3D printing is still not super mainstream, but household models of the technology are available and have come down a bit in cost compared to when they first hit the scene. With a 3D printer in the home the possibilities of what you could build are virtually endless. Autodesk is building on that seemingly endless list of things you can do with a piece of this technology through a new app called Tinkerplay, which basically lets you 3D print your very own toys. Tinkerplay lets you build 3D models within the app and then put them together piece by piece just like if you were snapping together a real model.
Once you have all of the parts designed, you can send the STL or .thing files to your 3D printer and have each piece printed out just like it was displayed within the application, you can even have your creations 3D printed for you if you don’t personally own a 3D printer. Creativity knows no bounds, and Tinkerplay takes this into consideration and allows those who have the desire, to create their own designs for 3D models or build stuff from a list of pre-selected characters within the application. Autodesk even states that you can collaborate with others to design things thanks to the multi-touch support. Should someone make a mistake, things are easily fixed because Tinkerplay also saves things automatically whenever changes are made, allowing the ability to revert back to before any mistakes popped up.
The app carries various different features for working with the 3D model designs, like a magnifying mode to design things with impeccable detail or tapping a part to redesign the whole entire piece. The app also allows for you to envision how your models might move when everything has been printed and put together. Once you have the pieces built within the app and then assembled into the 3D model, all of the joints and parts will move as they would with a printed model, which should allow creators to get a better idea of how pieces fit together. Autodesk has made this app free to use, so if you’re feeling rather creative it might be worth checking out just for fun.