1w ago

Tinkercad not exporting holes? They don't even show up in the preview. Some of my previously working designs are also doing this.

I made this test block to test the fit on some holes (my printer isn't calibrated), when I noticed the problem. The cone on the side was a sanity check for this problem.

I tried googling but couldn't come up with this same problem.

Edit: I did just figure out a way, I made them a union group, which applied the cuts immediately, and they stayed when exported. I’ve never had to do that before. Though admittedly that's probably the right way, I normally use fusion360. Something is definitely weird though. It should just work without doing that. And in fact it did a few days ago on a different project file.

17 comments

It goes in the square hole
- Classic
Yes this is normal. You have to group shapes to make them a single object.
On an unrelated note, TinketCAD is ok to make simple shapes quickly, but once you start working with complex geometry, it quickly becomes a nightmare. Parametric CAD (Onshape or FreeCAD) is infinitely superior in this regard.
- FreeCAD has made me wanna cry every time I try to learn it. Next time I'm gonna just try a parametric plugin for blender, my needs are pretty basic
  
  Maybe give OnShape a try. Its interface is really good and will let you learn parametric CAD in one of the best conditions possible.
  
  Maybe give MatterControl a try.
  It is like TinkerCAD in that you drag shapes around, but has way more features and runs locally. And you can easily load in STL files to cut and paste with.
  
  What's so bad about it? I have a few complaints about it being extremely slow on my hardware and having some weird UI choices sometimes, but in general it's great.
  
  It's okay to cry, but also keep going until you figure it out, and watch freecad tutorial videos. I think learning how to cad on freecad is a nightmare, but once you know how things are supposed to be built it works well.
You probably clicked on the square, then when you went to export it automatically selects "export 1 piece." Make sure to check export all. I have a grand total of 2 hours in tinkercad and that's something I ran into. If that isn't it, I got nothin.
- Thanks! I did try this, and variations on this, by selecting all and clicking export all 6 items. No dice.
  I did just figure out a way though, I made them a union group, which applied the cuts immediately, and they stayed when exported. I've never had to do that before. Though admittedly I normally use fusion360. Something is definitely weird though. It should just work without doing that. And in fact it did a few days ago on a different project file.
You have to group the holes with the shape you want to substract them from.
I always use union-groups when working with holes. Sometimes I even have to go through multiple nested union groups to get the desired result. But it always works when exporting, and you directly see the resulting shape in the editor (and the export).

17 comments