NOW OPEN SOURCE!!! swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]

[jdcarpe]

^ Very clever.

[swill]

^ Very clever.

I thought you might like that.    Feel free to suggest more 'hidden features' if you think of them. 

I really need to add support for alps stabilizers.  Do you know where I can get the spec for that?

[StinkyTheDonut]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

[swill]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

I use rubber bumpers from 'bumper specialties'.  They are not the cheapest, but the quality is good. A lot of people use bumpons from amazon.

I would not recommend making the feet out if acrylic because the board will slide all over the place. You want something with a large coefficient of friction.

[heedpantsnow]

Cool addition!  I was just thinking about this last night and was going to ask you to add it!

[jdcarpe]

^ Very clever.

I thought you might like that.    Feel free to suggest more 'hidden features' if you think of them. 

I really need to add support for alps stabilizers.  Do you know where I can get the spec for that?

I think this is correct, but maybe someone can verify?

[swill]

^ Very clever.

I thought you might like that.    Feel free to suggest more 'hidden features' if you think of them. 

I really need to add support for alps stabilizers.  Do you know where I can get the spec for that?

I think this is correct, but maybe someone can verify?

Show Image

Awesome!  Thanks dude, super helpful (as always).  So the 6.25 and 7 unit spacebars have the same stabilizers?

I will see if I can implement this tonight.  If there are changes, I can always tweak it later, but getting the code written for the support is the first half of the battle.

[swill]

^ Very clever.

I thought you might like that.    Feel free to suggest more 'hidden features' if you think of them. 

I really need to add support for alps stabilizers.  Do you know where I can get the spec for that?

I think this is correct, but maybe someone can verify?

Show Image

Quickly looking at this (and not verifying my drawings), it looks like it might be possible to put Alps and Costar stabilizers on the same drawing without them interfering with each other.  I will have to actually do some measurements and validate this, but if thats possible it would probably be a good idea. Ya?

[derezzed]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

I use rubber bumpers from 'bumper specialties'.  They are not the cheapest, but the quality is good. A lot of people use bumpons from amazon.

I would not recommend making the feet out if acrylic because the board will slide all over the place. You want something with a large coefficient of friction.

I considered using the interiors of middle layers for extra parts such as feet, noting that the Gon Nerd Crystal case uses a clear plastic bar to tilt the case.  Maybe that isn't practical for the materials we would be using, but what if we put a switch plate for a stand-alone tenkey pad inside the middle layers or a plate with switch cutouts designed to hold switches so they can be opened and modded?  I know someone else (maybe Dihedral?) on GeekHack proposed making a switch modding plate from bent metal.  Why not plastic?  There's plenty to spare in the middle layers.

[jdcarpe]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

I use rubber bumpers from 'bumper specialties'.  They are not the cheapest, but the quality is good. A lot of people use bumpons from amazon.

I would not recommend making the feet out if acrylic because the board will slide all over the place. You want something with a large coefficient of friction.

I considered using the interiors of middle layers for extra parts such as feet, noting that the Gon Nerd Crystal case uses a clear plastic bar to tilt the case.  Maybe that isn't practical for the materials we would be using, but what if we put a switch plate for a stand-alone tenkey pad inside the middle layers or a plate with switch cutouts designed to hold switches so they can be opened and modded?  I know someone else (maybe Dihedral?) on GeekHack proposed making a switch modding plate from bent metal.  Why not plastic?  There's plenty to spare in the middle layers.

One thing you will find is that, it's not just the cost of the material you are using, but also the time required to make the cuts that you are paying for. That's why switch plates cost more to have cut than other case layers. Once you start adding things to the other layers, you lose those savings.

[swill]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

I use rubber bumpers from 'bumper specialties'.  They are not the cheapest, but the quality is good. A lot of people use bumpons from amazon.

I would not recommend making the feet out if acrylic because the board will slide all over the place. You want something with a large coefficient of friction.

I considered using the interiors of middle layers for extra parts such as feet, noting that the Gon Nerd Crystal case uses a clear plastic bar to tilt the case.  Maybe that isn't practical for the materials we would be using, but what if we put a switch plate for a stand-alone tenkey pad inside the middle layers or a plate with switch cutouts designed to hold switches so they can be opened and modded?  I know someone else (maybe Dihedral?) on GeekHack proposed making a switch modding plate from bent metal.  Why not plastic?  There's plenty to spare in the middle layers.

