Make a name keychain in Tinkercad
in about 20 minutes
In Tinkercad you build a name keychain from three shapes: a Text shape for the name, a Box with rounded corners as the plate, and a Cylinder set to Hole for the ring. Group them, export an STL and print it flat. The first one takes most people 15 to 25 minutes.
By Philipp Baldauf · Updated September 29, 2026
What you build
A name keychain is a flat plate about 3 mm thick with the name standing 2 mm proud of it and a hole on one end for a split ring. That's all Tinkercad needs to do. The letters must sit inside the plate so everything prints as one solid, and the hole needs enough plastic around it to survive a pocket.
The tutorial below uses a five-letter name and ends at roughly 60 x 20 x 5 mm, which is a good everyday size. If you want other sizes, the name keychain size guide has lengths, thicknesses and hole diameters by use. You need a free Autodesk account for Tinkercad; kids can join through a teacher's class code instead.
The target dimensions
Type these values into Tinkercad's dimension boxes. They are typical values that print well on a 0.4 mm nozzle.
3 mm
Plate thickness
Thin enough to print fast, thick enough not to bend on a key ring.
5 mm
Letter height (Z)
The letters start on the workplane, so 2 mm of them stand above the plate.
5-6 mm
Hole diameter
Fits a standard 25 mm split ring or a small carabiner.
3 mm+
Wall around the hole
Less than that and the ring tears out within weeks.
Step by step in Tinkercad
Units are millimetres by default. Click a shape to see its white handles; clicking a number next to a handle lets you type the exact value.
- 1
1. Start a new design
Sign in at tinkercad.com, click Create and choose 3D design. You get an empty workplane with a 1 mm snap grid, which is fine for this job.
- 2
2. Add the Text shape
In the Basic Shapes panel, drag Text onto the workplane. In the shape inspector, replace the default word with the name and pick a font from the dropdown. Keep it to a short name; past 8 or 9 letters a keychain gets long enough to catch on a pocket.
- 3
3. Size the letters
Hold Shift and drag a corner handle so the proportions stay locked, until the name is about 50 mm long. Then set the height (the top middle handle) to 5 mm. Don't drag width and length separately, or the letters squash.
- 4
4. Add the plate
Drag a Box onto the workplane. Make it about 16 mm longer than the name (6 mm on the right, 10 mm on the left for the hole), about 6 mm wider than the letters are tall, and 3 mm high. In the inspector set Radius to about 1 mm and Steps to 10 or more. Radius rounds every edge, top and bottom included, so on a 3 mm plate anything above 1.5 mm turns it into a pillow. For a classic round end, add a Cylinder as wide as the plate and 3 mm high, centred on the left end.
- 5
5. Put the name on the plate
Select both shapes, open the Align tool (shortcut L) and centre them on the short axis. Then slide the text so it sits 6 mm from the right edge. Both shapes stay on the workplane: the text is 5 mm tall and the plate 3 mm, so the letters overlap the plate and poke out on top.
- 6
6. Cut the ring hole
Drag a Cylinder, set it to 5 or 6 mm in both X and Y and 10 mm high, and click Hole in the inspector. Place it in the empty left end of the plate so there's at least 3 mm of plate between the hole and the edge, and at least 2 mm between the hole and the first letter.
- 7
7. Group everything
Select all (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) and click Group (Ctrl+G or Cmd+G). The hole now cuts through the plate and the letters merge with it into one object. If the hole still looks like a grey shape, it wasn't part of the selection.
- 8
8. Export the STL
Click Export at the top right and pick .STL. With the group selected you can export just that object; otherwise choose everything in the design. Open the file in your slicer, lay it flat and print at 0.2 mm layers. That's about 20 to 40 minutes and 8 to 15 g of PLA.
How long each part takes
Typical times for someone who has opened Tinkercad before but hasn't made a keychain yet.
| Step | First keychain | With practice |
|---|---|---|
| Text shape, font, sizing | 4-6 min | 1-2 min |
| Plate with rounded corners | 3-5 min | 1 min |
| Aligning and positioning | 3-5 min | 1-2 min |
| Hole, group, export | 3-5 min | 1-2 min |
| Checking in the slicer, fixing mistakes | 2-5 min | 1 min |
| Total | 15-25 min | 5-8 min |
Every extra name means repeating steps 2 to 5, because the plate has to be resized to each name's length.
Font choice in Tinkercad
This is where Tinkercad is most limited for name projects.
