Looking for a plate designer

[noteveneric]

I'm hoping this is the right place to post. I need help designing a top plate for the layout pictured below (handwired). I've used Swillkb's plate builder and gotten close to what I wanted, but not quite, and I'm a little unsure about things like how wide screw holes should be. If possible, I'd love ideas to hide screw holes under keys similar to how standard PCB builds work, but haven't been able to find a placement I like. If anyone could help, that would be great!


So the questions would be:
- How wide should screw holes be (for a sandwich case)?
- How can I place screws underneath keys while still leaving room for wires and such?
- Can anyone help design the actual plate?

Thanks!

[nevin]

yeah, the padding/hole placement tripped me up too. i remember seeing it explained somewhere, let me see if i can find it when i get a chance.

you could put posts/holes in between switches. that's how a lot of the sandwich style ones are.

will get back to you

[joeyvigil]

I just completed two 3d printed cases. Here is the spacing for normal keys:

https://cdn.matt3o.com/uploads/2018/05/keycap-size-diagram.png
 
For keys less than 2u, just center the hole.

For keys more than 2u, a stabilizer is needed. Center the 14x14 square, then add a rectangle on each side in accordance to my attached picture. Do the same with the 6.25u stabalizer holes except they are spaced farther. These holes are for costar stabilizers.

[katotaka]

Waiting for the CNC CF plate of my current project, I too use 14x14mm switch openings and 19.05mm "pitch".

After some inspection the 5.05mm padding is able to "contain" the countersunk hole for an M2 flathead screw, you have plenty of space if the hole is placed at the center of 4 switches, which also allows the hand wire mess to route around the standoff.