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

[jdcarpe]

Apart from the crazy non-rectangular stuff, it seems the tool is very robust. This should help people get started with their plate designs.

Thanks for all your hard work, swill!

[swill]

Apart from the crazy non-rectangular stuff, it seems the tool is very robust. This should help people get started with their plate designs.

Thanks for all your hard work, swill!

Awesome.    BTW, if you can break it (like Evo_Spec did with the ergodox layout), let me know and I will try to get any problems resolved.

I have a few things I would like to get added in the near future:
- for the sandwich case, make all the different layers available.  switch plate, closed layer, open layer (for usb plug) and bottom plate.
- add the ability for people to link to their build with all of the metadata filled in and the plate already built.
- break out the x and y padding values into 4 values for top, bottom, left, right...  this will allow for you to put more padding on say the bottom of the plate, but keep the other 3 sides consistent with a padding value.  i have to modify the way I place my sandwhich case holes though if I do this since I am putting the holes in the center of the padding and that won't look good.
- start adding support for more case types with their respective mount holes.  I will probably start with the smaller cases like the poker case to get started and then work my way up through TKL and such...  for the TKL, I may just do a universal one that handles all the different mount holes, but we will see...

[Dihedral]

Awesome! Gotta play with it when i get to a PC

[Dihedral]

Just had a chance to play with this and it's awesome. Tried my Dihedral 79 code on it and worked perfectly, could not tell the result apart from jdcarpe's plate. Great work!

[pober]

Looking forward to playing around with this! Nice work!

[byker]

Thanks for all of your hard work on this swill. I am excited to use it in the future! 

[Dee1]

Just wanted to say thanks for this, swill! I'm trying it this evening and it seems to work pretty well so far.

[gogusrl]

Dumb question : how do I convert one of those 3 files to dwg ?

[pober]

I'm pretty sure

Dumb question : how do I convert one of those 3 files to dwg ?

I found this http://www.cadforum.cz/catalog_en/stl2dwg.asp online converter. I have not tested it myself, though.

[jdcarpe]

Or you can open in FreeCAD, and export to .dwg or .dxf

[swill]

Or you can open in FreeCAD, and export to .dwg or .dxf

Make sure you are using FreeCAD from source to do this because there is a bug with 'fillets' in FreeCAD 14 for this.  Basically, the fillets in opposing corners are actually drawn inside the plate when you export to .dxf.  You will need to build FreeCAD from source because this issue has been fixed upstream, but it has not been released in a package yet.  When it is released in a package I will allow for exporting of .dxf.  It is slated for the end of Feb right now that it would be released...

[swill]

Dumb question : how do I convert one of those 3 files to dwg ?

The three files are all the same file, but just in different formats.  As JD mentioned, you can use FreeCAD, but you will have to build from source since there is a fix to an issue with fillets upstream that is not available yet which fixes the rounded corners.

If you don't use rounded corners, then yes just using FreeCAD 14 is the easiest way...

[phishy]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

[CPTBadAss]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

I think BigBlueSaw will? You could always check around your area for shops or makerspaces as well.

[jdcarpe]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

I think BigBlueSaw will? You could always check around your area for shops or makerspaces as well.

Also, Pololu.com has stainless steel now, not sure about aluminum.

[StinkyTheDonut]

Are there cutouts for only costar stabs?
I want to save on cuts, and have less gaps for food and bugs to crawl in...and instant noodle soup...

[phishy]

Well i sent it out to bigbluesaw.  Just waiting for a response back with price.

[swill]

Well i sent it out to bigbluesaw.  Just waiting for a response back with price.

I forgot to mention this earlier.  I would recommend putting at least a kerf value of 0.05mm.  I would ask them what the expected kerf value is for cutting and adjust according to that.  If they say that kerf is about 0.1mm, then maybe set it to 0.075mm or something like that.  You should definitely account for kerf in the drawing though.  Sorry I don't have real numbers for you yet...