One thing you will find is that, it's not just the cost of the material you are using, but also the time required to make the cuts that you are paying for. That's why switch plates cost more to have cut than other case layers. Once you start adding things to the other layers, you lose those savings.

Yes, the cost will definitely go up, BUT if people also want keypads, the overall cost of cutting both will be less.  So if the space is being put to good use, then yes, I totally agree.  If we are making cuts just to use the space and we are not very many people will want the result, it may not be worth it.

Using that space for something interesting would be a really good idea.  I like the idea of using it to build small lube stations.  I already have a (much too large for the space) version that I am toying with getting cut.

[derezzed]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

I use rubber bumpers from 'bumper specialties'.  They are not the cheapest, but the quality is good. A lot of people use bumpons from amazon.

I would not recommend making the feet out if acrylic because the board will slide all over the place. You want something with a large coefficient of friction.

I considered using the interiors of middle layers for extra parts such as feet, noting that the Gon Nerd Crystal case uses a clear plastic bar to tilt the case.  Maybe that isn't practical for the materials we would be using, but what if we put a switch plate for a stand-alone tenkey pad inside the middle layers or a plate with switch cutouts designed to hold switches so they can be opened and modded?  I know someone else (maybe Dihedral?) on GeekHack proposed making a switch modding plate from bent metal.  Why not plastic?  There's plenty to spare in the middle layers.

One thing you will find is that, it's not just the cost of the material you are using, but also the time required to make the cuts that you are paying for. That's why switch plates cost more to have cut than other case layers. Once you start adding things to the other layers, you lose those savings.

Yes, the cost will definitely go up, BUT if people also want keypads, the overall cost of cutting both will be less.  So if the space is being put to good use, then yes, I totally agree.  If we are making cuts just to use the space and we are not very many people will want the result, it may not be worth it.

Using that space for something interesting would be a really good idea.  I like the idea of using it to build small lube stations.  I already have a (much too large for the space) version that I am toying with getting cut.

What about using that space for the support layer for an all-acrylic case?  Considerations would have to be made for the thickness of the closed layer.  But it seems like having the support layer not extend the full dimensions of the case would not be an issue if it is glued to the switch plate.  Even if the outer holes on the support layer are open on the outside edge, the case itself would support the switch plate along the edge.  If someone with more knowledge or experience of the subject could support or refute this assumption, I would appreciate it. 

I just realized that the top layer of the case would only be supported by 1.5mm of acrylic.  Additional design would need to made to make sure the top layer was properly supported.

[QuiGonJinn]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

[Melvang]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

[swill]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

They clip into the sides?  I thought they clipped into the top and bottom.

[Melvang]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

They clip into the sides?  I thought they clipped into the top and bottom.

You are right swill, costar holes would need to be extended in the Y axis not X.  Sorry for the confusion.

[swill]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

They clip into the sides?  I thought they clipped into the top and bottom.

You are right swill, costar holes would need to be extended in the Y axis not X.  Sorry for the confusion.

I guess I should add the ability to change the costar cutout by a 'grow_stab_x' and 'grow_stab_y' setting so we can dynamically modify it.

How do alps stabs attach? Plate or PCB?

[Melvang]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

They clip into the sides?  I thought they clipped into the top and bottom.

You are right swill, costar holes would need to be extended in the Y axis not X.  Sorry for the confusion.

I guess I should add the ability to change the costar cutout by a 'grow_stab_x' and 'grow_stab_y' setting so we can dynamically modify it.

How do alps stabs attach? Plate or PCB?

Every alps stab I have seen so far has been plate mount.

[swill]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

They clip into the sides?  I thought they clipped into the top and bottom.

You are right swill, costar holes would need to be extended in the Y axis not X.  Sorry for the confusion.

I guess I should add the ability to change the costar cutout by a 'grow_stab_x' and 'grow_stab_y' setting so we can dynamically modify it.

How do alps stabs attach? Plate or PCB?

Every alps stab I have seen so far has been plate mount.

Cool. Thanks.

[heedpantsnow]

Gosh the quoting makes it impossible to follow on mobile

[swill]

Gosh the quoting makes it impossible to follow on mobile

You need tapatalk. Its solid...

[cmadrid]

Never leave your PC, then you won't have to worry about mobile at all!

[QuiGonJinn]

I figure I might as well document this feature now that it may become relevant for people's prototyping.  I actually added this feature a month or so ago at Melvang's request.  The feature is basically the ability to change the size (and shape) of the square switch cutout.  NOTE: This functionality ONLY works on the square cutout shape, the settings will be ignored for all other shape cutouts.

