Interview with the TinkerCAD developers

TinkerCad is aimed at Beginners to 3D Modelling

Tinkercad is an online 3D modelling program that works within your browser. It is aimed at folks who are beginners to 3D modelling and thus has a simple and intuitive interface. The designers included a few simple tutorials that are well worth the 30 mins it takes to go through each one.

Tinkercad was my very first CAD program where I actually produced an object at the end of the day. No small achievment here – CAD programs are notoriously difficult to learn, and Tinkercad honestly made it easy.

TinkerCad is a success with $1M venture capital

Tinkercad has taken the world by storm recently when this small two person Finnish startup received $1 million in venture capital to further develop the program.

Kai from Tinkercad has kindly agreed to an interview:

Interview Begins…. dun dun dun!

Q: Thanks for agreeing to the interview Kai – tell me – when did you first form the idea of TinkerCad and what sequence of events caused you to decide it was needed in the marketplace?

A: I have been toying around with machining and the later 3D printing for a few years. I kitted a small Sherline mill to be CNC capable and built part of a small RepRap printer. In 2009 I finally took the plunge and bought a Makerbot, I decided I wanted to do more printing and less building of printers. My initial joy quickly gave way to desperation when I realized there wasn’t any easy to use software out there for making solid models, the stuff you need for 3D printers. High end software is very hard to learn and efficient if you are able to master it but that didn’t really help a hobbyist with just a few hours to spare per week. Most easier to use software is polygon based which doesn’t play too nicely with making physical objects. I complained about it for a while and eventually realized everybody else was also complaining and finally in 2010 got together with Mikko and decided to do something about it.

Q: What did it feel like to finally sign that contract that ensured the $1 million Venture Capital?

A: Pretty exhausted, it was more like 10 different contracts to sign. Very excited after that.

Q: What does the venture capital mean for the company? What are your goals in the next 12 months?

A: This means we get to take the product to a whole new level. The team has already grown to 7 people over the past five months and we plan to add a few more. We think Tinkercad as it is today has realized just a small potential of what an easy to use CAD can do. We want to help a few million people more to get into 3D printing.

TinkerCad has a VERY easy to use interface that is browser based - no software downloads!

Q: The site is very very smooth on Google Chrome; what is the site coded in? What software technology do you use? Why did you make this choice?

A: The client part is pure Javascript, a pretty natural choice for client side coding. The servers are written in Go with a small amount of C++. We picked Go because it’s a good language for distributed systems and C++ for some performance critical inner loops. I also used to work on the Go team at Google so I had used it in production before.

Q: I notice you have a good relationship with Shapeways (folks can print their Tinkercad creation via Shapeways within the Tinkercad system) – how did you create the relationship? Who do you deal with regularly? Do they have a haircut as good as mine?

A: We love all the printing services like Shapeways, i.Materialise, Ponoko, Sculpteo plus all the different bureaus. I think our relationship is pretty natural, we send them customers which makes them pretty happy. And no, your haircut is probably the best.

Q: The tutorials idea is excellent – as you looking to expand the idea to more complex tutorials?

A: Yes!

Q: Do you have plans to add more primitives? Perhaps Adding Text in a reasonable font for example?

A: Yes! (easy two)

The tutorials on TinkerCad are easy to follow, with a very gentle learning curve. At the end you can print your creation via Shapeways or download the STL file and print on your 3D Printer

Q: I notice you used to work at Google – is it as awesome as folks say it is? Why did you leave Google?

A: After Tinkercad Google is probably the best place I ever worked at. We have taken a lot of inspiration from the culture and technical excellence that exists at Google. In the end I decided to leave because Tinkercad was just such a great opportunity and challenge. I realized that we might help so many people get started with this new technology and someone just needed to step up and get it started.

Q: What is your and Mikko’s typical day like? How much time to you spend devving? Talking to lawyers? Handling the Media? Handling Support Requests?

A: The engineers, including Mikko, spend almost all of their time coding. Aside from TGIF and regular 1:1′s with me people usually don’t have any meetings.

As we have grown the CEO duties have taken over my time, my days are now filled with meetings, answering email and handling support. I still get to muck around with the architectural decisions but day to day production code is mostly done by the rest of the team.

Q: What is your favourite 3D printer?

A: Hahaa, that’s a bit like asking which of my children is my favourite. Quite honestly I like them all.

Q: If you painted it red would it go faster?

A: *Everything* goes faster when you paint it red. Especially if you remove everything else that is just bolted on to make it *look* fast. (courtesy Top Gear for that realization).

TinkerCad would like to see everyone on Earth having access to 3D Printing

Q: What is the one question the media haven’t asked that you would like to be asked? What is the answer? (this is a bit of a cheeky one – love your work)

A: Do we think everyone on the planet can and should have access to 3D printing? and the answer is obviously Yes!

Q: Do you have any advice for Startups – particularly in the 3D Printing industry?

A: Be scrappy, travel light. You will be wrong, accept it and move on.

Q: I notice via your website that Mikko (the other partner in Tinkercad) is a bit of a foodie – can we have a recipe and photo of his latest pasta creation? In return I’ll pass on my infamous “Graham’s Thai Green Chicken Curry recipe”. My name is not Graham – that is the dude I first scammed it from.

A: We have not made much pasta recently, so I’ll give you a risotto recipe.

I usually don’t measure the ingredients, so they are approximates. (Spoken like a true foodie! Ed)

Zucchini Risotto with Salmon

Ingredients:
2 dl    Risotto rice
2 dl    White vine
1 l     Veggies stock (basil, mint, parsley, chili & garlic)
200g    Salmon
Small Zucchini
Shalot
Pine seeds
Grated parmesan (handful)
Lemon
Soy sauce

Method:
First prepare the salmon, slice it to stripes, and put it in a deep plate, pour in 1dl soy sauce, squeeze in half a lemons juice and add some grated ginger. Let it marinade in fridge for an hour.

Next make some veggie stock for the risotto. Grind some basil, mint, parsley, chili and garlic in mortar together with some olive oil. This should result about 3-4 table spoons worth of green stuff, mix it with 1 liter of hot water. Grate a handful of some parmesan and put it aside. Chop a shallot and one small zucchini.

Heat up some olive oil in a pan, sauté the onions and put in the risotto rice, stir few times. Keep adding the veggies stock about 1dl at a time, and keep stirring to create nice and creamy base for the risotto. When you have added about half of the veggies stock, add the vine. When the rice is almost al dente, add the parmesan and the zucchinis, season with salt and black pepper. The risotto should be quite runny at this stage, it’ll set a little while you finish the fish.

Fry the pine seed in a dry pan, set them a side. Add some olive oil to the pan and quickly fry the salmon stripes. Put the risotto on plates, fish on the top, and squeeze some lemon juice on.

Interview Ends …

Thanks very much Kai and Mikko for your replies. I wish you every success.

Q. Is there anything you would like to tell my audience? Perhaps regarding jobs or even signing up to your database?

A. The product is free. Yes, really. The stuff you design is shared under Creative Commons so people can build on your work. As long as you share you can use it for free. We plan to keep it that way..

And there you have it! What a nice bunch of guys!

I strongly suggest that you try Tinkercad