Author Topic: NOW OPEN SOURCE!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]  (Read 3047281 times)

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Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #450 on: Tue, 10 February 2015, 21:43:41 »
Small status update...

As you guys know, I have been back and forth with BigBlueSaw quite a bit recently.  They have been great to work with.  They have been very responsive and are genuinely interested in working with us and solving our specific problems.  I have pointed them to some MX and Alps switches as well as Costar stabilizers which they have purchased so they have units to do spot checking and validation of cutouts.  I will be sending them both Plate and PCB mounted Cherry stabilizers so they have a complete set of components as reference when working on our projects. 

I love that they are proactive and are purchasing the mating components that we rely on so they can guarantee a quality service for us.  That is above and beyond in my opinion and it really shows that they are serious about working together. 

We have also been discussing pricing quite a bit and we are trying to find ways to reduce costs wherever we can.  I have shared my back-of-the-napkin calculations for the cost of the different switch cutouts [1], and he agrees that it seems pretty acurate as a relative cost of the different cutouts.  It is good to get some validation on those assumptions.  He suggested that we could potentially save some cost by linking the switches together (not stopping cutting and moving from one switch cutout to the next while continuing to cut).  This will reduce the machining time because, as he says, "having the cutting head shut off, traverse to the next hole, switch back on to pierce the hole, then move to the cutting edge all takes time".  I commented that we may be able to do that between switches on the same row, but I was concerned that we may lose some structure and rigidity if we did that.  I think it also depends a bit on the material.  He agreed that it is probably not realistic for a whole row.  We will have to run some tests to see how many switches in a row we can link and not compromise structure.  We still do not know what the cost savings will be, but we do expect to be able save on costs by doing this.

I think thats pretty much it.  It has been great working with them, very proactive and engaged.  Good news for everyone...  :)

On my side.  I am still working on getting the DXF format supported.  I have run into a couple bugs in the core software.  I am continuing to patch and develop workarounds for the problems, so hopefully I will have some good news on that soon...  (back at it...)

[1]
(Attachment Link)

Awesome update man.  Good to hear this is all going so well.  I guess I need to get in touch with him and figure out what the plan will actually be with these plates I want cut.  Was going to place the order Friday to see how it goes.
I am confident that if he has the switches and stabs that everything will work out well.

I think the more complicated stuff like determining what machining processes we can tweak to bring down costs will happen a bit more slowly since we will have to do some testing.

Scraps from the back of the shear make great test plates.
Good tip.  Thx. :)

Offline Melvang

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #451 on: Tue, 10 February 2015, 22:16:55 »
Small status update...

As you guys know, I have been back and forth with BigBlueSaw quite a bit recently.  They have been great to work with.  They have been very responsive and are genuinely interested in working with us and solving our specific problems.  I have pointed them to some MX and Alps switches as well as Costar stabilizers which they have purchased so they have units to do spot checking and validation of cutouts.  I will be sending them both Plate and PCB mounted Cherry stabilizers so they have a complete set of components as reference when working on our projects. 

I love that they are proactive and are purchasing the mating components that we rely on so they can guarantee a quality service for us.  That is above and beyond in my opinion and it really shows that they are serious about working together. 

We have also been discussing pricing quite a bit and we are trying to find ways to reduce costs wherever we can.  I have shared my back-of-the-napkin calculations for the cost of the different switch cutouts [1], and he agrees that it seems pretty acurate as a relative cost of the different cutouts.  It is good to get some validation on those assumptions.  He suggested that we could potentially save some cost by linking the switches together (not stopping cutting and moving from one switch cutout to the next while continuing to cut).  This will reduce the machining time because, as he says, "having the cutting head shut off, traverse to the next hole, switch back on to pierce the hole, then move to the cutting edge all takes time".  I commented that we may be able to do that between switches on the same row, but I was concerned that we may lose some structure and rigidity if we did that.  I think it also depends a bit on the material.  He agreed that it is probably not realistic for a whole row.  We will have to run some tests to see how many switches in a row we can link and not compromise structure.  We still do not know what the cost savings will be, but we do expect to be able save on costs by doing this.

I think thats pretty much it.  It has been great working with them, very proactive and engaged.  Good news for everyone...  :)

On my side.  I am still working on getting the DXF format supported.  I have run into a couple bugs in the core software.  I am continuing to patch and develop workarounds for the problems, so hopefully I will have some good news on that soon...  (back at it...)

[1]
(Attachment Link)

Awesome update man.  Good to hear this is all going so well.  I guess I need to get in touch with him and figure out what the plan will actually be with these plates I want cut.  Was going to place the order Friday to see how it goes.
I am confident that if he has the switches and stabs that everything will work out well.

