Tinkercad now support import of 3D STL and 2D SVG files

[Kai Backman]

Dear operators,

Just a quick heads up that Tinkercad now support import of 3D STL files and 2D SVG files. As some background, Tinkercad is a web based solid CAD tool that's really easy to learn.

Technical notes:

• We can import any STL file independent of how broken the geometry is. All files will be turned into proper solid shapes in Tinkercad. For really broken files the solid might not be exactly what you think you had but we try to do a good job of approximation.
• There is currently a limit of 25k triangles on the input mesh. As the feature bakes over the next few days we hope to increase that limit significantly.
• Given the above you can now use Tinkercad as a really robust mesh repairer. We always output watertight and non-intersecting meshes with a high quality of topology and triangle size. If you have a bad STL file, just import it and export a new repaired STL file.
• SVG import lets you bring any vector 2D art to Tinkercad and extrude that into a solid shape.

If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them.

Take care,

  Kai

--
Kai Backman, CEO
http://tinkercad.com - Mind to design in minutes

[Claydiz]

well this is good to know.  I cant wait to get home and try it.

[Shino @ Tinkercad]

Let us know how it works out for you! =)

[neoteric]

Tinkercad just moved up a whole new level as a designers tool!  WOW!

[Andrew Plumb]

Hi Kai,

Does the URL-referenced STL import preserve the link location on your side?

I've confirmed that I can pull Thingiverse stuff in by link, but it would be even more useful if I could update & refresh the link when revisions happen.  It also opens up the possibility of creating libraries for commonly referenced source material on your side.

With importing from URLs and "commonly referenced source material" in mind, copyright permissions tracking considerations will need to be addressed.  Preserving the link could help in creating Bill-of-Materials (BoM) and tables for proper CC license attribution.

Keep up the great work!

Andrew.

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[Clay Mac]

Anyone else having trouble using tinkercad on google chrome?

[Shawn]

Yes. Using Chromium-browser on Ubuntu 12.04. Web-GL does not get
enabled, so sites like Tinkercad do not work. This is a known issue
with *some* workarounds, but seems to be inconsistent (google search
"chrome webgl ubuntu 12.04").

I don't know if it is all Chrome versions/platforms, or just the Ubuntu
combination.

Firefox on the same box works fine.

On 12-08-30 08:34 AM, Clay Mac wrote:
> Anyone else having trouble using tinkercad on google chrome?
>

[Andrew Plumb]

It's fine on Mac OSX Chrome (Version 21.0.1180.82)

Andrew.

[Kai Backman]

Hi Andrew,

We currently track the source of every upload but don't actually do anything with the information.

We've had a lot of debates about how to handle versioning and things like PLM. We store a lot of version information but again expose very little of it in the UI itself. As software engineers the team has obviously used pretty much every version control system on the planet and none of them seems to fit the 3D space very well.

In any case, this is all a good avenue to explore, we are proactively trying to store enough data to make it possible to roll out features like that if possible.

Take care,

  Kai