SOB Google Sketchup plugin

[KevWal]

[sorry posted in wrong thread, deleted]

[tayken]

The plugin seems to be doing something weird, or it could well just be me doing something wrong...

I don't think that this is the "Sick Of Beige" creator plugin I wrote. It does not work with SVG files. Which plugin is this?

[kenyee]

ok, this is a bit of a dumb question, but how do you cut holes in sketchup w/ this plugin?

With the regular SickOfBeige templates, everything was 2D, so you basically figure out where to cut a rectangular hole and then draw a rectangle and then do right click erase.
With this 3D one, it looks like when you do that, it only draws on one face.

Would be nice if the plugin had a way to specify cutouts for two sides for big ugly connectors like an RJ11...they're so huge, I want them mostly outside the case :-P I actually want a notch in two dimensions (top and a side) so the rest of the case can be slimmer.

[tayken]

You can create holes on faces. Here is how:
- Select the part you want to create holes on. Right click, select explode.
- Create the cutout shape with line, square, circle or arc tools on the face of the part.
- Select push/pull tool. Click on the cutout shape, move it towards the other face of the part until it snaps and displays "On Face", click again to set.
- Now you have a hole.

[kenyee]

Thanks!
And now I get to the next stupid question...anything special to export to SVG so you can send it to Seeed?
Looks like I can right click on each face, then "export to SVG file" and use these same settings?


But before that, I have to reduce the size by 1000 which I can't figure out how to do do after googling for a while. Looks like there is a scale tool, but that seems to apply to only one side at a time and you can't set a specific number. I can't just do "shrink everything by 1000"

And to panelize it, you open the SVG files up in Inkscape and do the copy/paste thing to the appropriate size canvas to match what is available at Seeed?

[kenyee]

But before that, I have to reduce the size by 1000 which I can't figure out how to do do after googling for a while. Looks like there is a scale tool, but that seems to apply to only one side at a time and you can't set a specific number. I can't just do "shrink everything by 1000"

FYI, to do this, you need to install EagleUp..it contains plugins to change the dimensions by 1000. Most people will install this to make sure their board fits anyways, but I didn't :)

[kenyee]

Has anyone done this to make sure things line up?
What I did was this:
- use eagleup to convert a board into sketchup format
- resize down by 1000
- select the drills layer and export to svg
- open drills layer in inkscape
- import SoB template (60x37) inkscape but it shows up as a small rectangle, so I have to transform/scale the object by 1330%
- align the holes in the SoB template w/ the drills layer holes (still not sure why I had to do the 1330% to get it to fit)
- save top layer of interlocked SoB case as SVG
- import top layer in Inkscape and scale by 1340% to get the holes to line up their centers

What I get is what you see below...looks like the interlocking side layers will hit the edges of the board :-(

[kenyee]

What I get is what you see below...looks like the interlocking side layers will hit the edges of the board :-(

After some quality time w/ the ruler tool, I found out that the SoB templates from:
http://dangerous-prototypes-open-hardwa ... Templates/
are 2mm wider than the ones generated by this plugin. E.g., for the 60x37, the template is actually 64x41 outer dimensions...makes sense since it's supposed to protect the board. Center to center of the narrowest holes is 29mm.
When this plugin is used to generate a case w/o sides, it creates a case that's 62x39 (I think arakis mentioned this in the thread a while back so I assumed it was fixed). Makes more sense to be 62x39 if it goes into the case w/ sides though since you want to minimize internal space.

The EagleUp exported SVG are the wrong size...center-center of the narrowest holes is 29.5mm. It's scaled a bit off :-P
If you scale the EagleUp exported board by 0.99, it fits properly.

Back to trying to figure out how to export all the sides of the 3D case...can't remember how I exported a single side and it keeps exporting a long tall blank rectangle now :-P

[tayken]

After some quality time w/ the ruler tool, I found out that the SoB templates from:
http://dangerous-prototypes-open-hardwa ... Templates/
are 2mm wider than the ones generated by this plugin. E.g., for the 60x37, the template is actually 64x41 outer dimensions...makes sense since it's supposed to protect the board. Center to center of the narrowest holes is 29mm.
When this plugin is used to generate a case w/o sides, it creates a case that's 62x39 (I think arakis mentioned this in the thread a while back so I assumed it was fixed). Makes more sense to be 62x39 if it goes into the case w/ sides though since you want to minimize internal space.

Hmm, that means they changed the dimensions of SoB templates, am I right? When writing the code, I put a 1 mm space between the PCB and side pieces on every side so that it's not a tight fit. Actually the calculation is like this:

Code: Select all

If there is no side piece:
slotToEdgeDistance = 1 mm
Top/Bottom piece dimensions = PCB dimension + 2*slotToEdgeDistance
If there are side pieces:
slotToEdgeDistance = 2*acrylicThickness
Top/Bottom piece dimensions = PCB dimension + 2*pcbToSideDistance + 2*acrylicThickness (used by the slot) + 2*slotToEdgeDistance


So without sides, an 60x37 PCB has a case size of 62x39. That 2 mm extra comes from slotToEdgeDistance. If you chose a design with sides, the case size is 80x57. The extras are pcbToSide distance (1 mm), acrylicThickness (3 mm) and slotToEdgeDistance (6 mm).

Actually while checking this out, I realized a bug in the code. If I create a box with no sides, then erase it and create a box with sides, slotToEdgeDistance is still 1 mm. Will fix that. (Edit: Fixed, latest code is in SVN)

[kenyee]

Hmm, that means they changed the dimensions of SoB templates, am I right? When writing the code, I put a 1 mm space between the PCB and side pieces on every side so that it's not a tight fit

I'm not sure if they changed the SoB templates...I didn't try using them until the past 6 months...probably a question for the DP folks.

It's not to say your design is wrong...yours still gives a 1mm border around all the edges instead of the 2mm that the SoB ones do.
I was just noting the differences in case people were trying to confirm compatibility. I honestly prefer smaller cases (and might fiddle w/ your slotToEdgeDistance to shrink your sided case down a bit to see how small it can get).

[tayken]

Hmm, that means they changed the dimensions of SoB templates, am I right? When writing the code, I put a 1 mm space between the PCB and side pieces on every side so that it's not a tight fit

I'm not sure if they changed the SoB templates...I didn't try using them until the past 6 months...probably a question for the DP folks.

After posting that message, I checked the sizes, it is the same. Probably understood it wrong as I didn't got my morning coffee yet at that time. :)

If you are gonna fiddle with the code, please use the latest one I uploaded today. I had to make some changes after finding a bug. Not a big change but it will affect which value you have to play with, it's pcbToSideDistance now and I'm not editing the global slotToEdgeDistance for the case without side pieces.