Help with creating box and lid

Tutorials Requests & Discussion
1

Hey everyone,
I have been using Sketchup for some time but only really use it to make simple electronics cases to be printed with my 3D printer.
I found a case recently that someone made that used a long triangular strip on two sides of the case and then on the lid part had opposite indentation. When you put the 2 sides together it clicks together so no need for glue or screws.
i have tried to replicate this but am having no luck. If anyone has any tips on this one it would be greatly appreciated

2

Hi,

Can you upload your sketchUp file so that we can see where things currently stand?

I don’t mean to push this question back onto the internet… other than to suggest that there are a number of 3D printer tutorials which cover designing enclosures with snap-fit connections or, snap-fit joints.

Have you already seen a few of these?.. If there’s a specific kind of connection you have your heart set on?.. It would be worth knowing that.

Folks that get involved in making these take a lot things into consideration… How the snap-fits are orientated with respect to the 3D extrusion layers,… Building in clearances,… Alignment of connections in their relaxed state (not over stressing them),… adding in abutments to keep things properly aligned,… Keys (so symmetrical connections don’t get mis-oriented).

3

Thanks for that. In the second link you posted I see what I want to called a Annular snap joint.
I don’t have a design as of yet for a case but if you can imagine 2 x square C pieces one smaller than the other which fit together.
I understand about clearance etc and have had much success with build case so far.
So my question is how to easily create a protruding groove in the base and opposite groove in the lid.

4

I’m a big proponent of drawing cross-sections, which have clearances built in, and then extruding those faces along a path. Typically with the follow me tool… tracking along a well drawn extrusion path.

SketchUp’s collection of Solid Tools (SU Pro only) offer the boolean Subtract command. and in absence of the solid tools then you can use the intersect faces command (SU Make & SU Pro).

Both of these work on the premise that you have two shapes which you want to work with. and one of those shapes is to be used for controlling how the ‘cut out’ happens upon the other one.

In the case of the solid tools subtract command all of the clean up will happen automatically.

In the case of the intersect faces command, you’ll need to go in an manually delete the geometry in the area of the cutouts.

Essentially, I’d likely have two things going on here:

  1. would be a cross-section of the normal case profile.

  2. a cross-section of how the snap-fits look.

Those get extruded out into usable 3D geometry, and the rest would happen by merging the two together in the places where I’d want the connection to be located.

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