I think the more complicated stuff like determining what machining processes we can tweak to bring down costs will happen a bit more slowly since we will have to do some testing.

Scraps from the back of the shear make great test plates.
Good tip.  Thx. :)

Not a problem, that is how I got my stainless for less than a dollar a pound when anywhere I was looking at was going to charge me over 3 per pound.
OG Kishsaver, Razer Orbweaver clears and reds with blue LEDs, and Razer Naga Epic.   "Great minds crawl in the same sewer"  Uncle Rich

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #452 on: Tue, 10 February 2015, 22:17:45 »
Small status update...

As you guys know, I have been back and forth with BigBlueSaw quite a bit recently.  They have been great to work with.  They have been very responsive and are genuinely interested in working with us and solving our specific problems.  I have pointed them to some MX and Alps switches as well as Costar stabilizers which they have purchased so they have units to do spot checking and validation of cutouts.  I will be sending them both Plate and PCB mounted Cherry stabilizers so they have a complete set of components as reference when working on our projects. 

I love that they are proactive and are purchasing the mating components that we rely on so they can guarantee a quality service for us.  That is above and beyond in my opinion and it really shows that they are serious about working together. 

We have also been discussing pricing quite a bit and we are trying to find ways to reduce costs wherever we can.  I have shared my back-of-the-napkin calculations for the cost of the different switch cutouts [1], and he agrees that it seems pretty acurate as a relative cost of the different cutouts.  It is good to get some validation on those assumptions.  He suggested that we could potentially save some cost by linking the switches together (not stopping cutting and moving from one switch cutout to the next while continuing to cut).  This will reduce the machining time because, as he says, "having the cutting head shut off, traverse to the next hole, switch back on to pierce the hole, then move to the cutting edge all takes time".  I commented that we may be able to do that between switches on the same row, but I was concerned that we may lose some structure and rigidity if we did that.  I think it also depends a bit on the material.  He agreed that it is probably not realistic for a whole row.  We will have to run some tests to see how many switches in a row we can link and not compromise structure.  We still do not know what the cost savings will be, but we do expect to be able save on costs by doing this.

I think thats pretty much it.  It has been great working with them, very proactive and engaged.  Good news for everyone...  :)

On my side.  I am still working on getting the DXF format supported.  I have run into a couple bugs in the core software.  I am continuing to patch and develop workarounds for the problems, so hopefully I will have some good news on that soon...  (back at it...)

[1]
(Attachment Link)

Awesome update man.  Good to hear this is all going so well.  I guess I need to get in touch with him and figure out what the plan will actually be with these plates I want cut.  Was going to place the order Friday to see how it goes.
I am confident that if he has the switches and stabs that everything will work out well.

I think the more complicated stuff like determining what machining processes we can tweak to bring down costs will happen a bit more slowly since we will have to do some testing.

Scraps from the back of the shear make great test plates.
Good tip.  Thx. :)

Not a problem, that is how I got my stainless for less than a dollar a pound when anywhere I was looking at was going to charge me over 3 per pound.
Ya. That makes total sense.

Offline azhdar

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #453 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 04:54:12 »
Hey I encountered this error


for this build :


raw data below

Quote from: raw data
[{y:1},"","","",""],
["","","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
["","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
[{w:2},"",""]

Did I made a mistake? Trying to get a plate for a 6x5 numpad.
Azerty Propagandiste

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #454 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 06:24:22 »
Hey I encountered this error

Show Image

for this build :
Show Image


raw data below

Quote from: raw data
[{y:1},"","","",""],
["","","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
["","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
[{w:2},"",""]

Did I made a mistake? Trying to get a plate for a 6x5 numpad.
I will check on that for you. It looks right.

Side note. Why such big holes? 5mm seems quite large to me.

Offline azhdar

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #455 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 06:32:30 »
Hey I encountered this error

Show Image

for this build :
Show Image


raw data below

Quote from: raw data
[{y:1},"","","",""],
["","","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
["","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
[{w:2},"",""]

Did I made a mistake? Trying to get a plate for a 6x5 numpad.
I will check on that for you. It looks right.

Side note. Why such big holes? 5mm seems quite large to me.
Just a test for the moment, I'll finish the work in CAD.
ps: tried 1mm hole doesn't work either.
Azerty Propagandiste

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #456 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 06:44:58 »
Hey I encountered this error

Show Image

for this build :
Show Image


raw data below

Quote from: raw data
[{y:1},"","","",""],
["","","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
["","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
[{w:2},"",""]

Did I made a mistake? Trying to get a plate for a 6x5 numpad.
I will check on that for you. It looks right.