[swill]

Are there cutouts for only costar stabs?
I want to save on cuts, and have less gaps for food and bugs to crawl in...and instant noodle soup...

No, right now I only support a combined stabilizer cutout.  I could potentially offer just a costar stab cutout, but it won't happen before the end of the week...

[bueller]

Very excited to see how the test cuts turn out, going to use this to do up a 5x4 GHPad plate!

[swill]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

Glad my work has brought someone out of lurker status.    Welcome...

This is a great community, but hold on tight to your wallet.  Wallethack is real...



Or the simplified version...

[phishy]

Haha my hobbies have been hacking my wallet for years.  Between building computers, playing with cars, a newborn and co-existing with a female...i work for free.

[Dihedral]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

Glad my work has brought someone out of lurker status.    Welcome...

This is a great community, but hold on tight to your wallet.  Wallethack is real...

(Attachment Link)

Or the simplified version...

(Attachment Link)

Why are you selecting the last item from wants? I think surely you should buy the item you've wanted the longest, i.e. the item at index[0]. Also, surely if the pay period is 10 days but it is 1 day before your pay period, you wouldn't be able to buy more keyboards and stuff for a whole 9 days after your pay packet. The travesty! Why am I code reviewing a piece of joke code... je suis bored.

[possumgumbo]

I actually 3D printed the layout here,
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/41278b39d92833e044007ab46bb8a9f8
but it staggered the top function row to the left, instead of the columnar arrangement I had designed in the layout designer. The right side is also cut off prematurely.

What can I do to remedy this? Thanks for the excellent tool, by the way. With a little tweaking, this will be the greatest prototyping tool ever!

[swill]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

Glad my work has brought someone out of lurker status.    Welcome...

This is a great community, but hold on tight to your wallet.  Wallethack is real...

(Attachment Link)

Or the simplified version...

(Attachment Link)

Why are you selecting the last item from wants? I think surely you should buy the item you've wanted the longest, i.e. the item at index[0]. Also, surely if the pay period is 10 days but it is 1 day before your pay period, you wouldn't be able to buy more keyboards and stuff for a whole 9 days after your pay packet. The travesty! Why am I code reviewing a piece of joke code... je suis bored.

haha, there are a few things 'wrong' with that code from a correctness perspective.  I actually wrote it very quickly to illustrate a point. 

technically i should be looping through all of the 'wants' from the first item in the list and checking if i can afford anything.  however, the problem with this is if i want to buy something that costs more than what i get paid for in a single pay period i will never afford it because i will be reducing my funds on little things every month and not actually accumulating enough funds for my big ticket item.  hmm, working in a budget into my wallethack algorithm seems a bit disingenuous to the actual problem.  the reason wallethack exists is because we buy things without always budgeting for them...  oh the paradox of geekhack... 

[swill]

I actually 3D printed the layout here,
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/41278b39d92833e044007ab46bb8a9f8
but it staggered the top function row to the left, instead of the columnar arrangement I had designed in the layout designer. The right side is also cut off prematurely.

What can I do to remedy this? Thanks for the excellent tool, by the way. With a little tweaking, this will be the greatest prototyping tool ever!

Yes, I am aware of some issues when working with layouts that do not have rows of keys one below the next.  I have to look at the code to understand why the layout is failing on these layouts. 

This is what you experienced right?



I will look into this.  Thanks for letting me know. 

[swill]

I actually 3D printed the layout here,
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/41278b39d92833e044007ab46bb8a9f8
but it staggered the top function row to the left, instead of the columnar arrangement I had designed in the layout designer. The right side is also cut off prematurely.

What can I do to remedy this? Thanks for the excellent tool, by the way. With a little tweaking, this will be the greatest prototyping tool ever!

I modified the 'x' and 'y' offsets on the first column and row to put them up to the edge.  I then tested it and it worked better.  You can adding that padding using the actual padding feature in my tool if you want it.

