Also, in the top right hand corner is the ‘view cube’, allowing you to rotate the window around and fix it to a top, bottom, front, back, left, or right view. On the right side of the screen, there are buttons for pan, orbit, zoom, and fit, just like in AutoCAD. If you’ve used AutoCAD before, you’ll find the UI for 123D Design is extremely similar.

Do that by clicking on the Units button in the bottom right hand corner.

Since our ‘thing’ was designed in fractional inches, we’ll need to change 123D’s units to inches. Install it, and you’ll end up with the screen below:įirst things first. I’m using the PC version, so if you’re following along, go here and download your copy. It’s a full-featured piece of 3D design software that allows you to create objects for your 3D printer.ġ23D Design is available as a web app, an iDevice app, or as a free download for Mac and PC. Sculpt is an iDevice app that’s probably far less useful than it is cool. The Make app is basically a slicer that turns 3D objects into something akin to those die-cut plywood dinosaur models you built as a kid. If you head on over to the Autodesk 123D page, you’ll see a ton of related products in Autodesk’s line of freeware modeling and design softwares. Starting Up, or, Holy Crap, What’s With All These 123D Products? I’m not one to change these tutorials in mid-stream though, and the finished product will be close enough. In the graphic to the right, there’s a slight taper to the vertical flange on this switch base. Thanks to me being an idiot, we’re not making an exact copy of this switch base. Like all of these Making A Thing tutorials, we’re using this switch base, torn from the pages of an 85-year-old textbook on Engineering Drawing. See that ‘Read more…’ link below? You might want to click that. Previously, we’ve built a ‘thing’ in a few different 3D modeling programs, including: If you’ve ever wanted to make one single object in multiple 3D design softwares, this is for you. In the continuing battle against 3D printers used exclusively for fabricating plastic octopodes and useless trinkets, here’s yet another installment of a Making A Thing tutorial.

123d design merge