Side note. Why such big holes? 5mm seems quite large to me.
Just a test for the moment, I'll finish the work in CAD.
ps: tried 1mm hole doesn't work either.
Ya. I was pretty sure it was not that. I was just curious cause it caught my eye.

I will check this when I am on the train this morning.

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #457 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 07:04:19 »
Hey I encountered this error

Show Image

for this build :
Show Image


raw data below

Quote from: raw data
[{y:1},"","","",""],
["","","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
["","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
[{w:2},"",""]

Did I made a mistake? Trying to get a plate for a 6x5 numpad.
I will check on that for you. It looks right.

Side note. Why such big holes? 5mm seems quite large to me.
Just a test for the moment, I'll finish the work in CAD.
ps: tried 1mm hole doesn't work either.
Ya. I was pretty sure it was not that. I was just curious cause it caught my eye.

I will check this when I am on the train this morning.

Ok, try it again.  It is working now.  Some LXC workers had gotten stuck in a running state, so I ran out of resources and could not spawn new workers...

Offline p3lim

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #458 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 07:35:50 »
If the user specifies a background color in the editor and uses the raw data that contains that, your tool interprets that as a key and adds it.
It would be wise to only parse the arrays from the raw data, basically ignoring objects (unless of course they are values of an array).

Here's an example:
Code: [Select]
{backcolor:"#ff0000"},
["","","","","","","","","","","",""],
[{w:1.25},"","","","","","","","","","",{w:1.75},""],
[{w:1.75},"","","","","","","","","","",{w:1.25},""],
[{w:1.5},"","",{w:1.5},"",{w:4},"",{w:1.5},"","",{w:1.5},""]

Becomes this:
« Last Edit: Wed, 11 February 2015, 07:38:06 by p3lim »

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #459 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 08:04:04 »
If the user specifies a background color in the editor and uses the raw data that contains that, your tool interprets that as a key and adds it.
It would be wise to only parse the arrays from the raw data, basically ignoring objects (unless of course they are values of an array).

Here's an example:
Code: [Select]
{backcolor:"#ff0000"},
["","","","","","","","","","","",""],
[{w:1.25},"","","","","","","","","","",{w:1.75},""],
[{w:1.75},"","","","","","","","","","",{w:1.25},""],
[{w:1.5},"","",{w:1.5},"",{w:4},"",{w:1.5},"","",{w:1.5},""]

Becomes this:
Show Image


Haha.  Thanks for reporting that behavior.  I would have never found that.  :)

I will add this to the list of stuff I am working on.  Thanks for letting me know.

Offline p3lim

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #460 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 08:07:08 »
Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks for being awesome!  ;D

Offline jdcarpe

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #461 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 08:10:44 »
If the user specifies a background color in the editor and uses the raw data that contains that, your tool interprets that as a key and adds it.
It would be wise to only parse the arrays from the raw data, basically ignoring objects (unless of course they are values of an array).

Here's an example:
Code: [Select]
{backcolor:"#ff0000"},
["","","","","","","","","","","",""],
[{w:1.25},"","","","","","","","","","",{w:1.75},""],
[{w:1.75},"","","","","","","","","","",{w:1.25},""],
[{w:1.5},"","",{w:1.5},"",{w:4},"",{w:1.5},"","",{w:1.5},""]

Becomes this:
Show Image


I saw that, too, but forgot to report it.



What a cute little plate! :)
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


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Offline p3lim

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #462 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 08:46:04 »
What a cute little plate! :)

After all the JD40 hype you created I'm probably going to make a 40% as my next project, here's the layout I've been messing with: http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/509067fc6168ffee7a5dc185b2c9b732

Offline azhdar

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #463 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 08:48:36 »
Hey I encountered this error

Show Image

for this build :
Show Image


raw data below

Quote from: raw data
[{y:1},"","","",""],
["","","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
["","",""],
["","","",{h:2},""],
[{w:2},"",""]

Did I made a mistake? Trying to get a plate for a 6x5 numpad.
I will check on that for you. It looks right.

Side note. Why such big holes? 5mm seems quite large to me.
Just a test for the moment, I'll finish the work in CAD.
ps: tried 1mm hole doesn't work either.
Ya. I was pretty sure it was not that. I was just curious cause it caught my eye.

I will check this when I am on the train this morning.