I alluded to this functionality in this post when talking about building a simple and inexpensive lube station out of plastic.

I think this is relevant to the current conversation because it may work out to be the cheapest way to prototype hand wired cases.

So here is the idea.  You have a 1.5mm switch plate laser cut out of acrylic.  We all know that 1.5mm acrylic will never hold as the only support for a keyboard plate.  So we would have to add a supporting layer underneath the switch layer.  I would suggest using something like 3mm acrylic or maybe even something like wood.  Of course, in order to add this layer, the openings have to be bigger than the switch plate so the switches will clip into the 1.5mm switch plate.

To illustrate, the switch plate would be 1.5mm and would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

You would then have a support layer with 16mm square holes in, say, 3mm acrylic or wood which would go under the switch layer and would look like:
(Attachment Link)

When you put the switch layer on top of the support layer, it would look like this:
(Attachment Link)

I suspect we can get some relatively inexpensive prototype cases built this way.  I would be interested in doing it in 100% acrylic and putting my LEDs on the bottom of the switch in a hand wired setup.

Ok, so how does this feature work already?!?  Get to the interesting part...

So if you add a background color to your layout and then look at the raw data, you will see this new object at the top of the raw data:
(Attachment Link)

We are going to piggyback off that object and add our config into that object to change the shape of the square.  In this case we are going to grow the square by 2mm in both width and height resulting in a 16mm square hole, so we would put the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:2,grow_y:2},
Now the interesting thing here is that you can grow in both a positive or negative direction.  So if you wanted to cut an Alps Only plate and keep it on the cheap, you could do the following:

Code: [Select]

{backcolor:"#505050",grow_x:1.6,grow_y:-1.1},
This would result in the following cutout:
(Attachment Link)

I think that is enough for this post.  If you have more questions or would like to discuss the feature more, fire away...

I am going to cut an acrylic TKL case locally, and you saved me a lot of time with this feature. I am going to use one 3mm plate with 16mm cutouts under the switch plate, and one above, to keep it stable. Do I have to manually increase the cutout for costar stabilizers, and to what dimensions?

Costar holes will have to be made bigger but only in the X axis.    Not quite sure how much though.

They clip into the sides?  I thought they clipped into the top and bottom.

You are right swill, costar holes would need to be extended in the Y axis not X.  Sorry for the confusion.

I guess I should add the ability to change the costar cutout by a 'grow_stab_x' and 'grow_stab_y' setting so we can dynamically modify it.

How do alps stabs attach? Plate or PCB?

Yes, actually costar stabilizers clip into the top and bottom, but on the top side they extend to the right and left. So if I'm not mistaken, if I want both top and bottom support plate to be the same, I need to extend both sides. I found out how to do that with offsetting in AutoCAD, so I'm going to cut the switch plate next week, and hopefully I'l figure out the offset needed for the stabilizers.

[heedpantsnow]

Swill, does this support center/stepped caps dual use hole?

[jdcarpe]

Swill, does this support center/stepped caps dual use hole?

I don't think it supports any overlapping holes like that.

[swill]

Swill, does this support center/stepped caps dual use hole?

No, but that does not stop you from creating the overlapping keys in the layout editor and the plate will be cut to support both.

[swill]

Swill, does this support center/stepped caps dual use hole?

Alright, I just tested and this seems to work perfectly.  Here is the result:



I "think" (I don't know) the stepped capslock has a center as if the key was a 1.25 unit key and then has a .5 unit space to the right.

So I used the following code:

Code: [Select]

[{w:1.25},"Stepped",{w:1.75,x:-1.25},"Caps Lock",


[jdcarpe]

I "think" (I don't know) the stepped capslock has a center as if the key was a 1.25 unit key and then has a .5 unit space to the right.

Yep.

[swill]

I "think" (I don't know) the stepped capslock has a center as if the key was a 1.25 unit key and then has a .5 unit space to the right.

Yep.

Thanks for confirming.

[heedpantsnow]

Thanks I've been on the layout editor and wasn't figuring it out. Also yesterday I was on there and every poker plate I generated has a huge top area. So clearly even though my iq is at least 40 I can't seem to get the editor to do my bidding.

[swill]

Thanks I've been on the layout editor and wasn't figuring it out. Also yesterday I was on there and every poker plate I generated has a huge top area. So clearly even though my iq is at least 40 I can't seem to get the editor to do my bidding.

This is why you have the huge top area: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=65189.msg1683486#msg1683486

You can post the code for a layout if you want and I can help you understand why it is not behaving...

