2-D Design Case Tutorial 1

Case Tutorial

C

Section 1 omputer Aided Design (CAD)

2D

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Design

2-D Design Case Tutorial 2

Section 1 During the course of this tutorial I will lead you through the creation of a case using 2D- Design. We will use our design to manufacture a case for your electronic circuit (CAD/CAM). Feel free to copy the design exactly to gain confidence and learn how to use the program or if you are already confident, use it to create your own design. 1. You will have already designed your case on paper or using ProDesktop or some other Cad program, it may look like this. You are now ready to manufacture the case. 2. Open a new file in 2D Design and make sure you are working on an A4 size sheet. To do this click on Setup : Drawing : Layout as shown below

3. Click on Layout anfrom the drop-down menusize. Click on OK.

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4. For this tutorial I will create the tree shape as seen in the first picture. Click on Grid Lock by doing this we can ensure that the lines stay together. Grid Lock can be annoying when working with curves because the line will jump away from where you want it and it will be easier to click on step lock.

5. Begin by drawing a squThis is where your electricwhen you finish making yocorrect measurement on thscreen. 6. Create the shape of youbox.

d choose ISO A4 next to Standard

are 60 x 60mm.

al circuit will go ur case. Notice the e bottom of the

r design around this

2-D Design Case Tutorial 3

7. If a symmetrical shape is needed, it can be easier to draw half of it and to mirror the other half. We will learn how to do this here. 8. After drawing half your design

select it by drawing a box around it or by clicking on each line in turn while holding the shift key down. The lines that you want will turn Pink (make sure that the square is not selected and is still black)

9. Click and hold the Transform button and move over to the Mirror image button and let go.

10. A dialogue box will appear asking

you to replace or repeat. Choose Repeat.

11. Create a line through the middle

of your design. Your shape will then be reflected on the other side.

We have now completed the basic shape for our box and will learn about the need to create Tool Path around our shape using the Contour tool. For the purpose of this tutorial we will assume that we will be cutting your shape out using a 3mm diameter cutting tool. (Those schools fortunate to own a laser cutter feel free to ignore the following information and to feel smug)!

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2-D Design Case Tutorial 4 Creating a tool path. Why do we need a tool path? A Camm 2 machine will cut down the centre of any line that you have drawn. Let’s assume you need a square cut out that’s 100 x 100 mm and you have a 3mm tool in the machine. The tool will cut down the centre of the line shaving 1.5mm off each side (1.5 mm being half the diameter).

If this continues all around your design you will loose 1.5 mm off each side. By the time you finish you will have a smaller square measuring 97 x 97mm.

In order to solve this problem we need to draw a new line 1.5 mm away from the first line and get the machine to cut down the centre of that. We call this new line a tool path and use a different colour to the first line. The machine will cut to the centre of the tool path right up to the edge of your design Tool Path.

12. Lets go back to your design and place a tool path around it. Change the line colour to red. 13. Click on the Contour tool and change the contour settings to 1.5mm Click on OK.

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14. Click outside your design and inside the square in the middle. See next page for a cheat!

2-D Design Case Tutorial 5 Cheat! A. If you end up having a double line around your design it means that it is not an enclosed shape. Some times it is hard to see the gap and this cheat will help you save time! B. Draw another contour line outside the first one; this one should be a single line.

C. Delete the first contour (the double one). D. This should leave you with one contour line 3mm away from your work. E. Draw a new contour line just inside the outside contour. This means that it is 1.5mm away

from the work in the position that you want it. F. Finally delete the outside contour. This leaves you what you need to cut out the perfect shape.

We will need to add 2 holes in your case so that we can accurately join the different layers together.

15. Click and hold on the line tool and select Draw a single point.

16. Making sure that the line colour is still red; draw two points opposite each other on your case. They will be hard to see even if you zoom in! If you turn the grid off they will be easier to spot.

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2-D Design Case Tutorial 6 We will now need to move your work to the bottom left hand side of the page. It’s a good idea to group lines together when moving them so as not to leave them behind. We can ungroup them later.

14. Using the select tool draw a box around all your design. Then click on Edit : Group.

15. Click on the centre yellow square of the marquee box and drag it down to the bottom left corner.

16. Click on the double yellow squares on the bottom of the box to copy your design 17. SAVE YOUR WORK.

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We will be constructing the box as shown in the Exploded View. As you will notice the drawing that you have created is for the two centre pieces of you design. We will be making these out of 10 mm foamed PVC (Foamex). We will need to change the design for the front and back which we will cut out of a thinner 3mm material.

3mm

10 mm

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18.Select one of your shapes by drawing a box around it and go to Edit : Copy.

19. Go to File : New and then Edit : Paste to paste your shape in a new file.

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20. Move your design to the bottom left hand side of the sheet and with the design still selected go to Edit : Ungroup.

21. Delete the square and its red contour line from the middle and go to File : Save to save the new file as Cover. Well done. You have now finished the Computer Aided Design (CAD) section of this project. In the next section we will look at Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM).