Author Topic: NOW OPEN SOURCE!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]  (Read 3056010 times)

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Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1600 on: Fri, 27 May 2016, 15:38:00 »
Anyone got any idea what the kerf should be for an acrylic laser cut? (From somewhere like ponoko)

If you are getting it professionally done, check with the fab shop to see if they adjust for kerf on your behalf.  Most of the fab shops assume people don't know what kerf is and automatically adjust for kerf on your behalf.  If they don't adjust for kerf, they will usually tell you what the cut width of their laser is, and you can just enter that value (in mm) into the tool and the tool will adjust the drawing.

Hope that helps...

Offline Xelus22

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1601 on: Sat, 28 May 2016, 06:53:30 »
Is there anyway of fitting a plate mounted cherry stab onto a piece of acrylic 3mm thick? Just looking at some compatibility issues.

Offline Suruga Devil

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1602 on: Mon, 30 May 2016, 16:18:23 »
Is there anyway of fitting a plate mounted cherry stab onto a piece of acrylic 3mm thick? Just looking at some compatibility issues.

Yes- but it won't clip onto the acrylic plate. If you have a PCB, it will be held in by the solder joints.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1603 on: Mon, 30 May 2016, 17:07:38 »
Is there anyway of fitting a plate mounted cherry stab onto a piece of acrylic 3mm thick? Just looking at some compatibility issues.

Yes- but it won't clip onto the acrylic plate. If you have a PCB, it will be held in by the solder joints.

This works for switches but not stabilizers.  You need a PCB and PCB mount stabs to use 3mm acrylic because otherwise there is nothing for the stab to clip into...

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1604 on: Mon, 30 May 2016, 17:20:53 »
I have only ever used 5mm acrylic for acrylic plates, but not with my builder. I am not confident a 3mm plate will even work because there is 5mm of space between the pcb and the surface the plate needs to touch. If you use 3mm, I think the plate could slide around in that extra 2mm of space because it won't clip in. Obviously as you press keys it would push the switches down into the plate, but I suspect you will get a mushy sensation. Maybe someone else who has tried 3mm plates can chime in.

Cherry spec for reference: https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://cherryswitches.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Keymodule_MX_EN.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjtpdiT6YLNAhVK6YMKHbBABEsQFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNGTTaN1wmYvGjZDXSj4JcEE-8Ufiw&sig2=AfjqMBy67bMmr6NTM8etIQ

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Offline Suruga Devil

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1605 on: Mon, 30 May 2016, 17:38:55 »
If you're confident in the strength of the solder joints, you could just let the PCB hang though, right? It's not ideal from a design perspective but I see no reason why you couldn't have 5mm of space between the PCB and the surface the plate needs to touch while having the switches fully inserted into the plate.

Offline skullydazed

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1606 on: Mon, 30 May 2016, 22:00:01 »
I have only ever used 5mm acrylic for acrylic plates, but not with my builder. I am not confident a 3mm plate will even work because there is 5mm of space between the pcb and the surface the plate needs to touch. If you use 3mm, I think the plate could slide around in that extra 2mm of space because it won't clip in. Obviously as you press keys it would push the switches down into the plate, but I suspect you will get a mushy sensation. Maybe someone else who has tried 3mm plates can chime in.

Cherry spec for reference: https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://cherryswitches.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Keymodule_MX_EN.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjtpdiT6YLNAhVK6YMKHbBABEsQFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNGTTaN1wmYvGjZDXSj4JcEE-8Ufiw&sig2=AfjqMBy67bMmr6NTM8etIQ

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

If you use a 3mm plate (or a 5mm plate) you will have problems with stabilizers. The PCB mount stabs need more room in the space below the 1.5mm plate. In my experience you basically have to extend the bottom of the stabilizer cutout until it meets the top edge of the cutout for the row below to have enough room on a 5mm plate.

You will get more flex doing this, but some people see that as a bonus. As you get moving along the keyboard kinda bounces up and down with your hands.

Offline Shihatsu

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1607 on: Tue, 31 May 2016, 12:37:29 »
Has anybody a Raw Data dump of a Filco Full Size?

Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1608 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 10:22:48 »
I am very impressed with your tool, congratulations on a job well done.

