we can also use copy and paste.

Now there is another way of doing this and Andeep has suggested this way of doing it as well.

You might know about keyboard shortcuts and if you are using a keyboard, what you can do is select the shape and press control c and then press control and v.

And what that does is that will paste a new shape onto your workplane.

And when you get really good at computer-aided design, you will start using keyboard shortcuts all the time.

Well done with that one.

Now we're gonna look at how we can hollow out more complex shapes and we're gonna go back to the shape from the first learning cycle.

This one that looks a little bit like a building.

Now imagine we want to hollow this out, okay? Now if we're gonna hollow it out, we need to consider more complexities because it's going to be a little bit more difficult.

Now, Andeep has told us that he again, wants to hollow this out 'cause he wants to make the shape look more like a building that has a wall thickness.

That's what he wants to do.

So let's look at how we're gonna do this.

So first of all, we need to duplicate the shape again.

So again, select your compound shape, make sure that shape is grouped so it's a compound shape.

Then we're gonna copy and paste it or we're gonna duplicate it so we've got two of those.

Again, we're gonna then turn one of those shapes into a hole, 'cause remember we've got to take one away from the other to make the hollow.

And now what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at scaling it.

Now if we just scale it straight away as a compound shape, this is the hole, then it doesn't really work very well.

Now what you need to do at this stage is you need to use all those view tools that you have learned about previously.

It's really important that you are up close so you can see what you are doing.

So you might want to click Fit all on the left hand side.

And also you need to be able to orbit or use the view cube to be able to view your design from all angles to make sure you are doing this correctly.

So firstly, we're gonna overlay the shapes.

And as we can see, if we made a compound shape out of these two on the second two images, it's not quite gonna work.

We're not gonna get that wall thickness that we want because the compound shape has of course reduced in its size 'cause we scaled it and when we placed that in the other one, it doesn't quite look right.

So let's look at how we can get around that.

So first of all, to solve this, we're gonna ungroup the whole compound shape.

So that hole that we had that was the compound shape, if we ungroup that and then we scale them individually, and then again, go back into the home view and look at the height and shape and you're gonna manipulate them in any way you can to make sure they look correctly.

Then what we can do is group them back together afterwards and that will make the wall thickness that Andeep wanted to make it more look like a building.

And there you go, from above, it looks exactly the same.

But if we orbit around our design and look at it from underneath, you can see that it's hollow just like the walls of the building, and it even has that ceiling from the inside and obviously, the roof from the outside to make it look more realistic.

And again, you're gonna have a go at this and you're gonna have to spend quite a bit of time on this to be able to get this right 'cause it can be difficult.

But let's just remember that's what this is all about.

It doesn't matter if you make mistakes, you've got that undo button if you do make mistakes and you can just keep working, and the best way to get brilliant at this is just to try it.

So quick check for understanding.

In case you do make those mistakes, which we want you to make.

It's really important that you make mistakes, otherwise you will not learn about all these functions.

But which tool would you use if you do make a mistake? Is it A copy, B paste, C, duplicate, or D, undo? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you have your answer.

It is of course, undo and you can use that as many times as you want whenever you make a mistake, so just don't worry about making mistakes.

So what we're gonna look at now is you're gonna look at how you can create other features in your design.

So for example, what does this look like? It looks a little bit like a door, doesn't it? So you can create hollow shapes to add doors to your shape, place the hole, obviously where the door needs to be.

And then again, just group those shapes together.

So you've now created almost like a compound shape within a compound shape.

But what we've now got in this kind of inverted cup is we've now got what almost looks like a door.

So you can start to create some really interesting designs.

We're onto our final task and you're gonna spend quite a bit of time on this task.

First of all, as always, you're gonna create a new 3D design.

You're gonna name that design sensibly and we're gonna call this one Hollow Shapes, that might be a good name to name it.

Select a simple shape to hollow out.

Hollow out the shape, create a compound shape.

Hollow out the compound shape, so that's quite the complicated bit that we talked about.

And then I want you to add some additional features such as doors and windows.

Now remember that undo button is there if you make a mistake and it doesn't look right.

Undo, try again, see how you get on.

Don't forget to use all those different view tools that we've been learning about, so you can see your design up close.

You can orbit around it to make sure everything looks right from all different dimensions.

And of course, remember to scale and translate where needed.

Pause the video now.

I hope you have loads of fun doing this task 'cause I think it's a brilliant task.

Come back to me when you've had a really good go at this.

Fantastic.

How did you get on? Well, let's look at how Andeep got on.

Andeep hollowed out his compound shape.

He added some doors and even some windows and changed the color so it looked a little bit more like concrete, so it looked like a building.

That's a fantastic job.

Well done, Andeep.

And I'm sure you also created some wonderful designs as well.

Fantastic work today.

Well done.

So that's the end of this lesson.

So we now know how to make compound 3D shapes in Tinkercad.

Quick summary of what we've learned: A compound shape is a shape that has been combined with another shape.

3D shapes can be grouped together to make compound shapes.

And remember we can do 2, 3, 4, and even more shapes grouped together to make those compound shapes.

Hole shapes are used to create holes and hollows in solid shapes.

Compound shapes can be hollowed out.

A duplicate of a shape can be created using copy and paste, duplicate or control and c and control and v.

That's it for today.

Well done everyone.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Goodbye.