Ok, try it again.  It is working now.  Some LXC workers had gotten stuck in a running state, so I ran out of resources and could not spawn new workers...
Worked thanks for the quick update
Azerty Propagandiste

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #464 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:08:50 »
What a cute little plate! :)

After all the JD40 hype you created I'm probably going to make a 40% as my next project, here's the layout I've been messing with: http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/509067fc6168ffee7a5dc185b2c9b732

Cool.  :)  Won't your upper and lower be bound to the same key?  Wouldn't lower be accessed with just the lower key press and the upper would be accessed with 'lower + shift'?  Not sure it is even possible to split those key presses because I think they are registered as the same key.  Unless you program upper to be a macro which is actually 'lower + shift'. 

JD will probably have a better idea on this, but that was my understanding.  Which complicated the 40% layout I wanted to do a bit...

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #465 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:09:21 »
Ok, try it again.  It is working now.  Some LXC workers had gotten stuck in a running state, so I ran out of resources and could not spawn new workers...
Worked thanks for the quick update

No problem.  Thanks for reporting.  :)

Offline jdcarpe

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #466 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:13:33 »
Cool.  :)  Won't your upper and lower be bound to the same key?  Wouldn't lower be accessed with just the lower key press and the upper would be accessed with 'lower + shift'?  Not sure it is even possible to split those key presses because I think they are registered as the same key.  Unless you program upper to be a macro which is actually 'lower + shift'. 

Yes, that's correct.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Offline p3lim

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #467 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:20:26 »
What a cute little plate! :)

After all the JD40 hype you created I'm probably going to make a 40% as my next project, here's the layout I've been messing with: http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/509067fc6168ffee7a5dc185b2c9b732

Cool.  :)  Won't your upper and lower be bound to the same key?  Wouldn't lower be accessed with just the lower key press and the upper would be accessed with 'lower + shift'?  Not sure it is even possible to split those key presses because I think they are registered as the same key.  Unless you program upper to be a macro which is actually 'lower + shift'. 

JD will probably have a better idea on this, but that was my understanding.  Which complicated the 40% layout I wanted to do a bit...

I was planning to have them as two layers and everything on "upper" would be a modified version of the same key on the lower layer (ACTION_MODS_KEY in tmk).
But if that works it would be amazing!

Offline Dihedral

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #468 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:29:38 »
It's great to have a 'community service' in bbs. Just a shame that it is US based. Still, I look forward to see what people do now that it is easier to prototype and build new designs. This will really make it easier for someone with no CAD experience to try out their ideas. I think this will lead to a 'renaissance' of keyboard design now that it is so much easier to try out something radical and new.

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #469 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:36:12 »
It's great to have a 'community service' in bbs. Just a shame that it is US based. Still, I look forward to see what people do now that it is easier to prototype and build new designs. This will really make it easier for someone with no CAD experience to try out their ideas. I think this will lead to a 'renaissance' of keyboard design now that it is so much easier to try out something radical and new.

Technically it is Canadian based.  :P  You can use the tool from anywhere and take the plates to any local shop to get the work done.  Hopefully the lessons we learn working closely with companies like BigBlueSaw (US based) will help people who are getting work done at their local shops by giving them a head start in knowing what to ask for and what to look out for.

I hope this leads to a 'renaissance' of sorts when it comes to custom builds and unique ideas for new build projects.  With the number of Enabler PCBs out there in the wild, I expect to see some very cool builds this year.  If my work can help lower the bar for people to get involved and feel comfortable to start prototyping and building their ideas, that is fantastic.  :)

Offline Dihedral

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #470 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:50:48 »
It's great to have a 'community service' in bbs. Just a shame that it is US based. Still, I look forward to see what people do now that it is easier to prototype and build new designs. This will really make it easier for someone with no CAD experience to try out their ideas. I think this will lead to a 'renaissance' of keyboard design now that it is so much easier to try out something radical and new.

Technically it is Canadian based.  :P  You can use the tool from anywhere and take the plates to any local shop to get the work done.  Hopefully the lessons we learn working closely with companies like BigBlueSaw (US based) will help people who are getting work done at their local shops by giving them a head start in knowing what to ask for and what to look out for.

I hope this leads to a 'renaissance' of sorts when it comes to custom builds and unique ideas for new build projects.  With the number of Enabler PCBs out there in the wild, I expect to see some very cool builds this year.  If my work can help lower the bar for people to get involved and feel comfortable to start prototyping and building their ideas, that is fantastic.  :)

Sure, any shop will get it cut, but because BBS has the experience in this area surely that will help out their clients greatly.