Does the tool compensate the total plate size to fit a 60 case, when that option is chosen? I made a sixty layout that is 14.75 units width instead of the standard 15 units and I chose the Poker case option, but I am not sure if the CAD file has a compensation for the overall plate width.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1609 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 10:35:52 »
I am very impressed with your tool, congratulations on a job well done.

Does the tool compensate the total plate size to fit a 60 case, when that option is chosen? I made a sixty layout that is 14.75 units width instead of the standard 15 units and I chose the Poker case option, but I am not sure if the CAD file has a compensation for the overall plate width.

Not perfectly.  It will adjust, but only if you are using 15u total horizontally and 5u vertically.  If that is the case, then yes.  If you do not have that, then it will not work as expected.  I am in the process of rewriting how all of the sizing and padding stuff works, but I have not had a chance to work on it in months (real life is crazy right now).

Does that help?  You will probably want to validate that the width of the resulting poker case is 285mm and height is 94.6mm.

Edit: To directly answer your question.  You will probably have to put an x offset (on both sides) in your layout to make the total width 15 units to make it work.  I know how to do this on the left, but I am not sure how we can do that on the right.  Will have to think about this...
« Last Edit: Tue, 07 June 2016, 10:38:13 by swill »

Offline xondat

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1610 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 11:13:09 »
Couple of small tweaks needed on my end but I used the tool and got some plates made. They're perfect. Thank you for having this publicly available.


Offline iandoug

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Re: swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1611 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 11:21:43 »
Hi Swill

Is your tool still working?
I tried with my layout and got this error:

Lexical error on line 1. Unrecognized text (and them some symbols).

Layout is latest version (from my computer) of Programmer's Keyboard on KLE.

When I paste it in all I see is a red dot... is that correct?

Thanks, Ian

Offline kiwi99

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Re: swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1612 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 11:59:56 »
Hi Swill

Is your tool still working?
I tried with my layout and got this error:

Lexical error on line 1. Unrecognized text (and them some symbols).

Layout is latest version (from my computer) of Programmer's Keyboard on KLE.

When I paste it in all I see is a red dot... is that correct?

Thanks, Ian

Hm, I tried it and it works for me with a bit of cleanup.



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Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1613 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 12:16:59 »
I am very impressed with your tool, congratulations on a job well done.

Does the tool compensate the total plate size to fit a 60 case, when that option is chosen? I made a sixty layout that is 14.75 units width instead of the standard 15 units and I chose the Poker case option, but I am not sure if the CAD file has a compensation for the overall plate width.

Not perfectly.  It will adjust, but only if you are using 15u total horizontally and 5u vertically.  If that is the case, then yes.  If you do not have that, then it will not work as expected.  I am in the process of rewriting how all of the sizing and padding stuff works, but I have not had a chance to work on it in months (real life is crazy right now).

Does that help?  You will probably want to validate that the width of the resulting poker case is 285mm and height is 94.6mm.

Edit: To directly answer your question.  You will probably have to put an x offset (on both sides) in your layout to make the total width 15 units to make it work.  I know how to do this on the left, but I am not sure how we can do that on the right.  Will have to think about this...

The explanation helps a lot, I will try to compensate the final result manually, or use the option for the sandwich case instead. I will look forward for the version with automatic adjustment though, because my CAD skills are totally rusty and that sucks, LOL.

Thank you again for sharing your hard work.

Just as a reference, this is the layout I want to make a plate for, it is for use a vintage OG Cherry double shot set of an NCR PC4 keyboard, that has hat style caps that I like a lot.

« Last Edit: Tue, 07 June 2016, 12:42:40 by ideus »

Offline swill

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Re: swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1614 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 13:50:25 »
Hi Swill

Is your tool still working?
I tried with my layout and got this error:

Lexical error on line 1. Unrecognized text (and them some symbols).

Layout is latest version (from my computer) of Programmer's Keyboard on KLE.

When I paste it in all I see is a red dot... is that correct?

Thanks, Ian

Sounds like a syntax error.  Paste the code you used and I will review it.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1615 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 13:51:43 »
Couple of small tweaks needed on my end but I used the tool and got some plates made. They're perfect. Thank you for having this publicly available.

Show Image


That is a thing of beauty.  :)  Good work.  Did you use overlapping keys to create the larger cutouts?  That is what I do for things like supporting both caps locks etc...

