deskthority

I have polluted matt3o's threads enough with posts about my builder, so here is a dedicated thread for questions, answers and such. I really appreciate feedback and I will do my best to field all the questions you have. I will admit, I am on GH a lot more than here, but I will make an effort to be more active here to field any questions you have.

There is a very long discussion about the builder on GH which basically tracks my progress from the idea till now.

Tool URL: builder.swillkb.com

The motivation for the tool was the excellant www.keyboard-layout-editor.com tool. I wanted to enable people to be able to get a plate cut simply by designing the plate in that tool.

Here is the UI you are presented with right away when you go to the tool. As you can see there are a lot of different options you can decide to use (or not). I currently support 3 different switch types (with some hidden features to support more which I will document soon, ask if you are interested).

I have three different stabilizer drawings integrated: Cherry + Costar will support all types of Cherry stabilizers as well as Costar stabilizers. Cherry Only is basically the same cutout, but without the little cutouts at the top to fit the Costar stab. This will make the Cherry plate mounted stabilizers fit a little more snuggly. The Costar Only support is ideal if you know you will only be using Costar stabilizers or if you are trying to keep the cost of manufacturing down.

The default case type is None. This means that the edge of the plate will basically be at the edge of the keycaps and there will be no mount holes. You can add width and height padding to extend the plate in either direction, but if you do that I would recommend you consider the Sandwich case.

I recently added support for the Poker case: This case type is meant to be used with a PCB as the holes are currently hard coded to 5mm in diameter and it is expected that the screws will pass through the plate and the PCB will be screwed to the plate. I am working getting tolerances down to about +/- 0.1mm so I can turn on the feature that would all you to specify the diameter of these mount holes so you could use standoffs and mount the plate directly to the case. This is coming soon™...

The most common case type for hand wired projects will be the Sandwich Case: This case type allows you to specify how much space you want around the edge of your keyboard and how many mount holes you want to secure the layers together. The tool will produce all the different layers you would need to build the sandwich case.

So if you wanted to make a keyboard with my swill60 layout: It would produce the following files: As you have probably noticed, there are a lot of different options you can specify. If you have questions about any of them, just ask... TL;DR - If you have read all the way to here you can keep your 'keyboard enthusiast' card because you are dedicated.

I've seen this on GH, thanks for bringing it over here too. This seems very straight forward. If I wasn't on mobile I'd probably be playing around with it right now.

Thanks goodness, I've been wanting a took like this. Thanks a lot mate!

As to not repeat everything I put on GH, here is the documentation I was referring to for the 'hidden' feature. This feature has lots of potential uses, including Alps only cutouts. I will hopefully get the Alps stabilizer support added soon.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=65 ... msg1685418

How much does a laser cut plate usually cost? (Italy or Europe if possible).

gianni wrote: ↑How much does a laser cut plate usually cost? (Italy or Europe if possible).

It varies a lot, like seriously a lot...

I used swill's tool to create a simple, planck-inspired plate which I them edited slightly in LibreCAD.

I asked a few Dutch (because that's where I live) places for quotes and the amounts varied from €60~€170.

Someone told me to check LasterMaster.co.uk and they came to me with a price of ~£11 per plate (from 1-9 pieces, after 10+ the price dropped to around £7 a piece). Without shipping ofcourse which was rated at £7.50.

Haven't pulled the plug yet on a final plate design, so no definitive numbers for you.

Also seen this a while ago on GH. Was really looking forward to a release. Thanks for the awesome work!

EDIT: Is it down?

Typical release day, all works well until you're finished for the day and then it goes to shit.

Wow, that price seems to good to be true, I will ask for a quotation, thanks

toonoobtobereal wrote: ↑

gianni wrote: ↑How much does a laser cut plate usually cost? (Italy or Europe if possible).

Someone told me to check LasterMaster.co.uk and they came to me with a price of ~£11 per plate (from 1-9 pieces, after 10+ the price dropped to around £7 a piece). Without shipping ofcourse which was rated at £7.50.

Haven't pulled the plug yet on a final plate design, so no definitive numbers for you.

I have now tested the editor/tool. And it works great! For me who lacks all kind of CAD skills this is the dream!
Thanks for the awesome work!
Think I will order a custom plate now and test it out. Just need to find someone who does it quite cheap(incl. shipping).

toonoobtobereal wrote: ↑ Someone told me to check LasterMaster.co.uk and they came to me with a price of ~£11 per plate (from 1-9 pieces, after 10+ the price dropped to around £7 a piece). Without shipping ofcourse which was rated at £7.50.

Haven't pulled the plug yet on a final plate design, so no definitive numbers for you.

That price is for a plate without cuts and, if I'm not mistaken, without VAT. I asked for a quote on a 65% plate (with the simpler cuts of the tool) and the quote I got was 36£ + 25£ shipping + VAT.