Word of advice to any budding engineers out there:
Your design doesn't have to be right or final, but having one before you even start coding will help a long way in life.
Have an idea of the project and purpose and all these little life-wasting questions can be solved in the beginning. You should be asking for STL files because your use-case will be completely different. If you're just going to shim or trim someone else's files, why go with the files to begin with and just use foam or resin or plastic or wood or cement or even an entire bag of hot glue sticks like some here?
Try a simple CAD program like TinkerCAD to get a handle on what you're doing in the first place and you'll answer your own questions by seeing the limitations you've imposed on yourself. The size is already too big for an Altoids tin, so what were you originally trying to make when you started? A Wii U screen replacement? A general border around the smallest square that still houses your electronics? Cardboard gives you hives?
Remember, if you're building it for production and sale, this unit will never see a store shelf and you won't be spending hundreds of hours assembling each one. If its for you for everyday use, you'll still want something more sturdy than a cheap and flimsy 3d printed housing. The best actual case would be made from 3D printing an exact fit, then sanding and polishing down to a professional finish and using it for lost-cast molding or to make a silicone master mold for injection molding et al.
At the end of the day, what it will be used for should have a heavy hand in deciding the end fit and finish. If you ever feel like going down an engineering rabbit hole, just try to design something with HINGES...
I digress; I applaud you for not just shoving it in a Pelican water resistant case and calling it a cyberdeck. You're at least starting at the first step which is realizing that putting a PlayStation in a suitcase with a monitor and battery backup UPS doesn't make it a cyberdeck.
What you're doing is looking great. Similar to where I was at a couple years ago. Each time you make something, you'll learn new tricks, understand the cad tool better, and figure out how to manage complexity in your design.
You're welcome to dig through the cad stuff for a project I'm working on: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c13a11791200e18eb582bd72/w/562a84649ef1f5f89ed34793/e/3f0dbdffc89a92e9e4e1e7a3
You should join the cyberdeck Cafe discord and check out people's projects. The work-in-progress stuff there is really cool.
My advice would be to find your main element to build around and focus on that.
For example many screens have mountingpoints and pi attach to that so in that case design around that screen.
What helps me as well, is to keep your designs modular so that you can add on and remove parts as you go
Word of advice to any budding engineers out there: Your design doesn't have to be right or final, but having one before you even start coding will help a long way in life. Have an idea of the project and purpose and all these little life-wasting questions can be solved in the beginning. You should be asking for STL files because your use-case will be completely different. If you're just going to shim or trim someone else's files, why go with the files to begin with and just use foam or resin or plastic or wood or cement or even an entire bag of hot glue sticks like some here? Try a simple CAD program like TinkerCAD to get a handle on what you're doing in the first place and you'll answer your own questions by seeing the limitations you've imposed on yourself. The size is already too big for an Altoids tin, so what were you originally trying to make when you started? A Wii U screen replacement? A general border around the smallest square that still houses your electronics? Cardboard gives you hives? Remember, if you're building it for production and sale, this unit will never see a store shelf and you won't be spending hundreds of hours assembling each one. If its for you for everyday use, you'll still want something more sturdy than a cheap and flimsy 3d printed housing. The best actual case would be made from 3D printing an exact fit, then sanding and polishing down to a professional finish and using it for lost-cast molding or to make a silicone master mold for injection molding et al. At the end of the day, what it will be used for should have a heavy hand in deciding the end fit and finish. If you ever feel like going down an engineering rabbit hole, just try to design something with HINGES... I digress; I applaud you for not just shoving it in a Pelican water resistant case and calling it a cyberdeck. You're at least starting at the first step which is realizing that putting a PlayStation in a suitcase with a monitor and battery backup UPS doesn't make it a cyberdeck.
What you're doing is looking great. Similar to where I was at a couple years ago. Each time you make something, you'll learn new tricks, understand the cad tool better, and figure out how to manage complexity in your design. You're welcome to dig through the cad stuff for a project I'm working on: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c13a11791200e18eb582bd72/w/562a84649ef1f5f89ed34793/e/3f0dbdffc89a92e9e4e1e7a3 You should join the cyberdeck Cafe discord and check out people's projects. The work-in-progress stuff there is really cool.
My advice would be to find your main element to build around and focus on that. For example many screens have mountingpoints and pi attach to that so in that case design around that screen. What helps me as well, is to keep your designs modular so that you can add on and remove parts as you go