Faceplate Design tutorials

[sesc360]

Hi all,
I am new to 3D Printing and at the beginning of my journey. I read a lot about the topic and now want to start with something I can make use of. I am a big fan of aviation and therefore I wanted to build up a skillset to create a home-cockpit. Well.. maybe a bit basic in the beginning, but learning my stuff step by step. I know my stuff around electronics and coding, but I have tons to learn about 3D printing and design. Maybe you might think the idea is crazy, but I learnt the most in the past by just doing things on projects I would like to bring to life. I want to use rapid prototyping techniques so no sheet metal etc. and learn about how to use the rub down transfer to create button text etc. and how to learn about creating a faceplate design. This is the thing I want to do:

Plate.jpg
This picture is property of emuteq.com

I have kind of an idea about the electronics parts, but I want to learn how to create a faceplace like this. How do I start? Is there any good reference material, I can start with? Would really appreciate some kickstart on this and appreciate any help!

Thank you,
Sebastian

[LambdaFF]

... your faceplate is basically a rectangle with rectangle holes for the screens and round holes for the buttons.
If you have those screens and buttons in hand already you can measure the dimensions and put that in your design. Any mechanical cad software will do. I hear fusion 360 is free for tinkerers.
You can do that in 2 operations (roughly) :
1/ design the external rectangle in a plane and extrude it
2/ design the holes in the same plane and use function "pocket".

I think all in all it takes something like 5 minutes to design for someone with moderate experience. Probably one hour if you start from scratch. I'm sure our script maniacs could type it blindfolded while scratching an ear and still do it faster than me.

So ... what's the hold exactly ?

[curious aardvark]

learn to use openscad.

For facias and faceplates you're looking at a half dozen lines of very simple instructions.
You'll be making actual things to print weeks before you'll get anything out of a whysiwyg cad package.

There used to be a brilliant begonners tutorial called 'know 10 things to be dangerous in openscad'. But the host site has scrapped it (just found out).
There are a lot of tutorials out there and a decent section on here (somewhere).

But for practical 100% guarenteed printable objects it's unbeatable. And very easy to learn.
Unless you try and read the manual - that's been written by someone who just doesn't know how to write 'human'.

http://www.openscad.org/

Few tips from a non-programmer.
1) do not use indents. They just scatter stuff around a confuse the hell out of me.
2) label EVERYTHING. Got a curly bracket at the end of a difference or module funtion - label it.
3) keep it simple, you do not ever need to use boolean algebra - or even know what it is (I have no clue).
4) don't try and work out WHY brackets are used where they are used - just use them and get on with it. There is no obvious logic to them.

The rest you learn as you use it :-)

[sesc360]

Thank you! That definitely helped... Sorry for this basic questions, but I am eager to learn quickly