Also, I was referring to BBS when I said US based. But the US and Canada are basically the same thing anyway, right...

runs and hides :D

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #471 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 09:59:46 »
It's great to have a 'community service' in bbs. Just a shame that it is US based. Still, I look forward to see what people do now that it is easier to prototype and build new designs. This will really make it easier for someone with no CAD experience to try out their ideas. I think this will lead to a 'renaissance' of keyboard design now that it is so much easier to try out something radical and new.

Technically it is Canadian based.  :P  You can use the tool from anywhere and take the plates to any local shop to get the work done.  Hopefully the lessons we learn working closely with companies like BigBlueSaw (US based) will help people who are getting work done at their local shops by giving them a head start in knowing what to ask for and what to look out for.

I hope this leads to a 'renaissance' of sorts when it comes to custom builds and unique ideas for new build projects.  With the number of Enabler PCBs out there in the wild, I expect to see some very cool builds this year.  If my work can help lower the bar for people to get involved and feel comfortable to start prototyping and building their ideas, that is fantastic.  :)

Sure, any shop will get it cut, but because BBS has the experience in this area surely that will help out their clients greatly.

Also, I was referring to BBS when I said US based. But the US and Canada are basically the same thing anyway, right...

runs and hides :D

Sorry I did not make the connection between 'BBS' and 'BigBlueSaw'.  I have seen bbs as a shorthand for bulletin boards (aka - forums), so I did not understand your statement as you meant it.  :)

I do think that it is helpful for everyone to see the types of problems we are trying to solve with BBS.  It will help guide other collaboration (potentially in your country).  :)

Offline possumgumbo

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #472 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 11:09:16 »
Just wanted to let everyone know that the CAD files produced from the tool make perfectly viable plates on my friend's Solidoodle V3 3D Printer.
Here are some shots of the prototype:

http://imgur.com/24kdziP
http://imgur.com/Hw6nAQe

We added posts for stability on the underside.

Your tool is amazing!

Ok, thats ****ing awesome.  Well done dude.  Thanks for sharing back your experience.  This is really cool to see.  :)  Love that people are already trying 3d printing of this stuff.  :)  Did you use the STP file?

I used the STL file, which my 3D Printing buddy then chopped into pieces on another program. When I asked him what he used, he sent the following reply:

"Spaceclaim for opening and modifying the STEP and converting to STL (this is probably what he wants to know), Repetier Host for running the printer, Slic3r for slicing. If he wants to play with a program similar to Spaceclaim for free he should look into DesignSpark Mechanical - it does not have the full functionality but will import step files and has the basic features and workflow (note that I haven't actually used it myself, I just know it's using the Spaceclaim kernel)."



Offline Dihedral

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #473 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 11:35:25 »
It's great to have a 'community service' in bbs. Just a shame that it is US based. Still, I look forward to see what people do now that it is easier to prototype and build new designs. This will really make it easier for someone with no CAD experience to try out their ideas. I think this will lead to a 'renaissance' of keyboard design now that it is so much easier to try out something radical and new.

Technically it is Canadian based.  :P  You can use the tool from anywhere and take the plates to any local shop to get the work done.  Hopefully the lessons we learn working closely with companies like BigBlueSaw (US based) will help people who are getting work done at their local shops by giving them a head start in knowing what to ask for and what to look out for.

I hope this leads to a 'renaissance' of sorts when it comes to custom builds and unique ideas for new build projects.  With the number of Enabler PCBs out there in the wild, I expect to see some very cool builds this year.  If my work can help lower the bar for people to get involved and feel comfortable to start prototyping and building their ideas, that is fantastic.  :)

Sure, any shop will get it cut, but because BBS has the experience in this area surely that will help out their clients greatly.

Also, I was referring to BBS when I said US based. But the US and Canada are basically the same thing anyway, right...

runs and hides :D

Sorry I did not make the connection between 'BBS' and 'BigBlueSaw'.  I have seen bbs as a shorthand for bulletin boards (aka - forums), so I did not understand your statement as you meant it.  :)

I do think that it is helpful for everyone to see the types of problems we are trying to solve with BBS.  It will help guide other collaboration (potentially in your country).  :)

Ah right, that clears it up. It will definitely be good to have knowledge on these issues to help people who may face them.

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #474 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 11:45:47 »
Just wanted to let everyone know that the CAD files produced from the tool make perfectly viable plates on my friend's Solidoodle V3 3D Printer.
Here are some shots of the prototype:

http://imgur.com/24kdziP
http://imgur.com/Hw6nAQe

We added posts for stability on the underside.

Your tool is amazing!

Ok, thats ****ing awesome.  Well done dude.  Thanks for sharing back your experience.  This is really cool to see.  :)  Love that people are already trying 3d printing of this stuff.  :)  Did you use the STP file?

