My Starting Library for Learning 3D Printing and Tinkercad: Five Reviews

3D Printed Books?

The 3D printing community is a vibrant one. Online, there are YouTube videos, communities that gather to support various designers and creators, forums for sharing models, articles full of tips, and more. Offline, there are 3D print meetups, books on 3D printing, and workshops. In this article, I’m going to share some books that are in my library.

My 3D printing library includes several books on Tinkercad, one on Autodesk, and a few that are software-agnostic, such as The Invent to Learn Guide to 3D Printing in the Classroom.

I started my learning journey with a book called 3D Modeling and Printing with Tinkercad, by James Floyd Kelly. For someone who had never before touched 3D modeling software, it was a great beginner’s book, teaching the reader how to use Tinkercad by building a model rocket ship. The book also covered useful knowledge about how 3D printing technology works, how the hardware works, and how to convert real-world models into digital ones.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It made the learning process fun, and I could see the results of my lessons in real time. I did most of the work in the book, save for converting real-world models. When I get to that bit, I’ll write an article on it :)

I’m halfway through another book, 3D Printing and Maker LAB for Kids, by Eldrid Sequeira. This book seems a little more advanced to me, as the directions aren’t always spelled out clearly. The author starts out by helping tremendously, but as the lessons go by, it feels like more is left for the reader to work out, from bits of math to filling in parts of the directions that weren’t clear.

It was amazingly helpful and full of useful tips — I feel like I would have had to spend weeks, maybe even months figuring out some of these things on my own. I could also see my progress, as every lesson has an accompanying exercise.

The book is divided into two parts: a part for Tinkercad and one for SketchUp. So far, I’ve only worked with Tinkercad software, so SketchUp will be something new. I’m super excited about it; I only have two or three chapters to go before I finish the Tinkercad section and get to start the SketchUp exercises.

The next book on my list is called Taking Tinkercad to the Next Level, by Jason Erdreich. I’ve already discovered ways to push the boundaries past what I’ve learned so far, so this book looks so exciting to me. Just cracking the book open shows me mind-blowing things about text manipulation and incredible shapes; I can’t wait to give this a read.

I have two other books on hand: The Invent to Learn Guide to 3D Printing in the Classroom: Recipes for Success is one of them. That title is simply astonishing in its length - I’m rather nearly intimidated by it! The name promises a wealth of software-agnostic ideas, and a peek inside proves the title true: there are a lot of cool things inside, including gears, a subject I’ve been researching and reading about lately. Amazing!

The other book is called 3D Printing with Autodesk 123D, Tinkercad, and MakerBot, by Lydia Sloan Cline, and it looks extremely technical. A look inside suggests that this book will give me an advanced understanding of the various software interfaces. I also saw something about SVG files and how to use them with 3D printing software.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I have no doubt reading it will elevate my skills, but it looks so advanced. Phew. I had planned on reading this book last, but the more I flip through the pages, the more I’m considering making this one next instead of the Next Level one.

I have plans beyond these books. SOLIDWORKS is the next CAD software on my list, after Tinkercad, SketchUp, and Autodesk 123D. I also aim to learn more about the 3D printing hardware, and I’ve been watching some engineering videos on Khan Academy. I feel that reading these five books will give me a good foundation for my future plans.