Chapter 6
Design or modify objects with design/CAD software

The Polar Cloud makes use of industry-standard .stl files (and also supports OBJ files), so if you wish, you may use any design or CAD software that supports such file formats, either to create object model files to then upload into the Polar Cloud, or to modify downloaded Polar Cloud objects. See Section 6.5 for an overview of some such design/CAD software.

Further, the Polar Cloud itself provides access to some convenient design and CAD software. On large displays, at the top menu bar expand the “Design” tab and click “Online Design” (Figure 6.1); on narrow displays, expand the top left menu and under “Design” click “Online Design (Figure 6.2). Clicking “Online Design” will take you to a screen listing design and CAD software accessible via Polar Cloud links; see Figure 6.3.


Figure 6.1: Polar Cloud menu Design Online Design

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Figure 6.2: Polar Cloud menu Design Online Design (narrow display)

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Figure 6.3: Polar Cloud DESIGN screen

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At the Polar Cloud “DESIGN” screen, you will see a choice of several design and CAD packages linked directly with the Polar Cloud; see Figure 6.3. Click on a package tile to select it; this will typically open up a new window showing a home/login/account page1 for that design or CAD package;2 see details on accessing BlocksCAD in Section 6.1.1, accessing Makers Empire in Section 6.2.1, accessing Tinkercad in Section 6.3.1, or accessing Doodle3D Transform in Section 6.4.1.

After using a design or CAD package to design objects, you may save the object .stl files using the design/CAD package’s usual object file download feature, and then upload those object .stl files (or OBJ files) into the Polar Cloud; see Section 5.3 for a discussion of general uploading of objects to the Polar Cloud. Alternatively, BlocksCAD, Doodle3D Transform, Makers Empire, and Tinkercad support saving a newly designed object directly to the Polar Cloud (no need to first download the object to your device, and then upload it from your device to the Polar Cloud); see Section 6.1.2, Section 6.4.2, Section 6.2.3, and Section 6.3.2, respectively.

When you wish to edit or modify a Polar Cloud object using a design/CAD package, first download the Polar Cloud object .stl file(s) (see Section 5.5), and then import the .stl file(s) into the design/CAD package using its standard import procedure. (For BlocksCAD, see for instance Section 6.1.3; for Makers Empire, see for instance Section 6.2.4; for Tinkercad, see for instance Section 6.3.3.)

 6.1 BlocksCAD integration with the Polar Cloud
  6.1.1 Access to BlocksCAD from the Polar Cloud
  6.1.2 Saving BlocksCAD objects directly back to the Polar Cloud
  6.1.3 Manipulating Polar Cloud objects in BlocksCAD
  6.1.4 BlocksCAD objects that include imported .stl files
 6.2 Makers Empire 3D design app integration with the Polar Cloud
  6.2.1 Access to Makers Empire website from the Polar Cloud
  6.2.2 Makers Empire instruction videos on its Polar Cloud integration
  6.2.3 Makers Empire objects saved to the Polar Cloud
  6.2.4 Manipulating Polar Cloud objects in the Makers Empire 3D design app
 6.3 Tinkercad integration with the Polar Cloud
  6.3.1 Access to Tinkercad from the Polar Cloud
  6.3.2 Tinkercad objects saved to the Polar Cloud
  6.3.3 Manipulating Polar Cloud objects in Tinkercad
 6.4 Doodle3D Transform integration with the Polar Cloud
  6.4.1 Access to Doodle3D Transform from the Polar Cloud
  6.4.2 Doodle3D Transform objects saved to the Polar Cloud
 6.5 More design and CAD software – design your objects

1Note that Makers Empire 3D design app, being an app that needs to run on your device rather than being browser-based, cannot be accessed directly via your browser, so clicking on Makers Empire from within the Polar Cloud always simply opens a window to Makers Empire’s home page.

2Note that such new windows are opening up to a software package outside the Polar Cloud, thus the exact appearance of these landing pages is subject to change by the respective companies.