Hello from springtime Finland!Been building comps for 16 years now and now i want to build my first scratch built case. Question: As im also new to use Sketchup so i want to know if you can export your 3d Case design into a CNC machine acceptable format?And what formats are usually used in CNC machines?? Thanks in advance!!!
There aren't any real accurate conversion direct from sketchup to gcode ( cnc language ). Most I have worked with are only accurate to within 1mm. You might think this is close enough, but if you add up all of the variables you could easily end up 2-3mm off between your pci mounting and the actual slots on your motherboard, which would force you to waste a lot of materials when you re-cut parts. You would be better off getting a learning edition of alibre or another decent CAD program for 100-200euro. At least then your only error will come from your measurements, not errors at the machine shop.
Apparently ViaCAd 3D (a CAD program costing about $70,--) can import .skp files and export them as .iges files that CNC mills can interpret.
^^ More likely cad/cam - soft can read iges and then generate toolpaths which need to be postprocessed to work on a cnc mill. Never heard of a cnc machine that can read cad files.
I would re-draw all the parts in a free 2d cad software. SU is polygon-based, so all the arcs are actually polygons with 24+ sides. It also has a bad habit of rounding off point positions to whatever is nearest. I recently tried to put together a design with complex shapes for a cnc project. After a lot of work trying to get it to convert to a solid model file, it was determined it would look like garbage milled. Anyway, If you are doing everything in 2.5d: Here's a great 2d DXF exporter plugin. This makes it faster to re-draw in a proper cad software. -Just like tracing.
Cheaps is absolutely right, done is a few times, straight lines via dwg work quite well, as soon as there are arcs / rounded surfaces it breaks horribly, very hard to make gcode from it.