The Rotate and Align Tool

Tinkercad's rotate tool allows you to change the angle of your model or part of your model along the x, y or z axis.

Tinkercad allows you to choose your resoulution by providing three rings. Once you start the rotation you can move your mouse over the appropriate band. The center band allow you to adjust the rotation by full degrees. The inner band adjusts the angle in increments of 22.5° (half of 45°) and the outer band allows you the most precision.




Tinkercad's align tool allows you to align objects .

To use the Align tool. Select at least two objects by Shift left-clicking on them or by dragging a box around them. Once selected click on the Adjust Option at the top. Then select Align and move your mouse over a node to preview the move. Click the node to align the objects.

Warm Up Challenge

1. Open a web-gl enabled browser
2. Navigate to Align Tessellation
3. Make a copy of the Design
4. Your challenge is to recreate the image below. How few moves can you accomplish the goal? Which tools did you use?
   

Making Your Own

The completed warm up creates a tessellation similar to ones created by the artist M.C Escher, where he divided a square into two 45°-45°-90° triangles, and then used a 180° rotation around the midpoint to modify the dividing line.

To create your own Escheresque tessellation you will need to create an SVG, import it into Tinkercad, duplicate, rotate by 120°, arrange and change the heights.

Inkscape

1. Open Inkscape.
2. Select the polygon tool and select 6 sides:
   
3. Draw a hexagon. You can align one of the sides to the horizontal axis by dragging while holding down the CTRL key.
4. Make sure your hexagon is not filled and has a stroke. Double click on the bottom left where you see the words fill and stroke to open up the palette, then select fill and no stroke:
   
   
5. Under the Layer Menu select Add a Layer
   
6. Click on the Add button
   
7. Under the Layer Menu select Layers
   
8. Click the eyes to check that the hexagon is in the bottom layer
   
9. Click on the top layer to make it active
   
10. Select the bezier tool
    
11. Trace over one segment. To end drawing press RETURN
    
12. Select the Edit Paths tool
    
13. Select the endpoints of your line segment
    
14. Click on Insert new node a few times
    
    
15. Adjust the position of the nodes:
    
16. With the Selection tool, select the segment and press CTRL+D to duplicate it
    
17. Click twice on the dupe to enable rotation. You should see a crosshair in the center of the shape. This is the center of rotation
    
18. Move the center of rotation:
    
19. Rotate the segment
    
20. Select the bezier toolagain and trace over another segment. To end drawing press RETURN
    
21. Select the Edit Paths tool, select the endpoints of your line segment and click on Insert new node a few times
22. Adjust the position of the nodes:
    
23. With the Selection tool, select the segment and press CTRL+D to duplicate it
    
24. Click twice on the dupe to enable rotation. You should see a crosshair in the center of the shape. This is the center of rotation
    
25. Move the center of rotation:
    
26. Rotate the segment
    
27. Select the bezier toolagain and trace over another segment. To end drawing press RETURN
    
28. Select the Edit Paths tool, select the endpoints of your line segment and click on Insert new node a few times. Adjust the position of the nodes
29. With the Selection tool, select the segment and press CTRL+D to duplicate it
    
30. Click twice on the dupe to enable rotation. You should see a crosshair in the center of the shape. This is the center of rotation
    
31. Move the center of rotation: and rotate the segment
    
32. Select two segments, then select the overlapping nodes (you may have to mke tiny adjustments to align the nodes), then combine the nodes:
    
33. If all goes well, you should be able to fill the shape:
    
34. Resize the tile to about 80 px
    
35. Add a stroke of .2mm
    
36. Make a duplicate of the shape and change the fill color
    
37. Under the Paths menu select Dynamic Offset
    
38. Find the top node
    
39. Carefully drag the node down to shrink the duplicated copy. You just want the copy to fit inside the original's outline. This will allow your tiles to fit together once they are printed:
    
40. Move the duplicated shape away from the original:
    
41. Turn off the stroke on the duplicated shape
    
42. Under the Path's menu select Object to Path
    
43. Add a new layer
    
44. Turn off the layers below. Your tile is now ready to be saved as an SVG
    

Tinkercad

1. Open a web-gl enabled browser.
2. Navigate to Tinkercad, sign in and create a new design.
3. Import your SVG (scale at 100%)
   
4. Adjust the extrusion
5. Download for 3D printing