Built-in fonts
The Text shape offers only a handful of built-in fonts, mostly plain sans and serif styles. They print cleanly, but they all look like a label maker. There is no connected script.
Custom Font Text
The Shape Generators section has a Custom Font Text shape that takes a font in SVG format. It works, but you have to find or convert an SVG font first, and some fonts come in with broken letters.
SVG import
The other route is to type the name in Inkscape, convert it to paths, save an SVG and import it into Tinkercad. It gives you any font, but it adds 5 to 10 minutes per name.
Script fonts
Cursive letters from an SVG often don't quite touch each other. On a plate that's fine, since the plate holds them. Without a plate they print as loose pieces. Our cursive text guide explains why.
Common mistakes
Most failed Tinkercad keychains come down to one of these.
- Letters not touching the plate. If you raised the text so it floats above the plate, even by 0.1 mm, the slicer prints two separate parts. Keep both on the workplane and let them overlap.
- Hole too close to the edge. A 1 mm wall around the hole snaps the first time the keys get yanked. Leave 3 mm or more, which is why the plate gets 10 mm of extra length on the hole side.
- Forgetting to group. An ungrouped hole isn't cut into the plate. You export a keychain without a hole, or with a solid cylinder where the hole should be.
- Squashed letters. Dragging the width without Shift distorts the font. Undo and scale from a corner with Shift held.
- Strokes too thin. Thin serif fonts at 50 mm length can have strokes under 1 mm. A 0.4 mm nozzle needs about 0.8 mm to print a stroke at all. Pick a bolder font or make the name longer. The letters breaking guide has more fixes.
- Hole too small for the ring. A 3 mm hole looks fine on screen but a split ring won't go through. Use 5 mm or more.
Two colours from Tinkercad
A grouped STL is one body, so the slicer sees one colour. For white letters on a blue plate you have two options. The first is a filament change at the layer where the letters start (3 mm here). That works on any printer and is covered in multicolor keychains without an AMS.
The second is to export the letters and the plate as two separate STLs, load both into the slicer as one object with two parts, and assign a filament to each part. That takes a few more minutes and is easy to get wrong, because the two files have to line up exactly.
When a generator is faster
Tinkercad is a good tool and it's free. If you want to learn CAD, or put a name onto something that isn't a keychain, keep using it. But for a plain name keychain most of the 15 to 25 minutes goes into work a program can do for you: sizing the plate to the name, placing the hole, leaving the right wall thickness.
In the name keychain generator you type the name, pick one of 18 fonts (9 of them connected scripts) and the plate and ring are built to fit. A first keychain takes 1 to 3 minutes. Designing is free and needs no account; the download costs $4.99, and with Unlimited you can export a whole class list as one ZIP. For 25 names that's the difference between an afternoon in Tinkercad and a few minutes. We compare both tools in more detail on the Tinkercad alternative page.
Type the name from the tutorial and compare. Free to design, pay only when you download.
Questions people ask
How do I make a name keychain in Tinkercad?
Drag in a Text shape and type the name, add a 3 mm Box with a 1 mm radius as the plate, and cut the ring hole with a Cylinder set to Hole. Select everything, group it with Ctrl+G and export as STL. Keep the letters and plate on the workplane so they overlap and print as one piece.
How long does a Tinkercad keychain take?
Your first one usually takes 15 to 25 minutes, including fixing mistakes in the slicer. With practice you get it down to 5 to 8 minutes per name. Printing adds about 20 to 40 minutes on a small printer like the Bambu Lab A1 mini.
Can I use cursive fonts in Tinkercad?
Not with the built-in Text shape, which has only a few plain fonts. You can load an SVG font through the Custom Font Text shape generator or import the name as an SVG from Inkscape. Script letters from an SVG often don't touch, so print them on a plate or overlap them by hand.
Why does my Tinkercad keychain print in pieces?
The letters aren't touching the plate. That happens when the text was lifted above the workplane or the plate was moved. Put both back at elevation 0, make the text taller than the plate, and group them before export.
How big should the hole in a keychain be?
5 to 6 mm fits a standard split ring. Leave at least 3 mm of plastic between the hole and the edge of the plate, or the ring will tear through. For a lanyard or a thick carabiner go to 8 mm.
Can I export a Tinkercad keychain in two colours?
Export the letters and the plate as two STLs and combine them in the slicer, or print the single STL and change filament at the layer where the letters start. The second option is easier and works on every printer.