Offline xondat

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1616 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 16:35:50 »
Couple of small tweaks needed on my end but I used the tool and got some plates made. They're perfect. Thank you for having this publicly available.

Show Image


That is a thing of beauty.  :)  Good work.  Did you use overlapping keys to create the larger cutouts?  That is what I do for things like supporting both caps locks etc...

Yeah - for the bottom row I used several 1u keys instead of the layout I wanted. Other slots worked fine (see split rshift and enter cluster).

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1617 on: Tue, 07 June 2016, 16:42:01 »
Couple of small tweaks needed on my end but I used the tool and got some plates made. They're perfect. Thank you for having this publicly available.

Show Image


That is a thing of beauty.  :)  Good work.  Did you use overlapping keys to create the larger cutouts?  That is what I do for things like supporting both caps locks etc...

Yeah - for the bottom row I used several 1u keys instead of the layout I wanted. Other slots worked fine (see split rshift and enter cluster).

Ya, this works pretty well.  I have been promoting this as an approach for handling situations like this.

Offline emdude

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1618 on: Tue, 14 June 2016, 15:59:13 »
Sorry if this has been asked before, but are there any plans for full Alps stabilizer support?  That is, replacing the Costar-style stabilizers for the space bar with the traditional Alps-style ones?
Current drivers: IBM Model M SSK

Offline xondat

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1619 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 15:16:28 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?
« Last Edit: Sun, 19 June 2016, 15:23:14 by xondat »

Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1620 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 17:05:00 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.

Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1621 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 17:35:17 »
What is the best plate thickness to allow proper MX switch clipping?

Offline xondat

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1622 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 19:35:37 »
What is the best plate thickness to allow proper MX switch clipping?

1.5 is standard.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1623 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 19:38:19 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1624 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 19:49:19 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Alright, thank you very much Swill, I want to have this to be laser cut this week.


Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1625 on: Sun, 19 June 2016, 21:36:44 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Alright, thank you very much Swill, I want to have this to be laser cut this week.

Show Image


I just restarted the server to make sure nothing strange was going on.  I then checked and everything is working as expected.  DXF is an available option.  If you still have problems, let me know.  :)

Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1626 on: Mon, 20 June 2016, 07:25:30 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Alright, thank you very much Swill, I want to have this to be laser cut this week.

Show Image


I just restarted the server to make sure nothing strange was going on.  I then checked and everything is working as expected.  DXF is an available option.  If you still have problems, let me know.  :)

It works, than you very much.


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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1627 on: Mon, 20 June 2016, 07:32:23 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Alright, thank you very much Swill, I want to have this to be laser cut this week.

Show Image


I just restarted the server to make sure nothing strange was going on.  I then checked and everything is working as expected.  DXF is an available option.  If you still have problems, let me know.  :)

It works, than you very much.

Show Image

Cool. Thanks for letting me know it was not behaving. :)

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1628 on: Mon, 20 June 2016, 08:55:17 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Alright, thank you very much Swill, I want to have this to be laser cut this week.

Show Image


I just restarted the server to make sure nothing strange was going on.  I then checked and everything is working as expected.  DXF is an available option.  If you still have problems, let me know.  :)

It works, than you very much.

Show Image

Cool. Thanks for letting me know it was not behaving. :)

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

The community is who has to thank you for this wonderful tool, it saves us a lot of work to draw proper layouts to be cut, it opens the possibility for us with rusted CAD skills to explore interesting hand wired layouts.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1629 on: Mon, 20 June 2016, 10:39:42 »
I can no longer download .dxf files - have I missed something? The option when generating the CAD file no longer shows up.

Oh and .dxf files that I have import into CAD 10 times bigger than they should. Any reason for this?

It happened to me also, I suppose Swill removed the feature, I hope he reinstates it soon.
It should be working. I will check what happened. Maybe there is some files that did not get removed correctly and are blocking the generation of the dxf files. Will check later tonight.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Alright, thank you very much Swill, I want to have this to be laser cut this week.

Show Image


I just restarted the server to make sure nothing strange was going on.  I then checked and everything is working as expected.  DXF is an available option.  If you still have problems, let me know.  :)

It works, than you very much.

