Creating a board for my electronics

[matthewgkerr]

Hi all. This is probably a real basic one. I have created a couple of boards using 2D sketches and the extrude command. I want to use this to lay out my electronics so I can start getting a feel for where everything will go. I have been mating the faces of the parts to the board and constraining the edges with offsets. This all works fine except it is rather clumsy and slow. Also, I'm unsure how to use this same process when mating the Jaguar motor controllers, which has rounded edges. Is there such a thing as an apparent edge?

What I would like to know is what is the quickest workflow for creating a mounting surface and placing parts on that surface? i.e. what process are others using to place the motor controllers (and other parts) on their robot?

[protoserge]

Are you talking about CAD/CADD layouts? What software are you using?

You should be able to take the edge-to-edge of one of the flat sides, make objects parallel, space at a set distance, etc. You can also use the center points (sometimes you need to enable the software to show center points) of round objects and use them to line up from the edges of your board.

Have you tried looking at "[CADD software name here] dimensioning and layout" or a similar query on YouTube?

[matthewgkerr]

I am using Inventor. What I'm doing is trying to understand how to best create a board to fix the cRIO, battery, motor controllers, etc so I can start getting a feel for the space they will take up and how best to lay them out to keep the wiring tidy. I did a search for "Inventor dimensioning and layout" but didn't find what I was expecting. I have worked with 2D drawings when constructing switch boards - I'm wondering how you go about creating a 3D equivalent.

[Allen B.]

Although I have no experience with Inventor, what our team does in Solid Works is either mate to the planes of parts that have weird contours, or in most cases we make a mock part that has the same dimensions and weight properties but has flat sides that are easier to work with. With less detail, it is also easier to work in assemblies.

[Gray Adams]

There's all kinds of little tricks or things you can do. Reference geometry like planes and axis that are bound to the electronics can be easily mated to your layout board. Or you could try to find some feature on the electronics component model that you can use. Like if there's a hole or a flat surface in the center of the model, you could use that for mating and just set the mate offset distance to be whatever you need.

Blocks that approximate the size of the object while being really, really simple are great too. Depending on how complicated your layout is going to get this might not work, but in all likelihood 2 rectangular blocks could replace a jaguar for modeling purposes.

You could also just leave the models unconstrained and drag them around and then lock them in place. It's not really a great way to do things, but for free form layouts I think its ok.

[inventor_phild]

I agree with the suggestion of using work features such as planes, axis, or points as the best work flow for unusual shapes.