I used the STL file, which my 3D Printing buddy then chopped into pieces on another program. When I asked him what he used, he sent the following reply:

"Spaceclaim for opening and modifying the STEP and converting to STL (this is probably what he wants to know), Repetier Host for running the printer, Slic3r for slicing. If he wants to play with a program similar to Spaceclaim for free he should look into DesignSpark Mechanical - it does not have the full functionality but will import step files and has the basic features and workflow (note that I haven't actually used it myself, I just know it's using the Spaceclaim kernel)."

Cool.  :)

Offline sypl

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #475 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 15:02:36 »
"Sandwich - This is a standard layered case. The plate goes on the top and then there are essentially ring layers and then a bottom plate. There are two types of ring layers; 'open' which has a cutout for the USB connector, and 'closed' which has no cutouts. You can choose how many of each layer is suitable for your case.
This case type will actually produce the CAD files for all the layers of the sandwich case. You will be able to choose how many of each layer you want cut and build the case completely from the output of this tool."

This sounds like the tool produces all the layers, but I'm not seeing that. I just get the top plate. Am I doing something wrong, or is this future functionality?

It is an awesome, awesome tool btw.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #476 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 16:13:30 »
"Sandwich - This is a standard layered case. The plate goes on the top and then there are essentially ring layers and then a bottom plate. There are two types of ring layers; 'open' which has a cutout for the USB connector, and 'closed' which has no cutouts. You can choose how many of each layer is suitable for your case.
This case type will actually produce the CAD files for all the layers of the sandwich case. You will be able to choose how many of each layer you want cut and build the case completely from the output of this tool."

This sounds like the tool produces all the layers, but I'm not seeing that. I just get the top plate. Am I doing something wrong, or is this future functionality?

It is an awesome, awesome tool btw.
Yes. When I wrote the help section I was expecting to have that functionality developed before I launched the tool. It is on my short list of features roll out, but my time has been limited recently due to RL stuff. I have also prioritized trying to get DXF format support working in order to simplify the collaboration with shops like BigBlueSaw. I have been struggling with this as it is currently broken in the core engine I am using, so I have been trying to troubleshoot and submit patches to the core to get DXF export functionality working for us.

The generation of those additional layers is something I want to get added asap.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #477 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 21:59:38 »
Is the code on github? I wouldn't mind taking a look.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #478 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 22:02:50 »
Is the code on github? I wouldn't mind taking a look.

Not yet.  I was going to try to progress it a bit more before I open sourced it.  I would like to get most of the core functionality in place before I open source it.  Right now I don't really have the cycles to deal with pull requests because I am really trying to focus on getting through some of my backlog.  It will be available in the near future, but probably not for another month or so.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #479 on: Wed, 11 February 2015, 22:28:10 »
A small update tonight...

I have spent entirely too much time trying to get DXF support working.  I had previously spent about a week or two on the problem and then gave up.  This time I am working off the nightly builds of FreeCAD and I went into it knowing I was going to have to get my hands dirty.  I have spent most of my free time this past week finding and fixing bugs and submitting patches upstream.  Tonight I think I have finally cracked this nut and I have successfully exported a DXF file.  W00t!!!  Rounded corners are even working.  Booya...

I am going to see if I can get SVG export working as well.  I was not able to get it working in the past, but I have a better idea of how this stuff works now and I am pretty confident I should be able to get that working as well.  I think I have already isolated the main issue, so hopefully it will be a quick fix.

Anyway, all good news.  If I can finally get these exports working I will be able to rest easy and move on to the fun features.  :)

Offline Dihedral

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #480 on: Thu, 12 February 2015, 02:03:26 »
A small update tonight...

I have spent entirely too much time trying to get DXF support working.  I had previously spent about a week or two on the problem and then gave up.  This time I am working off the nightly builds of FreeCAD and I went into it knowing I was going to have to get my hands dirty.  I have spent most of my free time this past week finding and fixing bugs and submitting patches upstream.  Tonight I think I have finally cracked this nut and I have successfully exported a DXF file.  W00t!!!  Rounded corners are even working.  Booya...

I am going to see if I can get SVG export working as well.  I was not able to get it working in the past, but I have a better idea of how this stuff works now and I am pretty confident I should be able to get that working as well.  I think I have already isolated the main issue, so hopefully it will be a quick fix.

Anyway, all good news.  If I can finally get these exports working I will be able to rest easy and move on to the fun features.  :)

This is amazing news! Now for dwg, unless you never want to look at file export code again in your life :)

Offline MOZ

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #481 on: Thu, 12 February 2015, 06:38:16 »
Nice work swill!