Here is my version of your layout: http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/b90aac02cbfd2217364f2ad8b55a600d

Here is the result:


I will look into why the 'x' at the start of the line is not working correctly.

Thanks for pointing this out to me...

[Dihedral]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

Glad my work has brought someone out of lurker status.    Welcome...

This is a great community, but hold on tight to your wallet.  Wallethack is real...

(Attachment Link)

Or the simplified version...

(Attachment Link)

Why are you selecting the last item from wants? I think surely you should buy the item you've wanted the longest, i.e. the item at index[0]. Also, surely if the pay period is 10 days but it is 1 day before your pay period, you wouldn't be able to buy more keyboards and stuff for a whole 9 days after your pay packet. The travesty! Why am I code reviewing a piece of joke code... je suis bored.

haha, there are a few things 'wrong' with that code from a correctness perspective.  I actually wrote it very quickly to illustrate a point. 

technically i should be looping through all of the 'wants' from the first item in the list and checking if i can afford anything.  however, the problem with this is if i want to buy something that costs more than what i get paid for in a single pay period i will never afford it because i will be reducing my funds on little things every month and not actually accumulating enough funds for my big ticket item.  hmm, working in a budget into my wallethack algorithm seems a bit disingenuous to the actual problem.  the reason wallethack exists is because we buy things without always budgeting for them...  oh the paradox of geekhack... 

Yeah, I wasn't criticising you for writing bad code when it was just for a joke. I thought it was pretty funny, but I was just bored enough to nit-pick it

Though I can tell you're a hardcore pythoner, those pythonic 'and' statements

[swill]

So I've been lurking and signed up because of this thread.  Awesome resources man, really appreciate the website.  With that said I want to be the test dummy for this CAD file.  Any suggestions on an online company that can cut aluminum?

Glad my work has brought someone out of lurker status.    Welcome...

This is a great community, but hold on tight to your wallet.  Wallethack is real...

(Attachment Link)

Or the simplified version...

(Attachment Link)

Why are you selecting the last item from wants? I think surely you should buy the item you've wanted the longest, i.e. the item at index[0]. Also, surely if the pay period is 10 days but it is 1 day before your pay period, you wouldn't be able to buy more keyboards and stuff for a whole 9 days after your pay packet. The travesty! Why am I code reviewing a piece of joke code... je suis bored.

haha, there are a few things 'wrong' with that code from a correctness perspective.  I actually wrote it very quickly to illustrate a point. 

technically i should be looping through all of the 'wants' from the first item in the list and checking if i can afford anything.  however, the problem with this is if i want to buy something that costs more than what i get paid for in a single pay period i will never afford it because i will be reducing my funds on little things every month and not actually accumulating enough funds for my big ticket item.  hmm, working in a budget into my wallethack algorithm seems a bit disingenuous to the actual problem.  the reason wallethack exists is because we buy things without always budgeting for them...  oh the paradox of geekhack... 

Yeah, I wasn't criticising you for writing bad code when it was just for a joke. I thought it was pretty funny, but I was just bored enough to nit-pick it

Though I can tell you're a hardcore pythoner, those pythonic 'and' statements

I know.  I was just playing.    I love the 'and' and 'in' statements.  So easy to read...

[phishy]

It's crazy how hard of a time I'm having getting any of these companies to contact me back with pricing.  Some folks just don't want to make money i suppose.

[CPTBadAss]

It's crazy how hard of a time I'm having getting any of these companies to contact me back with pricing.  Some folks just don't want to make money i suppose.

They don't make a lot of money doing one offs so a lot of companies won't reply or offer up ridiculous prices. Setup time, programming, paying the machinist's wages, etc costs a lot.

[jdcarpe]

It's crazy how hard of a time I'm having getting any of these companies to contact me back with pricing.  Some folks just don't want to make money i suppose.

Which companies?

