Help sketching out my case

I got the tape measure.

I have SketchUp, AutoCad, and Inventor to help me.


What I need help on is measurements, drafting, virtual assembly.




And a bit of encouragement.

Oh, it's ModCron.

Rooting for you mate :up: no skills in the other stuff....but you got "virtual" support :D

Try out my method for sketching over a very faded photo to get started. Sketching in Autocad just doesn't work well. I kept trying to do it and its now 5 years since I built my system.

use sketchup, it's easy to learn :D

Google the form factors you'll be including in the case and make a list of measurements.

good ol' pencil and paper... then once you have an idea of what you want open up Google Sketch-up. It actually has a pretty easy learning curve.

CAD tools are fantastic for refining a design down to the point of construction. But when the design is still squishy, pen and paper is by far faster and easier and much more flexible.

Cardboard makes for excellent models too. Just go to your local store and ask them to save some boxes for you from their stocking shelves. Or just order a bunch of priority mail boxes for free. Can get free shipping tape too. Thanks, USPS!

I recommend sketchup too. I used to use it for work, which is where I learned it, and it's been invaluable in helping me construct two cases. My method was to figure out the dimensions of the components, then make very basic models of them (just boxes really) with the same dimensions. I could then move them around, figure out the best arrangement of parts, and then create a box around them. After doing that, I separated the box into pieces, laid out those pieces on another square that represented a sheet of plywood, and figured out how many sheets I'd need (to avoid repeat trips to the hardware store). And once I had those sheets, I printed screenshots from Sketchup to use as reference for drawing out the case parts on the sheets. It saved a TON of time, and I never had to use autocad.

Billygoat's suggestion of cardboard is a good one too - I used cardboard mockups when I built my sandcrawler. Had Sketchup existed back then I definitely would have used it instead. But it didn't, and the cardboard worked pretty well too. The only downside is if you accidentally cut something too small you can't make it bigger.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by artoodeeto

The only downside is if you accidentally cut something too small you can't make it bigger.

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Duct tape.

Well, I transferred my hardware to another case, so I can now work on the case.