Customizing Sick of Beige cases for laser cutting
From DP
Overview
Dangerous Prototypes are moving to now standard sized PCBs for which we have designed Sick of Beige cases. These cases are simple laser cut acrylic sheets that are connected with bolts and standoffs.
In this tutorial we will cover how you can customize our Sick of Beige case files for your own projects
Download and install the SVG export plugin
Download and unzip the export SVG plugin for SketchUp in the SketchUp plugins directory.
Download the Sick of Beige template
Download the Sick of Beige SketchUp template that corespondes to the standard size board you want to design a case for.
Open your project and the template
Open the PCB design file of your project, and the SketchUp template design. This tutorial uses Cadsoft Eagle for the PCB design, as it's the tool we use for our PCBs, and we have standard size PCB library for it.
Match the PCB coordinate center on the template coordinate center
Our templates are positioned so the bottom-right corner of where the PCB is positioned inside the case (standard size PCB relative center in Eagle) is at the SU coordinate center. So if in your PCB design files the standard size PCB's relative coordinate center is at the Eagle coordinate center coordinate in Eagle will mirror in SketchUp.
Adding hole shapes for extruding parts
Find the relative center of the component in your PCB design file
First change the grid in Eagle to millimeters, in the 'View/Grid' menu option. Next right click on the component and select 'properties'. The 'Position' attribute is the coordinate center of the component relative to the Eagle's coordinate center, which should be the same for the SU. The left panel is the X-axis, while the right is the Y-axis.
Using guide lines in SketchUp
Once you have the location of the component draw guide lines in SU.
For X-axis click on the 'Tape Measure tool', then click on the any point on the 'Green' coordinate line and drag the guideline to any point on the template. now click on that point, right after you click on that point type in the numbers of the x coordinate. For example, if the location is 55mm from the coordinate center in the X axis, just type in 55 and hit enter. the guideline will be positioned at exactly 55mm.
Repeat the above for the Y-axis only now using a point on the 'RED' axis line as the starting point. Now you have guidelines pinpointing the exact location of the components center on the template.
Draw the hole shape for the part
Once you have the coordinate center point location on your template, simply draw the outline of the hole you want to cut out, using the component's datasheet as a guide. Leave 0.5-1m of clearance for manufacturing defects.
Repeat for all extruding parts
Repeat the above for all the holes you'd like to cut out on your case. Keep in mind that the Guidelines are your friend, and pretty much any shape can be made with their help. They are really easy to use, and after a couple of minutes you'll get the hang of them. Here is a manual to the 'Tape Measure tool'.
Export the shape to the SVG file
Simply double click on the template. All the lines on the template, and the face surface should be highlighted.
Now right click on any highlighted area, and select 'Export to SVG file'.
The Export Plugin menu will open up.
Fill it in as shown above, with the exception of the Output file pane, where you should enter the filename you want it to export to.
Once you've set all the options up, simply click 'Ok'. The plugin will let you know the file has been exported and you are finished.
Send for Laser Cutting at Seeed
The SVG files are used as a standard for laser cutting, so any laser cutting service should work with them without problems. Here we will describe how we send our designs to Seeed's cheap Laser cutting service. You can find frther instuctions at Seeed's laser cutting service page.
- Select the quantity, material, and the dimension options, based on your project.
- For job difficulty, you need to estimate the overall length of the laser cutting lines. These include the template lines, as well as the hole lines. You can get specific parameters from SketchUp by double clicking on the model, and then holding down shift, and clicking once over the highlighted area to deselect it, while keeping all the lines selected. Now right-click on any highlighted line and select 'Entity info'. Under 'Length' is the over all laser cutting line. Of it's below 600mm your job difficulty is Easy, if it's between 600mm and 1800mm it's Normal, and anything over 1800mm is Hard.
- Once you selected all the options as per your specifications, buy the service. Once you do, you will receive a order number. Now compress your SVG file into an archive called L<order number>.rar, L123456.rar, for an order number 123456 for example.
- Now simply send an email to Laser(at)seeedstudio.com with the file attached.
Example mail:
Subject: Files for order# 123456 Text: Hi,
Please find attached files for order# 123456