Most metal shops do NOT want to deal with one-offs for a first time customer. 90% of them won't even respond to you. It's not about making money for them, they feel like they are wasting their time if you're not ordering multiple units, and on a regular basis.

[swill]

It's crazy how hard of a time I'm having getting any of these companies to contact me back with pricing.  Some folks just don't want to make money i suppose.

I am having the same problem.  I am trying to get my test plate cut and I can't get anyone to return my emails... 

[jdcarpe]

Pololu.com will cut anything for you. They have a good quoting system for laser cutting, but I will warn you it's not cheap.

[phishy]

I take back what I said.  Bigbluesaw got back in touch with me and even made the CAD file with a blank bottom plate with just the 3mm holes for a sandwich style case.  for 1 set of both parts its $92  If I get 5 sets of both plates though its only 44.92  So its either order one for the price I could get 2 for if I order 5 to test out the tool, or I get 5 sets and pray that its all right and then have materials to build 5 keyboards if I want.  Also let me add that this is using 6061 aluminum .063" thick.  I'm waiting back to find out how much kerf will be expected so I can adjust accordingly.

[phishy]

Man they are quick getting back.  He said they automatically adjust for kerf when cutting parts.

[swill]

I take back what I said.  Bigbluesaw got back in touch with me and even made the CAD file with a blank bottom plate with just the 3mm holes for a sandwich style case.  for 1 set of both parts its $92  If I get 5 sets of both plates though its only 44.92  So its either order one for the price I could get 2 for if I order 5 to test out the tool, or I get 5 sets and pray that its all right and then have materials to build 5 keyboards if I want.  Also let me add that this is using 6061 aluminum .063" thick.  I'm waiting back to find out how much kerf will be expected so I can adjust accordingly.

Man they are quick getting back.  He said they automatically adjust for kerf when cutting parts.

Awesome...  Did you tell them that you designed your plate using my tool?  About 20 minutes ago I got a small donation through the plate building tool from Big Blue Saw.  Apparently they know my plate building too exists now. 

So did you leave the kerf value as 0.0 when you built the plate and you will just let them to adjust as needed?

[phishy]

Yes I sent him a link to your tool, told him folks will probably be using it on a regular basis and also linked him to the artisans part of the forum as well as this thread.

And yeah I left kerf at 0.  He did mention that because of kerf any sharp corners will be slightly rounded, shouldn't cause an issue with these plates though, no?

Heres the top plate and bottom plate.

[swill]

Yes I sent him a link to your tool, told him folks will probably be using it on a regular basis and also linked him to the artisans part of the forum as well as this thread.

And yeah I left kerf at 0.  He did mention that because of kerf any sharp corners will be slightly rounded, shouldn't cause an issue with these plates though, no?

Heres the top plate and bottom plate.

Show Image

Cool.  Thanks.  :)  I don't think the slight rounding will cause a problem as long as it is minimal.

On a side note.  I do love the FC660 layout.  Good choice.  I have that layout at work.  :)

[phishy]

Alright cool, thanks.  And yeah I love the FC660 but it seems massdrop is the only way to get it, and I'd rather spend 8 weeks building my own instead of waiting for it to ship from them.  After this it will be time to do a fullsize kb for work.

[TD22057]

Man they are quick getting back.  He said they automatically adjust for kerf when cutting parts.

I'd be careful about that.  I just had big blue saw cut a case for my keyboard out of acrylic (3mm top, .75" mid, 3mm bottom) and it came out pretty far off which I assume is because of kerf issues.  It's like they cut the inside cutout on the outside of my line so the opening for the keyboard top plate was much larger than I expected.  I also tried to use .75" acrylic for the center layer and it varied in thickness across a 6" span from 3/4" to 3/4+3/32 which is insane.  It turned into a big waste of money. 

I expect thin metal will be better but I wouldn't discount kerf issues and peoples understanding of what the plans are trying to convey...

[swill]

Man they are quick getting back.  He said they automatically adjust for kerf when cutting parts.