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #482 on: Thu, 12 February 2015, 06:41:27 »
Great to hear swill, been watching this very keenly!
It's a good width!  If it's half-width it's too narrow, and full-width is too wide. 

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #483 on: Fri, 13 February 2015, 08:15:15 »
This is amazing news! Now for dwg, unless you never want to look at file export code again in your life :)

Once you've got one vector format working, the rest are pretty easy. The lazy way to do it is to just find a command line tool that does the conversion for you.

Offline cmadrid

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #484 on: Fri, 13 February 2015, 11:11:21 »
Thank you for all of the work you have poured into this Swill!  I'm excited to see BBS working with you too, hopefully some day soon we will be able to buy some keyboard parts from you.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #485 on: Sat, 14 February 2015, 21:54:36 »
So I'm torn between the top and bottom plate being all aluminum, all polycarbonate or PC for bottom plate and aluminum for the top.  The switches I sent were delivered today, going to place my order monday or tuesday.
« Last Edit: Sat, 14 February 2015, 21:58:31 by phishy »

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #486 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 00:14:30 »
So I'm torn between the top and bottom plate being all aluminum, all polycarbonate or PC for bottom plate and aluminum for the top.  The switches I sent were delivered today, going to place my order monday or tuesday.

I sent BigBlueSaw a bunch of stabilizers a couple days ago, so hopefully he will get them soon.

As for what you build your plate out of.  Thats up to you.  Do you have a PCB or are you hand wiring or using the Enabler PCBs for the matrix?  If you don't have a PCB, then I would not recommend polycarb as I don't think 1.5mm polycarb would hold up.  If you don't have a PCB, you MUST use a 1.5mm plate because the switches MUST clip into the plate to stay secure.  If anything I just said doesn't make sense just ask for clarification.  :)

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #487 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 00:19:17 »
#HYPE

Tomorrow night I will be taking the tool down for an hour or so and I will be doing a pretty major update.  I wanted to do it tonight, but I JUST got everything working and it is after 1am and I have to be up early tomorrow morning.

I will do a more extensive overview of the changes tomorrow when I do the update, but here are the highlights:
- DXF export support (HOLY ****ING FINALLY)
- SVG export support (W00t)
- Costar only stabilizer cutouts
- Fixed 'background' bug
- More bug fixes...

I will review the thread tomorrow to see if I missed any bugs.  If you remember any that I have not mentioned here, let me know so it jogs my memory.

Cheers...  :)

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #488 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 02:08:54 »
HYPE! Can't wait for DXF - I never want to look at FreeCAD's UI again!

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #489 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 05:49:38 »
So I'm torn between the top and bottom plate being all aluminum, all polycarbonate or PC for bottom plate and aluminum for the top.  The switches I sent were delivered today, going to place my order monday or tuesday.

I sent BigBlueSaw a bunch of stabilizers a couple days ago, so hopefully he will get them soon.

As for what you build your plate out of.  Thats up to you.  Do you have a PCB or are you hand wiring or using the Enabler PCBs for the matrix?  If you don't have a PCB, then I would not recommend polycarb as I don't think 1.5mm polycarb would hold up.  If you don't have a PCB, you MUST use a 1.5mm plate because the switches MUST clip into the plate to stay secure.  If anything I just said doesn't make sense just ask for clarification.  :)

It makes sense for sure (have read alot lately haha) I'm definitely hand wiring the matrix.  The only reason I was considering polycarb is because it's rigid as hell and I had assumed because gon used it to build an entire case out of it that it must work well for this application.  I think I'll stick to aluminum for 2 reasons.  a)hopefully to help BBS dial all of this in and b)I want this as rigid as possible for max finger orgasm.

Offline p3lim

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #490 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 08:40:05 »
Is this tool (or will it be) open source?
Even if it wouldn't, depending on your preference, I'd suggest using some kind of bugtracker (GitHub issues for example), not just for us, but it's a tremendous tool for yourself.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #491 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 09:40:17 »
Is this tool (or will it be) open source?
Even if it wouldn't, depending on your preference, I'd suggest using some kind of bugtracker (GitHub issues for example), not just for us, but it's a tremendous tool for yourself.
Soon™.  I am currently using a private bitbucket repo for development. I will be open sourcing it once I get a few more of the features in place. I will be putting it on GitHub when I do that. Right now I am just trying to advance things as quickly as I can before I open things up.   Also, I want to clean up the way I did some things so they are more obvious to the masses.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #492 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 13:58:42 »
Major Update Released!!!

90875-0

This update has been a LONG time in coming.  This update may not seem like much to some of you, but others will recognize the milestone of this update. 

