Tutorial

Tessellations, Inkscape and Tinkercad



What is it?

A tessellation is a repeating pattern with no gaps or overlaps. This tutorial will show you how to design a tile in Inkscape and then import it into Tinkercad.

What's the tutorial?

  1. If you don't have Inkscape, download and install it from here. Otherwise open the application.

  2. Create a New Document. CTRL+N

  3. Press F4, hold down CTRL and drag a perfect square.

  4. Resize the square so that it will be 50 x 50 mm


  5. Double click on Fill and Stroke or press SHIFT+CTRL+F. Set a fill color and select no stroke.


  6. Use the bezier tool or pencil tool and draw out a nibble from the top.


  7. Select the rectangle and the nibble and select Path>Division


  8. Select just the nibble and while holding CTRL, drag the nibble down and align it with no gap or overlap

  9. Take a nibble from the right, Path>Division, select, CTRL+drag to the left:


  10. Select all the pieces and then select Path>Union


  11. Select the shape and add a stroke


  12. Make a duplicate of the shape by selecting it and then Edit>Duplicate


  13. Select the duplicate and then Edit>Inset (CTRL+))


    You might want more precision. Instead of using Inset, you can press CTRL+J to use dynamic offset. Add a stroke of .5mm then click on the node that appears and scale the duplicated shape down the width of the stroke:


  14. Move the smaller shape to the right


  15. Delete the original and remove the stroke from the smaller shape


  16. From File menu select Document Properties or press SHIFT+CTRL+D

  17. Toggle open the Resize Page to Content option


  18. Select Resize page to drawing or selection


  19. Save the Drawing as an SVG


  20. Open a webGL enabled browser like Google Chrome or Firefox

  21. Navigate to tinkercad.com

  22. Once you have signed in or created a new account, click the button to design a new thing:


  23. Instead of dragging a shape on to the work plane, toggle open the import menu


  24. Select File and then press Choose File (I scaled mine down to 25%)


  25. Once you have chosen a file, press Import

  26. Select the tile and hold down OPTION/ALT +Shift to scale the shape back to the correct size:


  27. Make a duplicate of the tile, download and print.



Now what?

  1. Upload your own tessellation to Thingiverse
  2. Come back tomorrow for more information and inspiration!