Show Image

Cool. Thanks for letting me know it was not behaving. :)

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

The community is who has to thank you for this wonderful tool, it saves us a lot of work to draw proper layouts to be cut, it opens the possibility for us with rusted CAD skills to explore interesting hand wired layouts.
The irony is that I started building this tool because I did not want to learn CAD, we'll at least to the point where I would be confident in spending money on my CAD design.  I was like "if I code it, I can be confident in the result".  Of course, now I know more about CAD than I ever would have needed for the plate I was designing.  I have also put in about 100x the time it would have taken to draw the CAD by hand building and updating the tool.  So I guess as long as 100 people get value from the tool it was worth it.

Offline xondat

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1630 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 14:13:44 »


How come plates when imported are 10x the size they should be? Not a problem, just wondering why.

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1631 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 14:52:39 »
Show Image


How come plates when imported are 10x the size they should be? Not a problem, just wondering why.

Probably because your units are not in millimeters in your CAD program.  The values saved in the imported file is in MM.  If your units of measure are set to CM or Inches, then the scale of the drawing will be much larger than it should be. 

You need to select the drawing and go to something like Drawing Properties and change the units from what it is to MM.  Let me know if you have questions.  Which CAD program are you using?

Offline xondat

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1632 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 15:04:59 »
Show Image


How come plates when imported are 10x the size they should be? Not a problem, just wondering why.

Probably because your units are not in millimeters in your CAD program.  The values saved in the imported file is in MM.  If your units of measure are set to CM or Inches, then the scale of the drawing will be much larger than it should be. 

You need to select the drawing and go to something like Drawing Properties and change the units from what it is to MM.  Let me know if you have questions.  Which CAD program are you using?

All units are in MM, so not quite sure about that. Using Fusion 360.

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1633 on: Thu, 23 June 2016, 15:37:23 »
Show Image


How come plates when imported are 10x the size they should be? Not a problem, just wondering why.

Probably because your units are not in millimeters in your CAD program.  The values saved in the imported file is in MM.  If your units of measure are set to CM or Inches, then the scale of the drawing will be much larger than it should be. 

You need to select the drawing and go to something like Drawing Properties and change the units from what it is to MM.  Let me know if you have questions.  Which CAD program are you using?

All units are in MM, so not quite sure about that. Using Fusion 360.

Hmmm, that is strange.  I have never used Fusion 360. 

Maybe try the following:
- Download the DXF version of your plate.
- Open it in LibreCAD
- Edit -> Current Drawing Preferences (Command + ,)
- Select Units and change Main drawing unit to Millimeter
- Click OK
- File -> Save as...
- Save the file with type Draw Exchange DXF 2007

Then try to open that DXF file in Fusion 360.  The DXF 2007 file format supports units embedded in the actual file, so that should fix the problem in Fusion 360.

Let me know if that helps.


Offline Data

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1634 on: Fri, 24 June 2016, 07:09:42 »
When I import DXF files from this tool into AutoCAD I always have to convert them to inches with the SCALE command, using a factor of 0.03937.

BigBlueSaw prefers imperial over metric.  It's not a big deal.

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1635 on: Fri, 24 June 2016, 07:46:51 »
When I import DXF files from this tool into AutoCAD I always have to convert them to inches with the SCALE command, using a factor of 0.03937.

BigBlueSaw prefers imperial over metric.  It's not a big deal.
BBS has a feature to automatically convert my drawings to inches from millimeters. 

Once you upload my drawings to BBS, there is a button to "convert from millimeters" or something like that.  Simon added that feature specifically for us to be used with my tool.

All to say, you should not need to manually convert the drawings.

Offline iandoug

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Re: swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1636 on: Mon, 27 June 2016, 05:16:51 »

Hm, I tried it and it works for me with a bit of cleanup.

I should have been clearer ... I have a more recent version that is not on the public site. It is this code that caused the error.

When you say "cleanup" do you mean before submitting, or the resulting image? If before, can you maybe advise what you did? :-)

thanks, Ian

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Re: swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1637 on: Mon, 27 June 2016, 07:49:32 »

Hm, I tried it and it works for me with a bit of cleanup.

I should have been clearer ... I have a more recent version that is not on the public site. It is this code that caused the error.

When you say "cleanup" do you mean before submitting, or the resulting image? If before, can you maybe advise what you did? :-)

thanks, Ian

I never saw the code you used which was not working, so I was never able to test your case.  @kiwi99 posted the result and the layout he used, so you should be able to diff his layout with what you were using if you are trying to do the same layout.  That way you can see what he changed.