[evangs]

got a plate made using your tool and had big blue saw cut it for me.  it came out great!!



which was used to build my first ever keyboard from scratch

[StinkyTheDonut]

What is everyone doing for the feet?
I was thinking something could be done with all the stuff left from the middle layers, but idk what lol.

I use rubber bumpers from 'bumper specialties'.  They are not the cheapest, but the quality is good. A lot of people use bumpons from amazon.

I would not recommend making the feet out if acrylic because the board will slide all over the place. You want something with a large coefficient of friction.

I considered using the interiors of middle layers for extra parts such as feet, noting that the Gon Nerd Crystal case uses a clear plastic bar to tilt the case.

I got the idea from Korean cases as well.
The idea was to use those bumper things after reaching an incline with a tower of scraps.
I didn't mean to leave it as a hovercraft lol, but is incline too uncool to have come as the first thought? =(
Maybe I shouldn't have just said feet, but what else do you call them?
Well now I know what the 3M rubber things are called.

[swill]

got a plate made using your tool and had big blue saw cut it for me.  it came out great!!

Show Image

which was used to build my first ever keyboard from scratch

Show Image

Awesome. Looking good dude.

Thanks for reporting back.

[Dihedral]

So has anyone recently tried using cutout 2 with alps? Success?

[swill]

So has anyone recently tried using cutout 2 with alps? Success?

I have not followed up with big blue saw on that. I may need to change my cutout to 12.9 instead of 12.8 on the edges for alps. I will talk to him and see if we can figure out what is going on.

[jdcarpe]

So has anyone recently tried using cutout 2 with alps? Success?

I have not followed up with big blue saw on that. I may need to change my cutout to 12.9 instead of 12.8 on the edges for alps. I will talk to him and see if we can figure out what is going on.

Since my cutouts of the same shape have only a 12.0mm cut out at that dimension, I don't see how that could be the problem. I don't have an issue fitting any Alps switch in my cutouts. Something else must be at fault.

[swill]

So has anyone recently tried using cutout 2 with alps? Success?

I have not followed up with big blue saw on that. I may need to change my cutout to 12.9 instead of 12.8 on the edges for alps. I will talk to him and see if we can figure out what is going on.

Since my cutouts of the same shape have only a 12.0mm cut out at that dimension, I don't see how that could be the problem. I don't have an issue fitting any Alps switch in my cutouts. Something else must be at fault.

Really?  I saw one of your cutouts at 12.8 and I thought I saw the spec was 12.9.

Hmmm. I will measure the steel plate I bought from you and see what that one has.

[imbattable]

How do you determine the placement of the mounting holes in sandwich type cases? It would be nice if there was an additional parameter you could use to  move them closer to the middle (distance from left/right and top/bottom edge for the middle of the hole).

Another nice addition would be an option for sandwich cases, where you can toggle between round and hexagonal holes (like in the winkeyless cases), automatically determining the distance according to the screw/nut definitions (M2.5, M3 etc) with an edge distance to be specified. But that might a) be complicated to implement and b) clutter the interface too much.

[metalliqaz]

Hey Swill, where did you get the specification for the Costar stabilizer cutouts? 

[swill]

Hey Swill, where did you get the specification for the Costar stabilizer cutouts?

I got them off deskthority. It was the only reference I found.

[swill]

How do you determine the placement of the mounting holes in sandwich type cases? It would be nice if there was an additional parameter you could use to  move them closer to the middle (distance from left/right and top/bottom edge for the middle of the hole).

Another nice addition would be an option for sandwich cases, where you can toggle between round and hexagonal holes (like in the winkeyless cases), automatically determining the distance according to the screw/nut definitions (M2.5, M3 etc) with an edge distance to be specified. But that might a) be complicated to implement and b) clutter the interface too much.

If you want the holes closer, add more holes.

My code tries to evenly space the holes around the case based on how many holes are defined.

[metalliqaz]

Hey Swill, where did you get the specification for the Costar stabilizer cutouts?

I got them off deskthority. It was the only reference I found.

I'll check it out, thanks!

[swill]

Hey Swill, where did you get the specification for the Costar stabilizer cutouts?

I got them off deskthority. It was the only reference I found.

I'll check it out, thanks!

Google costar spec and you should hit it. That's how I found it.

[swill]

How do you determine the placement of the mounting holes in sandwich type cases? It would be nice if there was an additional parameter you could use to  move them closer to the middle (distance from left/right and top/bottom edge for the middle of the hole).

