From Canva to 3D!
Last week, I ran a professional development session where I shared with teachers how they could combine Canva with TinkerCAD to create simple 3D models that we could print on our 3D printers. The teachers who participated came up with some amazing ideas - nameplates, keychains, ornaments, and more! These are great ideas for gifts or prizes or just to make your classroom more unique. This week's post is a quick walkthrough version of that session to help you get from a simple line image in Canva to a 2-color 3D model in TinkerCAD. From TinkerCAD, you can easily export your file as an .stl file that can be imported into your 3D printer software!
Before we start the steps, here are a few examples:
Keychain Large Display Sign Coloring Ornament Coloring Magnet Desk Nameplate
The Halloween one even has a hole inside where I can pause the 3D printer, insert a magnet, and let it keep printing so the magnet is inside the print! Acrylic paint markers work great on the coloring magnets/keychains/ornaments and are a great way for kids to make gifts for family members.
Canva
The first step is to jump into Canva and decide what you want to make. All of the designs you see above started with either one single image, a text box, or a combination of text and images. It doesn't matter what type of Canva design you start with - I tend to use "Logo" because it is a nice square image, but you can choose any size/style you want.
Once you are into Canva, remember that any time you want to add content, you do it from the left side of the page:
You will most likely choose either Elements (if you're looking for some sort of graphic) or Text (if you just want text). Text is easier, so we'll start there...click to add a text box and then edit the content. If you want multiple lines of text, you can either hit enter between the lines or you can make two separate text boxes. If you look at the examples above, "Mr. Barton" is all the same font, so that is just one text box where I hit enter between Mr. and Barton. "Benji's Workbench" has two different fonts, so that is made up of two separate text boxes. Once you put in the text, choose whichever font(s) you like and adjust the size of the whole design to fill the screen:
A couple of notes:
You will want to make sure separate text boxes are somewhat close to each other so that we can make them connect later using the background color.
DO NOT include the background color for your text/nameplate at this point. Just leave it with black font.
Now, if you want to include an image as part of this OR if you just want to do an image, you will use the Elements tab in Canva. The caveat is that you have to use a line image and you have to make sure all the lines connect to each other. Remember MS Paint when you tried to fill a shape with color if there was a break in the lines?
Yeah, a similar problem will happen if we try to bring an unconnected image into TinkerCAD and fill it later. So just watch out!
The easiest way to find a line image in Canva is to add it to your search term. If I want to add a picture of an apple, I can search for "apple line":
You definitely want to search for "Graphics," so if you don't like the ones that pop up right away, you can click the "Graphics" filter to see more. Try to pick one that is relatively simple with moderately thick lines - too much detail and too thin will cause problems later. Once you find something you like, click to add it to your design, resize it, and position it where you want:
The last thing we need to do in Canva is export the design. Click "Share" in the top right, click "Download", make sure the file type is set to PNG, turn on "Transparent background", and then click "Download" (the size doesn't matter):
Conversion
There's one little detour we need to take before we move to TinkerCAD to make this thing 3-dimensional. We need to convert the PNG file into an SVG file (you might wonder why you can't just export from Canva as an SVG...for now, the file Canva creates doesn't work nicely with TinkerCAD, but feel free to try it in the future to see if things have changed!)
To convert, you can use this handy little PNG to SVG converter that I just built through "vibe coding" (see my post from a couple weeks ago!). Just click the button to choose your image, adjust any of the sliders if you want (you shouldn't have to) and then click "Download SVG." If my little app doesn't work for some reason, you can also Google "PNG to SVG" and use any other online conversion tool - you'll just have to ignore all the ads.
TinkerCAD
Next stop is TinkerCAD. If you've never used it, you will need to sign up for an educator account and sign in with Google. Once you're in, you can click the blue "Create" button in the top right corner and choose "3D Design."
Working in 3D space can be a little confusing at first, so feel free to click around and figure out how to control the space. It is sometimes easier with a mouse, but you can usually manage all of the controls through the trackpad. Sometimes you have to hold down Shift or Ctrl while you are clicking and dragging on a trackpad. All computers are a little different...a touchscreen does help.
Importing your design is as easy as clicking the "Import" button in the top right corner and then then selecting your newly downloaded SVG file. For the dimensions, you can reduce it so the longer edge is 100. If you click into the other edge, it should automatically change to match the original proportions. Then click Import:
Now your design is in and it's already 3-dimensional!
Now we have a little work to do to get our design sized correctly and get the background ready! Instead of going through each of these steps in a text tutorial, I put together a quick video that shows each step:
If you want us to 3D print your project for you in the LHS Library, we are happy to do so! You can simply go to the library website and click the "Request a 3D Print" button on the home page. Attach your .stl file and tell us what colors you would like.
TinkerCAD can do so much more than just this and there are tons of tutorials online for it, so dive in and have fun!
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