Offline Data

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1638 on: Mon, 27 June 2016, 08:47:45 »
When I import DXF files from this tool into AutoCAD I always have to convert them to inches with the SCALE command, using a factor of 0.03937.

BigBlueSaw prefers imperial over metric.  It's not a big deal.
BBS has a feature to automatically convert my drawings to inches from millimeters. 

Once you upload my drawings to BBS, there is a button to "convert from millimeters" or something like that.  Simon added that feature specifically for us to be used with my tool.

All to say, you should not need to manually convert the drawings.

Yeah, I saw that.  It's handy.

I'm working in inches for other reasons but BBS was a big one.  I "borrowed" your drawings for the Cherry cutouts for my GH-122 case, by the way.  :D  Thanks for making this stuff available.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1639 on: Mon, 27 June 2016, 08:52:02 »
When I import DXF files from this tool into AutoCAD I always have to convert them to inches with the SCALE command, using a factor of 0.03937.

BigBlueSaw prefers imperial over metric.  It's not a big deal.
BBS has a feature to automatically convert my drawings to inches from millimeters. 

Once you upload my drawings to BBS, there is a button to "convert from millimeters" or something like that.  Simon added that feature specifically for us to be used with my tool.

All to say, you should not need to manually convert the drawings.

Yeah, I saw that.  It's handy.

I'm working in inches for other reasons but BBS was a big one.  I "borrowed" your drawings for the Cherry cutouts for my GH-122 case, by the way.  :D  Thanks for making this stuff available.

No worries.  This is a resource for everyone, so no need to worry about that.  Many people helped me with the cutouts to get to the point where most people are happy with them.  I would have to check again, but I think my cutout is basically a bit of a combination of JDs cutout and the cherry spec.  I am just glad people have found the tool useful regardless of how they use it.

Offline Morituri

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1640 on: Wed, 29 June 2016, 16:04:32 »
This is a nice tool. 

I noted the other day though that when you have the code to add LEDs to your board, the tool uses keyswitch cutouts for them. Annoying because the traditional spot for LEDs is at the upper right corner where I want to drill a screw hole to support the plate in the case. 

When I saw the problem, I removed the LEDs from the code and re-rendered.  I'll be drilling holes in the case for them of course but they're way above the level of the plate.
We're going to solve strong AI.  Then it's going to solve us.

Offline Zustiur

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1641 on: Fri, 01 July 2016, 08:10:12 »
Hi Swill,
Possible Bug: The Stabilizer Type drop menu shows 'Remove Stabilizer' as an option, but I seem to be unable to select it.
My current design doesn't have any keys big enough to need stabilizers, so it's a non-issue for me personally.

Offline bubblebobbler

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1642 on: Wed, 13 July 2016, 05:32:00 »
http://i.imgur.com/ShzHp.jpg

(membrane top, alps bottom)

ISO alps do not have a centered stem, unlike cherry (using my sample size of 2 that I've looked at anyhow)



shame I discovered it this way :(

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1643 on: Wed, 13 July 2016, 08:09:55 »
http://i.imgur.com/ShzHp.jpg
Show Image

(membrane top, alps bottom)

ISO alps do not have a centered stem, unlike cherry (using my sample size of 2 that I've looked at anyhow)

Show Image


shame I discovered it this way :(
Oh that sucks. :(

Do you happen to have a caliper?  If you do can you send me the details of where exactly the center stem is placed?

It does not appear to be stabilized either. Is that the case.

Sorry you learned about this problem like this. I have been crowd sourcing the details for the different switches and stabilizers and this is something I did not know about.

Thanks for sharing regardless.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


Offline bubblebobbler

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1644 on: Wed, 13 July 2016, 09:34:25 »
to be honest, this'd have been a much less expensive lesson if I'd prototyped in acrylic, or even printed the design off 1:1 (which I was having trouble with), so it's my fault for not doublechecking really

re: calipers, I do not, but a person I'll be visiting this weekend (who is handier than I, and will hopefully be able to salvage my mistake with a dremel and some glue) probably does.



re: stabilizers, the black/grey cap is the most popular stabilisation method afaik. The other cap (that was pictured previously) has a stabiliser wire that can be put in or out of the keycap itself.




