Here's a quick checklist of the things you should look out for, and try within your new and free tinkercad.com account. If you don't try it - you can't learn it. Get in there and give it a whirl. Here's a few things to get you started. The next lecture will walk you through the account set up process. If you are good to go there, just skip to the building and modeling section. Build On!

SO...let's get making! Head on over to Tinkercad and set up a free account. If you are not sure how, take a look at this quick tutorial with some tips to save you time and another username and password! Sign in with Twitter or Facebook and check it out!

Tinkercad.com is very easy to learn. Working through the basic tutorials on the site is an excellent way to get your feet wet in 3D systems. For students who have never worked in all three dimensions before, Tinkercad does a great job of teaching the basic approach. Remember, in 3D, you have to design for every view of an object. You can't just worry about left and right, top and bottom, now you have to pay attention to the front and back of your objects and scene too!

Use this lecture to walk through the basics, modeling, building projects, and getting started building your first customized objects.

Here's a challenge for you - now that you know the basics behind using Tinkercad! Take me up on the 'how to design' challenge in this lecture - wont you? The challenge is to create a replica of the 'ball in the box' featured as the cover logo for this course...also shown here as a photograph. Are you up for it? Why don't you try it first, and if you get stuck, take a look at this lecture. Well, I would suggest you look at this lecture anyway - there are some great tips on modeling, and ultimately downloading the file you need for 3D printing - so have at it!

For speed, this ball in the box puzzle was printed at draft quality. Later on, I will show you how to increase and decrease the fill volume of objects you print for greater detail...

Ok fine, so maybe the ball in the box puzzle challenge wasn't to big of a deal for you...so let's take it up a notch. What do you say to a red box and blue ball? How about a two color print using a single color printer? Can you figure it out? The classic ball in a box puzzle, done on a 3D printer. After you make prediction, take a look at the video segment attached to this lecture.

So you have a design finished...you are ready to go. It is ready to be printed and prototyped. How do you get your design off of Tinkercad and into the printer software. Here, I take a look at preparing the file, downloading it, and adding it to the Makerbot printer software. I cover specific file types available from Tinkercad, and alternative options to printing at your local printer.

There are several online sources, and physical print centers you can use to print your designs. These vary by region and by country, so be sure to check your nearest location and shipping availability before spending any hard-earned cash on printing.

In the second part of this process we will look at how to use Illustrator's tools to create a design file we will use for a 3D printed object. The process of downloading and printing is the same whether you use your own drawing or a designed object in Illustrator. As long as the graphics end up as vector objects, they can be easily converted and manipulated in 3D software like Tinkercad.

If you have experience designing in Adobe Illustrator, this process will be very familiar to you in the creation of a simple shape. If you have worked in Illustrator before, the save options will also look familiar, but will now have context as to where they belong.

In this activity, we will look at how to take a custom design of your very own, and convert it to a 3D object. This particular method uses Adobe Illustrator. If you are a designer, then Illustrator should be in your toolkit already. If you don't have access to Illustrator, in the next lecture, I will show you how to achieve the same results using free and inexpensive software alternatives.

This special process uses an original design that could be scanned or photographed. You could use a clean version of a corporate logo, your name, or other graphics for this example. I will show you how to take a simple object like text, or a complicated object like a school logo and get it ready for printing in 3D.

This lecture covers the creation of an original piece of text in Illustrator that can be manipulated in 3D applications like Tinkercad. Universal file formats are addressed here as well.

In the second part of this workshop, we look at how to import a logo from the web. File sizes, image quality, and other options are discussed here to make the process of importing existing artwork easier.

*Please note: the use of copyrighted materials can be a violation of many local and international laws, especially when done for profit. In this example, I look at how to use an existing logo to create a 3D object. In no way are the files used in this 'for demonstration only' video for sale, or legal to reproduce and share. Please take caution in using other people's logos or identities - if you are not sure, always get permission first!

If you have access to a scanner or a digital camera to take high quality photos or scans, those are just fine to use instead of the web. Logo creators are most likely using Illustrator to start with, so finding an Illustrator file, pdf, .ai, .eps, or similar shouldn't be a problem when using a corporate or personal logo. You can also draw and scan, trace, or photograph your work and then use Illustrator to conver the drawing to a .svg file.

This tutorial will work through the steps of converting, live trace, manipulation and uploading for printing.

Getting your model and file ready for printing is important, but adding your image to your store to finally sell is even more fun. In this last step, I'll show you a quick review of how to produce the Illustrator file correctly, render and troubleshoot it, then upload it to your 3D printer store online. From there, you can pick your materials, set your prices and markups, and even start your promotions.

Let's take a look at a few options other than Adobe Illustrator and Tinkercad. There are tons of options out there for both PC and Mac, and even iPad and Android. Here, I highlight a few options you have to create, upload, print, and sell designs.

3D Systems has been a major player in the world of 3D printing for some time. They are one of the industry's top producers of both creative processes and techniques, as well as the hardware to make those processes a reality. They make machines to bring designs to life, and a suite of software applications to purchase to build models and ready them for printing.

SketchUp is a FREE product available for download to your Mac or your PC. It is free, but does require a basic registration on the website to enable the download. SketchUp Make is a product designed for consumers, and is very easy to use. If you are a hobbyist, student, or someone who just needs a simple free too to build and tinker, then SketchUp is certainly an option. It's free to use, so why not, right?

That being said, some people that use SketchUp have reported issues with creating models using the Makerbot printer. There are some ways around this problem, and you can quickly find the solutions if you decide to use SketchUp and a Makerbot printer. If not - just go get the free software and off you go - print on!

