Hello! Welcome to our website, your haven for learning everything there is to know about combining CADing techniques, virtual reality, and 3D printing.
CADing, or Computer-Aided Design, has been popular in the classroom for years. Free online programs such as BlocksCAD and TinkerCAD allow students and educators to make cool designs in seconds.
Our goal at the beginning of this summer was to see if we could find a way to combine CADing with virtual reality platforms on Oculus. We wanted to be able to create objects on BlocksCAD and transfer them into virtual reality CADing platforms so that we could view and edit them in a 3D setting. We immediately zeroed in on Gravity Sketch and ShapesXR as possible candidates. We spent weeks learning all the different tools available on these platforms and testing what type of designs we could create.
From there, we wanted to figure out a way to easily 3D print our designs. Using PrusaSlicer (an online slicing tool used to prepare digital files for physical printing) and a PrusaMINI+ 3D printer, we were able to print a variety of different designs.
The purpose of this website is to document everything we have learned and make it easily digestible for educators who may want to incorporate these tools in the classroom.
To get started, you first must decide which Oculus CADing platform you want to use, Gravity Sketch or ShapesXR. We recommend testing out each platform briefly and seeing which one feels more comfortable. We have guides available for both on the website.