# Homeschool Wednesday: In 3D (Printing)

By [Continuations](https://continuations.com) · 2013-11-06

homeschool, 3d printing, shapeways, tinkercad

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When we [invested](http://www.usv.com/posts/shapeways) in [Shapeways](http://shapeways.com) at USV, one of the trends we liked was that 3D design tools were getting cheaper and more accessible. I am happy to report that [Tinkercad](https://tinkercad.com/) is now an amazing entry level and free tool that runs right in your browser.

This Sunday afternoon from a standing start all five of us (Susan, myself and our three kids), each took the excellent Tinkercad tutorials and then designed a model, uploaded it to Shapeways and ordered it. All of that in under two hours and you could probably compress it into 60 minutes if you were in a real rush.

Here is what I designed – [a ball trapped in a cage](http://www.shapeways.com/model/1461319/trapped-ball.html) (word of warning: it involves one shell (a ball) trapped inside another, so I am not sure yet how well it will print in materials other than strong & flexible plastic). I am excited about the upcoming unboxing event where we all receive our products from Shapeways!

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*Originally published on [Continuations](https://continuations.com/homeschool-wednesday-in-3d-printing)*