Image by Chad Riffle
Last month I began learning Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) so that I can support teachers looking to introduce their students. If I want to teach this skill I "must come to teaching with the experience of in-depth study of the subject area" (Bransford et al., 2000). So I have worked hard to develop an in depth understanding of CAD utilizing a tool called Tinkercad.
Initial Challenges
I made a first impressions video of what I thought 30 minutes in to using the tool. I knew that there had to be keyboard combinations to help. Navigation felt wrong leading to difficulty placing objects. Looking for solutions, I turned to two PLN resources, Youtube and the Tinkercad blog.
Getting Started Solutions
Searching the Tinkercad blog for shortcuts, I found an excellent PDF printable with a lot of great shortcuts bookmarking the page for future use. My Youtube search yielded surprising results. I simply searched "Tinkercad" and one of the first videos that appeared was produced by theskillsfactory.com. I had recently used a different video by them for a different project, so I quickly tuned into their Tinkercad Tutorial for Beginners in 9 Minutes video. Now to apply out my new learning.
Making Progress
Armed with two great resources I made a second attempt at my 3D printable smiley face and am pleased with the results. In the video on the right you will see me navigate around my two attempts at a smiley face. In the before you will notice that the smile is uneven, the eyes are different sizes and the placement of the shapes Video by Chad Riffle
just feels off. In the after you will see how improved navigation, shape duplication, and coordinate grid placement drastically improved the overall quality of my project.
References:
Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. National Academy Press. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368.
Chad Riffle. (2022, February 20). NLP Project Before and After. [Video]. TechSmith. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D9kebDlsOf607qigAcc-OHJ5ulNis-m0/view?usp=sharing
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