SketchUp offers both a free Maker version, and a pro version. The pro version is geared for students and more advanced users, but costs around $600. It has quite a few more functional elements like BIM, or CAD, LayOut, and even a slick presentation module. It's definitely for pros, or users wanting to get in to the 3D modeling, engineering, architecture, or product design industries.

Autodesk is another major player in the 3D world. They are the creators of the famous AutoCad application that has become the industry standard 3D design and modeling application for professionals. They also have a complete suite of professional tools for architecture, BIM, and animation. Some of the biggest software titles in this space are from Autodesk including; Autocad, Revit, 3DsMax, Maya and Alias. The consumer market has demanded some lighter, friendlier products, and Autodesk has responded with a wealth of free tools for consumers to use that are largely based on their other more sophisticated products. This two-lecture series highlights the offerings from Autodesk for your PC/Mac and iPad/Tablet.

3D Tin is a web-based modeling application much like Thingiverse. It is hosted in the cloud, so there is no software to download. It runs in just about any web browser. 3D Tin is a simple and effective visualizer for 3D objects and has some nice additional geometry creation tools that other platforms like Tinkercad do not have. The builder is very fast, and there are some cool colors shapes you can create to build your models.

This application was based in India, and was very effective at generating a following across the globe. It has been used in schools around the world, and was recently bought out by Lagoa. Lagoa has it's own design platform that looks really amazing. Just having discovered it, I don't have too much experience using it. However, it is clearly built for the slightly more advanced designer. Take a look at the products page in the pdf attachment to this course for resources and mentions. Their licensing is reasonable, and their basic subscriber (tinkerer) membership is always free...we love free!

So you have an idea, you have a model, and you want to sell it online - well, let's take a few minutes to see what options you have build a turnkey online store with just a few clicks. The services shared here will get you started thinking about your online presence and how to best market and sell your objects. Each of these services produces very high quality results, and each has its strengths. In these lectures that follow, I will profile several online store options, as well as some additional print and ship companies you can use to get your ideas made in a variety of materials.

You have a design you have made in Illustrator or Tinkercad.com and you downloaded the file for printing. One of the best options you have for getting your designs printed in a variety of materials is Shapeways. Shapeways.com enables you to build an online store to produce and share your creations with the world. They will handle all the order processing, shipping and fulfillment you need.

All you have to do is set up the store, link-up your PayPal account, then upload your designs and set up sales. Shapeways allows you to pick which materials your designs can be printed in, and what the markup should be on each item in your store. You can customize the store header, logo image, and other shop options like store name or business name.

Shapeways is very easy to use, has a wide assortment of printable materials, and quickly helps you build products to share and sell online.

Now that you have a design created in Illustrator or in Tinkercad, it is time to get that idea to market, pick your materials and decide on price. In this lesson, we look at how to take your design from the software you created it in, and add it to your new Shapeways store. I look at how to create a simple store page with your designs, how to configure your products for sales, markup and materials.

This lesson is the second part of the previous lesson on establishing your Shapeways account.

Sculpteo is one of the highest rated modern print and ship companies. They offer some excellent solutions for printing simple and very complicated and delicate objects. They are known for their ability to process complicated objects with amazing quality and flexibility. Sculpteo can take the files you generate as .stl or .obj formatted models and convert them to objects to share.

Once your objects are in their sales platform, you can make use of several of their tools to help you perfect your model for printing. Their interface is very easy to use, and works well on different browsers. The options for materials is not as diverse as Shapeways, but the print quality is excellent.

Setting up a store on Sculpteo out of the box is very simple, but certainly lacks the ability to do any sort of product branding - as far as I can see. I'm in the process now of creating and modifying some objects to seel, so please be sure to check back on this lecture for more on building a Sculpteo store.

Worldwide, people are discovering the joy of 3D printing… as well as the unique challenges and needs that come with the territory. To help you get the most out of 3D printing, i.materialise offers an entire range of solutions and services that go beyond just printing your designs.

i.materialise allows you to upload your own designs, as the other options discussed here will, and goes a step further to ready those files for printing. Using their expertise, i.materialise productions are pre-screened for quality, and rechecked before printing and production.

There are a host of solutions available that will ensure your project gets built correctly, quickly, and is shipped quickly. They offer some very unique tools for developers to use their API, and interface with their community in a deep and meaningful way.

Users can build a collection of objects, select materials and deliver those objects to market. i.materialse also runs contests and build-offs to encourage students to create things and make them real. One of the featured integrations is to use 123D Creature from Autodesk (covered in a previous lecture) and build a multi-colored model that could be printed at i.materialse.

Very easy to use, great tools for perfecting your design project and getting it online to sell.

The files you produce from Tinkercad or any of the other systems we looked at in this course can all be printed in one of four very similar venues; Shapeways, i.materialize, Ponoko, or Scuplteo. There are a host of other resources you can use online to print your designs and have them shipped to your door. These, of course, are not the only options you have.

Other options are available from printer companies like:

• XYZprinting - US, Canada, China, and Japan
• Moddler
• Electric Geisha
• Purple Platypus

The world of 3D printing is constantly changing, so be sure to check back to this list as it will be updated frequently! If you have other resources you stumble upon, please share in the discussions - or email them to me and I'll include them here!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @trendingedtech and my 3D Printing and Design Twitter referenced in external materials.

The "BIG" idea in 3D printing, design and selling will always be coming up with great ideas to bring to market. What you can do to start is look around your house, your office, workspace, or shop, and see what 'things' exist in that space. Are there tools that you could make better in some way? Are there objects that could use a refresher? Have you always wanted to design your own charms for a bracelet - or maybe that unique family holiday tree ornament?

Well 3D printing and design can make all of those things a reality for you. This course - and this section of this course will show you how to take your ideas to market. If you can get an idea designed - you can get it printed and fabricated and shipped right to your door.

Don't let those great ideas go to waste - bring them to market today!