Autodesk Tinkerplay Tries To Wean Young Ones To The 3D World

Being at the forefront of the 3D software industry, Autodesk is in the prime position of taking advantage and profiting from the recent 3D printing renaissance. However, 3D printing has been, and still is, a relatively exclusive club made of adults and young adults with the know-how, not to mention the equipment, to turn ideas into digital models into physical objects. In order to increase those numbers, and potential customers, you need to train the next, younger generation of 3D designers. And that is exactly what the new Tinkerplay app hopes to accomplish.

3D modeling and designing is technically no walk in the park, but not all parts of it need to be so daunting. While Tinkerplay doesn't exactly let you create free-form 3D objects like how artists and sculptors do, it does let you mix and much components to build your own 3D character or creature. And since this is marketed to be kid-friendly, you can do so using simple drag and drop gestures.

The pre-made components are all 3D printer-friendly, too. That means that each part is designed to be fully poseable and won't require any additional processing. The app will easily show how the parts need to be printed and can even export the print file that can be used with any 3D printer. Maybe someday, users will print them on Autodesk's own Ember 3D printer.

But Tinkerplay is no mere child's toy. For those ready to take a deeper plunge, Autodesk also provides connectors that will let users create their own Tinkerplay compatible parts. This can be found on Tinkercad, the web-based ecosystem that Autodesk is building up to support this easier and more entertaining way to learn and do 3D design and, by correlation, 3D printing.

The Tinkerplay app is available on a variety of platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows (Store), and even Windows Phone.