Details of this update:
  • DXF Export Support - This is a big deal.  Pretty much every shop works with DXF files and the tools lack of support for this format was a pretty big sticking point.  All told I probably spent about 3 weeks JUST on this feature.  There were problems in the underlying CAD engine (FreeCAD) which I use which to render my drawings.  I actually had to troubleshoot those issues in FreeCAD and develop and submit multiple patches to its core to resolve the issues I was running into.  This support is awesome for us.  :)
  • SVG Export Support - Not as popular as DXF, but this was another desired format.  I also had to troubleshoot and patch FreeCAD to get this support working.  Its great to have this feature as well now.
  • Costar Only Stabilizer Support - This has been requested a few times.  This option will help reduce machining costs for people who really only care about Costar stabilizers.
  • Selective Costar Support - Like many of my other configuration options, you can selectively choose which keys you want which stabilizer cutouts on.  So if you want to have only a Costar spacebar stabilizer but Cherry and Costar support for the other 2u stabilizers, that is possible by using the {_s:1} option in the raw data.  Check the 'Plate Layout Help' for more details.
  • Fixed Background Bug - There was a bug that would cause an extra row to be rendered if you specified a background color in the keyboard-layout-editor.
  • Fixed Mount Hole Bug - Fixed a bug that would allow you to specify an odd number of mount holes which would cause things to break when drawing the plate.  I am correctly verifying that you specified an even number of mount holes >= 4.

I think thats it.  This is going to make things much easier for BigBlueSaw to work with the output from this tool as well as other shops you may want to work with.

Thanks for all the support everyone...

Offline Melvang

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #493 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 14:38:06 »
Amazing work yet once again swill.  Any idea when support for rotated keys will be coming?  Not that I am worried about it, just curious.
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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #494 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 15:40:16 »
The svg one will probably be helpful with troubleshooting, so thumbs up for that feature!

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #495 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 16:18:29 »
Amazing work yet once again swill.  Any idea when support for rotated keys will be coming?  Not that I am worried about it, just curious.
By rotation, you mean rotated groups like the ergodox thumb sections?  I already support rotating switches and stabilizers around their center. Check the help in the plate layout section for details.

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #496 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 16:23:02 »
The svg one will probably be helpful with troubleshooting, so thumbs up for that feature!
Is the live preview not good enough for you?  What's the advantage of svg for troubleshooting?

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #497 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 16:30:44 »
Now you just need to add Cherry-only stabilizer support. :D

I guess I should have mentioned that earlier, huh? The main reason for eliminating the costar cutout on the top is for when you want to use Cherry plate mount stabs. They don't clip into the plate as well if they have those cutouts. Most people want both combined, so they can choose what type of stabilizers to use after the fact.
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Offline p3lim

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #498 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 17:28:18 »
The svg one will probably be helpful with troubleshooting, so thumbs up for that feature!
Is the live preview not good enough for you?  What's the advantage of svg for troubleshooting?

Lets say a person has a question about his rendered plate, he/she could then just supply the link to the svg, which in most (if not all) modern browsers are rendered, without the need to share a picture or actual cad files.
Like so: http://swillkb.s3.amazonaws.com/ad6b6ad9c9fd4f92af48ce29fb72b72b177b7d36/ad6b6ad9c9fd4f92af48ce29fb72b72b177b7d36.svg


Come to think of it, I have a feature suggestion, although it's probably not necessary at all;
When the server is done rendering and the client receives the data, what about changing the path to the actual finished page and linking back to it would display the finished page?
This would allow for sharing a link to a finished plate in the format "builder.swillkb.com/<sha>", and possibly allowing for small modifications for re-rendering, even by other people.
So the link to the plate that I linked the svg for above would look like this: http://builder.swillkb.com/ad6b6ad9c9fd4f92af48ce29fb72b72b177b7d36.
And it would link to this page: http://i.imgur.com/T0c9Pjp.png, with all the parameters in the configure section there as well.

This depends however on how you cache and what data you actually keep on your end, like the parameters.
« Last Edit: Sun, 15 February 2015, 17:38:52 by p3lim »

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Re: swill's plate building tool
« Reply #499 on: Sun, 15 February 2015, 18:17:31 »
Now you just need to add Cherry-only stabilizer support. :D

I guess I should have mentioned that earlier, huh? The main reason for eliminating the costar cutout on the top is for when you want to use Cherry plate mount stabs. They don't clip into the plate as well if they have those cutouts. Most people want both combined, so they can choose what type of stabilizers to use after the fact.
Ya. I can do that if people want. Its not a big change.