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Design Dinosaur Skeletons in Tinkercad To Be Laser
Design Dinosaur Skeletons in Tinkercad To Be Laser
by ThomasN59
This is a project that I will be using with my middle school engineering design classes at Innovation Middle School.
Students will create their own dinosaur skeleton using Tinkercad. The design will then be transferred to the laser cutter so
a cardboard prototype can be cut, the design modi ed, and nally the nished skeleton will be cut out of wood.
Project Flow-
Create simple model together- Students will follow this Instructable to create a basic dinosaur Brontosaurus. This will
give them experience about how to solve some of the problems associated with making a dino skeleton.
A little research- Students will look at a variety of dinosaur skeletons and skeleton toys to get ideas.
Create their own- Students will design their own more detailed skeleton in Tinkercad
Cut a cardboard prototype- Their designs will be transferred to the laser cutter so cardboard prototypes can be cut and
then put together.
Workshop their creations- Students will show their cardboard designs to classmates and family members to get
feedback and ideas for improvement.
Modify their designs and cut the nal product- If they need to cut another cardboard prototype, they can otherwise
they will cut the nal design out of 1/8 inch plywood.
Supplies:
Before starting this project become familiar with Tinkercad controls. My students go through the Tinkercad tutorials in
the Tinkercad learning center. My students will have also made the Tinkercad "make a balloon car" instructable before
beginning this project, but that is not required.
Click on the settings button in the bottom right. The default is usually millimeters. Change this to inches. This will make it
a little easier since we are using 1/8 wood to cut it out.
Rotate body 90 degrees. This will allow you to get a better idea of what you are creating.
Move the body above the drawing plane. Use the little cone above your drawing. Guess the size of the legs and put the
body so the legs would touch the work plane. You will be able to adjust it later if it is not tall enough.
Move the rib so it in the approximate correct position. It does not have to be exact. This will let us get a quick look so we
can decide how many ribs and after the next step the sizes.
Click on ONLY the rib and click "duplicate" The quick key for a computer Tinkercad user is CTRL D. Duplicate is better than
copy because after we make one rib smaller, we can use it to create a bunch of smaller and smaller ribs.
After you rst click Duplicate, move the rib a little toward the back.
Carefully select the width of the rib and then the height. Make both of these dimensions a little smaller. My original was
0.88 so I changed it 0.75 high and the original width was 76, this I changed to 65. The exact dimensions are not
important. Just make it smaller WITHOUT changing the thickness of 1/8 inch.
Click Duplicate, Ctrl D, several times (suggest at least 5 or 6 to get several di erent sizes to choose from). You should now
see several smaller and smaller ribs appear. Make several and don't worry about if the spacing or all the sizes are not
perfect. You will be changing and arranging them in the next step.
Decide on which ribs from the variety of sizes that you have that you want to use.
Move these ribs into position
Don't forget that if you want to reuse one of the exact same size, you can also copy and paste it.
You can leave some of the extra ribs and just move them o to the side, but when you are sure you like your design,
delete the extra ones so they don't confuse you when you get to the cutting.
Use the scribble tool to draw the front legs. Make sure they are same height (end at the same point or your dinosaur may
not stand up well.)
Don't forget to change the thickness to 1/8.
Use the quick key commands in Tinkercad to copy the legs. On a computer it is CTRL C.
Step 15: Adjust Ribs and Leg Spacing Until You Like It.
If you are not going to laser cut it, you basic skeleton is now done. Feel free to add more decorations (especially to the
skull/head to improve the look of your dino.
Test another piece of 1/8 wood into the holes you cut. I found .115 was going to be the best for my laser cutter. Pushing
the pieces together here had some friction, but not too much.
Make another "hole" block. The thickness is critical. Use the length you discovered. For my laser cutter I found 0.115
worked best.
The height of the block and the depth is not as important. I would suggest not making them on the smaller side so they
are easy to move around.
After you make one, just copy and paste to get more the correct size. Remember, every time you have something
intersecting with the body of your dino, you will need another notch. Since my dino has 4 ribs and 2 legs, I need 6 "hole
boxes" to make the notches.
You will want to move each "hole box" into position above or below where it will go.
Do it one at a time and take care to line it up correctly with the existing rib.
You need to move the ribs and legs out of the way and then just move the hole in, without changing its relative location
along the body. Just slide it in and move it up or down so it will make a notch in the body.
Just move the ribs and legs out of the way. We will lay them at and add notches to them in the next few steps.
When you move the notches in, just be sure the horizontal displacement does NOT change. See the picture. The zero the
blue arrow is pointing to tells you that you did not move the notch left or right while you slid it into position.
Don't worry about the vertical position. We will do that next.
Click on the "FRONT" box so you are looking directly from the front.
Change from the perspective view to the orthographic view. This will eliminate any distortion based on distance back. It
will make raising and lowering the "hole box" to a good height a lot easier.
Using the orthographic front view, move the hole boxes up or down until you get some consistent notches. You don't
want the notches too deep where they might weaken the model, but the notches will help keep the pieces in place so
they most have some height on both sides or the piece will fall out.
Design Dinosaur Skeletons in Tinkercad to Be Laser Cut: Page 32
Click on the top arrow and move it up or down.
Rib notches must be on the top.
The leg notches must be on the bottom.
See the pictures for good and bad examples.
Select all of the "hole boxes" and the body of the Dino. (don't select any ribs or legs)
Click the group tool to make the notches.
Step 26: Rotate the Ribs and Legs and Drop Them
Click on a rib.
Create another "hole box". This time the depth dimension is critical. Be sure to make it the same as the previous holes (for
me it was 0.115 inches).
After you have one, make 6 copies.
Remember the notches for the ribs must be on the BOTTOM of the rib.
The notches for the legs must be on the TOP side of the legs.
Use the align tool to get them into the center of each rib/leg.
You can use the top orthographic view if that is helpful. Don't make them too deep.
Select the pieces and group them together. This way you will not waste as much cardboard or wood when you laser cut
them.
Since all laser cutters work a little di erent and use di erent software, I am not giving detailed instructions for this step.
They will depend on your laser cutter.
Cut out the model and cardboard rst.
Design Dinosaur Skeletons in Tinkercad to Be Laser Cut: Page 42
Step 32: Put the Cardboard Prototype Together
Tape it together.
Evaluate the model. (the pieces may not t perfectly since your cardboard may not be exactly 1/8 inch, but focus on the
overall look. Do some parts need to be bigger, longer, spaced di erently. Change those pieces on your design.
I realized that I made it WAY too small. I also realized that just scaling up does NOT work since the notches will
be too big. :( This is why you prototype.
My students will have to research their own Dino and make their own model. I will post pictures here when they create
them (probably not until end of Oct 2022.)
I just learned how to use Tinkercad while going through an 8 week free course Tinkercad put out at the beginning of the
2022 school year. The course was amazing and there is so much more to Tinkercad than just 3D design. This is my rst
instructable. I would love constructive :) feedback to improve them in the future. If you have better ways to design 3-D
models for the laser cutter using Tinkercad (or even with other free software) I would love to hear about them. Happy
making.