Step 1

I gonna show how to make a simple screw housing, as a basic guide for learn Tinkercad. This is a user friendly tool for making 3D designs for print, and has the advantage of to be 100% online. I have used it many times in my work, for build parts for projects. Go to Tinkercad, register and create a new design.

Step 2

Put a cube from right toolbar

Step 3

Using the resize points (black points arround the selected object), resize it to 100x100x20 milimeters

Step 4

Copy and paste the rectangle (you can use the upper toolbar or CTRL+C - CTRL+V), resize it to 96x96x20 and raise 2 mm from the floor

Step 5

Using the light gray and dark gray stripes icon, change to make it look like a hole

Step 6

Select both rentangles and use the aligment tool. Click on the center points to align horizontally and towards the bottom, but at the vertical points, click on the top point, because we need that the hole comes out on one side and leave the bottom as the base of the box

Step 7

The result look like this

Step 8

Select both objects and group them

Step 9

Put another cube and change color to green

Step 10

Resize it to 100x2x13 with 2 mm of elevation

Step 11

Select all objects and align them

Step 12

Copy paste the green object and rotate it 90°

Step 13

Check that have an elevation of 2mm and align it with the rest

Step 14

Select all objects and group them

Step 15

Put a new cube

Step 16

Resize it to 96x102x3 with 15mm of elevation

Step 17

Align horizontal only, leaving 2mm from the back, crossing the front side

Step 18

Here is the better view

Step 19

Group them and check than the from side has a horizontal groove

Step 20

Put a new cube

Step 21

Resize it to 95x100x2, this gonna be the top of the box. Elevate it to 15 mm

Step 22

It is not necesary to align the top with the box, because you gonna print separately, but you can try to see if it fits in the horizontal groove

Step 1

Is my intention to compare Tinkercad with OpenSCAD because a I think that both are powerfull tools but for make more complex desings to 3D print and for use with academic purposes, especially working with my parther Ana María Sandoval (mathematicals teacher), OpenSCAD is more convenient. In this tutorial I gonna make the same screw housing as the previous example, using OpenSCAD.

Start OpenSCAD, type the next code and press F5 to draw an red cube of 100x100x20 dimensions in the 0,0,0 position

 color("red")
 translate([0,0,0])
 cube([100,100,20]);

Step 2

Draw a second cube of 96x96x20 dimensions in the 2,2,2 position

 color("red")
 translate([0,0,0])
 cube([100,100,20]);

 color("blue")
 translate([2,2,2])
 cube([96,96,20]);

Step 3

Use the difference() function to subtract the blue cube from the red. Note that color("blue") was removed from code

 color("red")
 difference()
  {
   translate([0,0,0])
   cube([100,100,20]);

   translate([2,2,2])
   cube([96,96,20]);
  }

Step 4

Draw one division panel using a green cube

 color("red")
 difference()
  {
   translate([0,0,0])
   cube([100,100,20]);

   translate([2,2,2])
   cube([96,96,20]);
  }

 color("green")
 translate ([0,50,0])
 cube([100,2,13]);

Step 5

Draw other division panel using a green cube

 color("red")
 difference()
  {
   translate([0,0,0])
   cube([100,100,20]);

   translate([2,2,2])
   cube([96,96,20]);
  }

 color("green")
 translate ([50,0,0])
 cube([2,100,13]);

 color("green")
 translate ([0,50,0])
 cube([100,2,13]);

Step 6

Join all parts using union() function. Note than color("green") was removed from the code

 color("red")
 union()
  {
  difference()
   {
    translate([0,0,0])
    cube([100,100,20]);

    translate([2,2,2])
    cube([96,96,20]);
   }

  translate ([50,0,0])
  cube([2,100,13]);

  translate ([0,50,0])
  cube([100,2,13]);
  }

Step 7

Put another cube of 96x100x3 dimensions in the 2,-2,15 position

 color("red")
 union()
  {
  difference()
   {
    translate([0,0,0])
    cube([100,100,20]);

    translate([2,2,2])
    cube([96,96,20]);
   }

  translate ([50,0,0])
  cube([2,100,13]);

  translate ([0,50,0])
  cube([100,2,13]);
  }

  color("LightBlue")
  translate([2,-2,15])
  cube([96,100,3]);

Step 8

Substract the blue object from the rest and group all. For to do this, move the lines that draw the blue part inside the previously used difference() function

 color("red")
 union()
  {
  difference()
   {
    translate([0,0,0])
    cube([100,100,20]);

    translate([2,2,2])
    cube([96,96,20]);
   translate([2,-2,15])
   cube([96,100,3]);
   }

  translate ([50,0,0])
  cube([2,100,13]);

  translate ([0,50,0])
  cube([100,2,13]);
  }

Step 9

Draw the top of the box with size 95x100x2 in the 2,-2,15 position only for check, but if you want to print in 3D put this near the box, not inside

 color("red")
 union()
  {
  difference()
   {
    translate([0,0,0])
    cube([100,100,20]);

    translate([2,2,2])
    cube([96,96,20]);
   translate([2,-2,15])
   cube([96,100,3]);
   }

  translate ([50,0,0])
  cube([2,100,13]);

  translate ([0,50,0])
  cube([100,2,13]);
  }

  color("LightBlue")
  translate([2,-2,15])
  cube([95,100,2]);