Case for a GPS Breakout in Sketchup (how to make simple cases for your projects)

thingiverse

Time ago I searched a lot for tutorials or manuals how to make cases for projects. I had a LCD+touch assembly with 3 layers of PCBs and making the case was very hard for me (keeping all the 'virtual' positions of everything of the model) so I gave up that time. After I while I found that making a cuboid representation of your internals really help into making the case! any complex project can be represented by simple shapes and you just make the case on top!Here is the video for the process of making this case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wSBw6W1uI (5 min video, 47 mins in real time)About the module: This is just a cheap GPS module from ebay, GTPA010. The datasheet describes 2 interfaces http://screencast.com/t/teY5OC5N9ry, but I bundled both in this board. Instructions 1) Get a caliper and something to take notes 2) Find biggest parts and split them mentally in cuboids, the less cuboids, the better. 3) Keep one point of your object as reference (one point that will touch the case is nice) 4) All the connectors, jacks, plugs and parts that will be accessible from outside, should pop from the internal representation 5) Screw holes also will pop as cilinders from your internal model, remember to use the point of reference to make all the positions match with the case 6) Componentize all the parts as a minimum of 2 components (internal+shell). In this case I am using 2 shells 7) Draw the shell using the internal model as your reference for everything, it is really easy thanks to the simplified internal model! 8) Duplicate your model with the shell components opened and make final touches! Check the assembled copy you left often to keep the consistency 9) Print it!