Another nice addition would be an option for sandwich cases, where you can toggle between round and hexagonal holes (like in the winkeyless cases), automatically determining the distance according to the screw/nut definitions (M2.5, M3 etc) with an edge distance to be specified. But that might a) be complicated to implement and b) clutter the interface too much.

Are you looking for holes just around the USB jack?

[abjr]

Hey Swill, where did you get the specification for the Costar stabilizer cutouts?

I found one here in the past: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=33298.0

[imbattable]

How do you determine the placement of the mounting holes in sandwich type cases? It would be nice if there was an additional parameter you could use to  move them closer to the middle (distance from left/right and top/bottom edge for the middle of the hole).

Another nice addition would be an option for sandwich cases, where you can toggle between round and hexagonal holes (like in the winkeyless cases), automatically determining the distance according to the screw/nut definitions (M2.5, M3 etc) with an edge distance to be specified. But that might a) be complicated to implement and b) clutter the interface too much.

Are you looking for holes just around the USB jack?

No, I know that I can add more holes by adding more holes 

What I mean is that the distance from outer edge to hole seems to be just set on the middle of each padding value (height/width). But I guess it is easier to just calculate a plate with the tool and add my own holes, which works very nice.

[swill]

How do you determine the placement of the mounting holes in sandwich type cases? It would be nice if there was an additional parameter you could use to  move them closer to the middle (distance from left/right and top/bottom edge for the middle of the hole).

Another nice addition would be an option for sandwich cases, where you can toggle between round and hexagonal holes (like in the winkeyless cases), automatically determining the distance according to the screw/nut definitions (M2.5, M3 etc) with an edge distance to be specified. But that might a) be complicated to implement and b) clutter the interface too much.

Are you looking for holes just around the USB jack?

No, I know that I can add more holes by adding more holes 

What I mean is that the distance from outer edge to hole seems to be just set on the middle of each padding value (height/width). But I guess it is easier to just calculate a plate with the tool and add my own holes, which works very nice.

Yes the hole center is at the center of the padding.  You want to move the center of the holes farther towards the edge of the plate (or vise versa)?

[abjr]

Alright, when I put a caliper on the screws I have I get the following:
M2 Screw section: 1.9mm
M2 Head: 3.4mm

M3 Screw section: 2.9mm
M3 Head: 5.1mm

What I mean is that the distance from outer edge to hole seems to be just set on the middle of each padding value (height/width).

It's funny that you just posted this. I had been worried about the screw heads overhanging  the plate and swill took some measurements of the screws. Not sure I thanked him for that, so thanks!. I didn't realize at first that the center point of the mounting holes was simply located at height_padding/2. I was originally using 5mm of padding, so that puts the center of the mounting hole at 2.5mm from the edge of the plate. The radius of the M3 screw as measured above would have been 2.55mm. So there would have been overhang. Not sure why I just realized this today!

But I guess it is easier to just calculate a plate with the tool and add my own holes, which works very nice.

Can you mention how you would do this. I'm a real noob with CAD, and when I use DraftSight to try and edit one of the DXF files from the tool, the entire design is selected. i.e. I can't seem to just select one switch cutout or one mount hole and attempt to move/modify it.

[swill]

Alright, when I put a caliper on the screws I have I get the following:
M2 Screw section: 1.9mm
M2 Head: 3.4mm

M3 Screw section: 2.9mm
M3 Head: 5.1mm

What I mean is that the distance from outer edge to hole seems to be just set on the middle of each padding value (height/width).

It's funny that you just posted this. I had been worried about the screw heads overhanging  the plate and swill took some measurements of the screws. Not sure I thanked him for that, so thanks!. I didn't realize at first that the center point of the mounting holes was simply located at height_padding/2. I was originally using 5mm of padding, so that puts the center of the mounting hole at 2.5mm from the edge of the plate. The radius of the M3 screw as measured above would have been 2.55mm. So there would have been overhang. Not sure why I just realized this today!

But I guess it is easier to just calculate a plate with the tool and add my own holes, which works very nice.

Can you mention how you would do this. I'm a real noob with CAD, and when I use DraftSight to try and edit one of the DXF files from the tool, the entire design is selected. i.e. I can't seem to just select one switch cutout or one mount hole and attempt to move/modify it.

You will never notice 0.05mm. It will feel flush.

Its hard to change stuff like that. You can easily add new cutouts, but changing what is there is hard because it is all rendered as one object.