3D Printing For Adults

October 20, 2016 | By Don Musilli | In Training

Here at LiteWorld we have been training young students from ages 8 to 18 for the past four years on the use of 3D printers and how to create their designs using a variety of 3D modeling software programs. This is done through in-house training at the school level and through our summer 3D Mini Camp programs that run for four weeks each year. Kids at 8 years of age grasp the concept of 3D modeling very quickly with programs like Tinkercad and Sketchup or by playing Minecraft games. In almost every case these young people are capable of creating 3D printable objects in less than 3 hours.

In August of this year we started an Intro to 3D Printing For Adults to bring this age group into the 21st century and more importantly to let them know about the technology that is going to replace manufacturing as we now know it.

Unless the adult had previous experience in using Cad or Auto Cad in their previous life, all the adults found Tinkercad to be very difficult to grasp. Most children are playing games on tablets, computers or video game boxes and have a very good concept of using the X, Y and Z axis to navigate through a make believe world. Adults, on the other hand, live in mostly a two dimensional world with TV, computer and smart phone for which they often ask their young children or grandchildren to fix for them.

Our classes for adults includes two 2 hour classes over two nights. This gives them enough time to process the material provided in the first class and then some opportunity to do some homework prior to the next class. We primarily use Tinkercad as the 3D modeling software as this is free and has a great tutorial and is relatively easy to navigate once they are given some simple instructions and shown some examples. They then get to print out their created object ( which is usually a key chain with their name on it ) and take it home to show their kids..It’s the circle of 3D printed life.

For more information on what we do in our world go to our website at: https://www.liteworldllc.com or call us at: 941-999-8200. LiteWorld is a proud reseller for the LulzBot line of TAZ Printers and our own LiteWorld Protective Enclosures.

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