Creating Your Own Constellation in TinkerCad Using Codeblocks

Have you ever looked up at the sky on a clear night? There is an endless array of stars above our heads, shining brightly from lightyears away. Today we are going to recreate these stars in TinkerCad and create a constellation that is unique to YOU!

• Lucien Rudaux
• Michael Carroll
• Don Davis

Create and account with TinkerCad. Then click the "Codeblocks" section on the left menu or click this link. (Be sure to check that you're using the Codeblock Program instead of 3D Design or these instructions won't work!)

Then click "Create New Codeblock" and your screen should be split into three sections: the left side full of colored text (commands), the middle should be a a dark blue square, the the right should be a light blue grid!

1. Scroll down the menu on the left side of the screen until you see purple commands come up
2. Drag and drop the command that says "Create New Object" into the dark blue section in the middle (your workspace) of the screen.
3. The "Create New Object" command will have a drop down arrow that says "object0" click the arrow, click "rename variable" and rename it to "background.
4. Scroll up to the shapes and select the first object "Box", then drag and drop it into your workspace.
5. Click the arrow that appears next to the box and change the value of W (width) to 100, the value of L (length) to 100, and the value of H (height) to .5
6. Now you've created a flat background to build your constellation on!

1. Drag and drop "Create New Object" and rename this object to "Star Cluster 1"
2. Scroll down to the orange commands and drag and drop "Repeat" and connect it to "Star Cluster 1"
3. Drag and drop the star shape and change: the sides to 4, radius to 2.5, and height to 1
4. Drag and drop the purple command "move"
5. Scroll down to the green commands and drag the "Random between ..." to the workspace
6. Change the first value in the "Random" command to -45 and the second value to 45*
7. Right click the "Random" command block and click "duplicate"
8. Drag one of the "Random" command blocks and drop it into the x coordinate in "move"
9. Drag the other "Random" command blocks and drop it into the y coordinate in "move"
10. Change the number next to "Repeat" to 5

*(The values -45 and 45 are to ensure that none of the stars go off the background we made in the previous step)

It's time to get creative and start experimenting!

Create at least four Star Clusters total.

Start by Creating a New Object, name them "Star Cluster 1-4"

Add the "Repeat" command and

Add another Star shape

Play with the amount of sides, the color, radius, and number of times the star will repeat! (but keep the height to 1)

Add the "Move" block, and copy what you did in Step 3 - have the X and Y coordinate be a random number from -45 to 45

Create a new object - name it "Planet"

If you're not confident about your TinkerCad abilities - Create a cylinder with a radius of 8, height of 2, change the color, and change the location to random between -35 and 35 (as we did in previous steps) and there you have it! Your Planet!

To Create A Sun:

1. Create a cylinder with a radius of 8, height of 2, change the color to yellow
2. Create a star with 3 sides, radius of 3, height of one, and change color to orange
3. Add the "move" command and copy as follows (x=10, y=0,z=0)
4. Create the another star identical to the one in step 2 (3 sides, radius of 3, height of one, and change color to orange)

5. Add the "move" command and copy as follows (x=10, y=0,z=0)

6. Add the "rotate" command and change it to the Z axis

7. Change the degree of rotation to 25 (click rotate on pivot and add the coordinates (x=0,y=0,z=0))

8. Repeat steps 4-7 11 times (13 triangles total) or until the triangles go all the way around, however the degree of rotation should change for each triangle.

Triangle 1 - no rotation

Triangle 2- 25 degrees

Triangle 3 - 50 degrees

Triangle 4 - 75 degrees

Triangle 5 - 100 degrees

Triangle 6 - 125 degrees

Triangle 7 - 150 degrees

Triangle 8 - 180 degrees

Triangle 9 - negative 150 degrees

Triangle 10 - negative 120 degrees

Triangle 11 - negative 85 degrees

Triangle 12 - negative 60 degrees

Triangle 13 - negative 35 degrees

9.Drag and drop the command "Select all in object"

10. Add the move command with the random coordinates for X and Y to be between -30 and 30

11. RUN YOUR PROGRAM!!!!!!

The program we created is based on random coordinates meaning each time you run it, your constellation will look different. Happy creating!!