I don't have a mutant thumb, blame perspective, and my apologies for these pics that look like I'm photographing bigfoot or something,
« Last Edit: Wed, 13 July 2016, 09:35:59 by bubblebobbler »

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1645 on: Wed, 20 July 2016, 00:10:14 »
http://i.imgur.com/ShzHp.jpg
Show Image

(membrane top, alps bottom)

ISO alps do not have a centered stem, unlike cherry (using my sample size of 2 that I've looked at anyhow)

Show Image


shame I discovered it this way :(

So I know the switch is in the wrong place for this ISO keycap, but is the stabilizer in the right place given where the switch is for that cap?  So if I am able to figure out how much to move the switch over and I move the stabilizer over the same amount, will that fix all issues with this keycap?

Also, it is hard to tell, but is the stem exactly in the middle of the widest part of the ISO keycap in both directions or is it more to the cutaway side?

If anyone has a caliper and has access to one of those ISO alps caps and can give me some measurements, I would really appreciate it...

Thanks builders...  :P

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1646 on: Wed, 20 July 2016, 00:36:05 »
As I am sure most of you have noticed, I have been pretty MIA from GH recently.  It is not for a lack of interest, but a lack of time.

I started working on an update to make the padding and holes layout for the Sandwich cases more flexible a while ago and I am just getting back to it.

To give you an idea, this is more along the lines of the type of input you would have.

142856-0

I would like feedback on the following:

- Would you like there to be the option to create a sandwich case without having to define holes?  This could be interesting if you plan to glue the case together or something like that.  Is that of interest?

- If holes will be defined, I am still forcing an even number of holes because I am forcing holes to be on at least opposing sides.  You will still be able to have holes evenly spaced all around.  However, that said, I am planning to let you specify 0 padding on two opposing sides and the screws would be evenly spaced on the opposing sides with padding specified.  This means you will be able to define sandwich cases which are either open on the left and right or open on the top and bottom (with screws only on the non-open sides).  I think this will be a nice feature for people who are prototyping because it will reduce the amount of material needed to layout and cut all of the pieces because the middle layers will just be straight pieces (probably with a couple rounded corners).  Does this make sense?  Any feedback on this?

- I am no longer enforcing the padding to be only outside the keycaps.  This means that you will be able to make more compact cases.  That being said, I am still going to be enforcing that the same amount is on the inside of the middle layers as is on the outside.  This means that if you have a PCB it is likely not going to fit inside the remaining space anymore as you are now shrinking the available space inside the case by doing this.  If you choose to do this, I warn you about this and you will have to confirm that you understand if you want to proceed.  Does this make sense to you guys?  Any feedback?  The image below illustrates what the warning looks like.

142858-1

I think that is it for now.  It is the middle of the night now and I can't think anymore.  I really appreciate any feedback you guys have on these functional changes.  They are relatively major changes, but everything that is currently possible will remain possible, but we will have a lot more options for how to layout a case with these.

Thanks again for all the support.  Cheers...

Offline vextanys

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1647 on: Wed, 20 July 2016, 03:46:46 »
This resource is awesome...
Just used it to order at http://www.razorlab.co.uk/ and everything fit perfectly, though some editing to fit the template was required.
I needed to copy/paste from the generated file into the template in Inkscape. The overall positioning was lost, but position between keys was correct. I did have to change the line widths (to 0.01mm) and colour to blue (#0000FF) for http://www.razorlab.co.uk/ to create the layout.

Offline swill

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1648 on: Wed, 20 July 2016, 08:39:45 »
This resource is awesome...
Just used it to order at http://www.razorlab.co.uk/ and everything fit perfectly, though some editing to fit the template was required.
I needed to copy/paste from the generated file into the template in Inkscape. The overall positioning was lost, but position between keys was correct. I did have to change the line widths (to 0.01mm) and colour to blue (#0000FF) for http://www.razorlab.co.uk/ to create the layout.
Cool. Good to have more references that we know work.

BTW, you can change the line color in the advances section if you need to. :)

Offline ideus

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Re: Now w/ ALPS!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]
« Reply #1649 on: Sat, 23 July 2016, 16:51:53 »
Does someone know if a space bar bent wire may work with PCB mount stabilizers under a plate cut with this tool? I meant, the type of wire that has a bump in its middle section.