Google SketchUp

geuben · 5 Jun 2009 at 23:31

I like it. How are you going to make the curved bits? Do you have skills in this area? I really want to make my own case but kind of lack the required metal work skills.

Also, the first image made me think of some kind of hoverboard

indyskyz · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:02

geuben said:
I like it. How are you going to make the curved bits? Do you have skills in this area? I really want to make my own case but kind of lack the required metal work skills.

Also, the first image made me think of some kind of hoverboard

ha ha cool hoverboard i didnt see that

yes i have the skills have always been quite handy i also did metalwork and 0welding at collage, should be able to cut all the pieces and brackets i would need from one piece of aluminium

the curved sides and bottom would be one piece

ION · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:04

Just incase anyone didn't know heres a nice resource of sketchup components.

http://scc.jezmckean.com/cat/11

geuben · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:06

I wish I had some proper metal work skills. It's all well and good being able to make electronic things (I'm about to graduate an Electronic Engineering degree) but if you can't make anything nice to put them in then it just no good.

Also, I only just noticed your putting a VESA mount on the case, your not going to hide that behind a screen are you? It looks too good.

ION · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:07

hehe thats the wonder of cad if you can build it in cad someone will make it for u

.

geuben · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:09

ION said:
hehe thats the wonder of cad if you can build it in cad someone will make it for u .

True, but that costs money (obviously buying the materials to do it yourself costs money too) and is no fun.

ION · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:12

Well if ur nice to the metal supplier u can usually get them to cut parts to size. However that involves actually going to one instead of getting it off the net

.

Also sketch up is a pain but for a free tool thats relitively easy to use its not that bad. hehe i will admit it gets damm hard when ur doing stuff to scale (mind u least it proved to me that i could fit a quad rad in the v2110

)

geuben · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:15

ION said:
...
Also sketch up is a pain but for a free tool thats relitively easy to use its not that bad. hehe i will admit it gets damm hard when ur doing stuff to scale (mind u least it proved to me that i could fit a quad rad in the v2110 )

A few people have said that Sketchup isn't great when working to scale, why is that? you can make things to mm accuracy on it. My problem is not having the practical knowledge of knowing say how thick a sheet of aluminium would need to be for x or how is the best way to fix x and y together etc.

indyskyz · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:15

ION said:
Just incase anyone didn't know heres a nice resource of sketchup components.

http://scc.jezmckean.com/cat/11

dude thats awesome tyvm

indyskyz · 6 Jun 2009 at 00:21

ION where i work to the left there is an alloy mfgr and to the right is a steel mfgr

so no problem getting the mats the bloke that owns the alloy place is a good chap he would probably get it cut and shaped for me

ION · 6 Jun 2009 at 01:17

No problem happy to help. Have to say some of the designers are a lot better than others but still its amazingly handy.

Yea knowing a metal supplier always help

. Was tempted to build a case from scratch however it would drive me nuts trying to make it look perfect. Find sketchup more handy for getting measurements for stuff and expermenting with kit (whoever created the tj07 sketchup was very talented). Its always nice to know that u wont waste any money before u actually try and fit kit into such a tight place

.

Problem is with sketchup when doing to scale is simply that its quite a pain to make a box based on measurements (no way to type in the measurements to make a box).

indyskyz · 6 Jun 2009 at 11:41

yeah i found that a pain too you have to drag the box tool
i did just use the line tool for pretymuch all of it you can get accurate with that

geuben · 6 Jun 2009 at 11:50

ION said:
...
Problem is with sketchup when doing to scale is simply that its quite a pain to make a box based on measurements (no way to type in the measurements to make a box).

You can type in the measurements, in the bottom right corner there is a box which shows how big the current thing will be, if you click on it you can type in it, like: "500mm,500mm" without "" will make a 500mm x 500mm box.

indyskyz · 6 Jun 2009 at 12:36

geuben said:
You can type in the measurements, in the bottom right corner there is a box which shows how big the current thing will be, if you click on it you can type in it, like: "500mm,500mm" without "" will make a 500mm x 500mm box.

lol i knew i should have read the guide

D D Danneh · 6 Jun 2009 at 13:39

The ruler is very helpful in sketchup too. Not just for measuring, but for laying out guidelines. The way sketchup has "snap", it works perfectly with guidelines. My only gripe is when trying to make spheres or hemispheres. It's a PITA to do spheres, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and if you want a hemisphere, cutting the sphere in half is annoying, because your cutter will stick to any vertice on the sphere. In a high poly model, that means anywhere.