I'd be careful about that.  I just had big blue saw cut a case for my keyboard out of acrylic (3mm top, .75" mid, 3mm bottom) and it came out pretty far off which I assume is because of kerf issues.  It's like they cut the inside cutout on the outside of my line so the opening for the keyboard top plate was much larger than I expected.  I also tried to use .75" acrylic for the center layer and it varied in thickness across a 6" span from 3/4" to 3/4+3/32 which is insane.  It turned into a big waste of money. 

I expect thin metal will be better but I wouldn't discount kerf issues and peoples understanding of what the plans are trying to convey...

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I think kerf is a bit tricker of an issue with complex cuts than people expect.  The kerf does not always behave the same depending on where the different cutout and such is around the shape.  Sometimes you add kerf/2 and other times you delete kerf/2.  I built this tool to account for kerf so we can try to mitigate these problems, but I still have to get my test plates cut to know for sure.  I will get them cut in acrylic first since I think I can find a shop to do that for me.  Unfortunately I need my stuff done in aluminum or stainless steel because I will be using the enabler pcbs.

[Melvang]

If you are testing cutouts from the tool I would suggest either stainless or aluminum if the purpose is to test the accuracy of the tool.  Laser cutting acrylic is not near as precise as aluminum or stainless.

[possumgumbo]

I actually 3D printed the layout here,
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/41278b39d92833e044007ab46bb8a9f8
but it staggered the top function row to the left, instead of the columnar arrangement I had designed in the layout designer. The right side is also cut off prematurely.

What can I do to remedy this? Thanks for the excellent tool, by the way. With a little tweaking, this will be the greatest prototyping tool ever!

I modified the 'x' and 'y' offsets on the first column and row to put them up to the edge.  I then tested it and it worked better.  You can adding that padding using the actual padding feature in my tool if you want it.

Here is my version of your layout: http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/b90aac02cbfd2217364f2ad8b55a600d

Here is the result:
(Attachment Link)

I will look into why the 'x' at the start of the line is not working correctly.

Thanks for pointing this out to me...

Thanks a bunch, man! I really appreciate developers interfacing so quickly with their communities. My 3-D printed prototypes have been a big hit here at the office, and I can't wait to get the final product finished.

[swill]

If you are testing cutouts from the tool I would suggest either stainless or aluminum if the purpose is to test the accuracy of the tool.  Laser cutting acrylic is not near as precise as aluminum or stainless.

Ya my goal is to test with both acrylic and aluminum, but I need to find a local shop who does aluminum who will return my emails.

[phishy]

Alright so I'm going to pull the trigger with big blue saw and have faith in this mans ability to do this right.  It'd be best for him if it works out because he'd be able to drum up some more business.

[swill]

Alright so I'm going to pull the trigger with big blue saw and have faith in this mans ability to do this right.  It'd be best for him if it works out because he'd be able to drum up some more business.

Maybe mention to him that my tool will automatically account for kerf if we know how big it is. He may not be used to that.

Let us know how it goes.

[Evo_Spec]

Not sure if i mentioned this before but your tool's awesome, can't wait for the angled key support =D

[StinkyTheDonut]

Are there cutouts for only costar stabs?
I want to save on cuts, and have less gaps for food and bugs to crawl in...and instant noodle soup...

No, right now I only support a combined stabilizer cutout.  I could potentially offer just a costar stab cutout, but it won't happen before the end of the week...

That would be cool.
If not, I could try to it have it changed on the CAD manually.
I understand that this might be a one off thing just for a weirdo like me lol XD

[phishy]

So I've been going back and forth with Simon over at bigbluesaw to make sure we can make this happen.  I sent him the data sheet on cherry switches (with tolerances allowed) and I'm also going to send a few spare plate mount switches his way so they can do a test fit before they cut out an entire plate and adjust accordingly.  He's definitely going way out of his way to help me out.