General advice for modeling

noobmaker

Hi everyone, I hope this isn't off topic.

I've been wanting to design a couple of GPU backplates lately, and I was wondering what would the best approach be.

At the moment I'm trying to cut cardboard mockup, but I'm having issues to precisely position screw holes (as I'd like to attach it using pre existing screws, so that it would also serve as reinforcement).

Does anyone have experience with using a picture of an item to then model the piece on?

Right now I'm using fusion 360, but I've used blender in the past and I understand one of the latest updates improved the UI significantly.

alleriodrone

Using a picture to model a piece on is not ideal. I would pull apart the graphics card you are going to use and measure all of the screw holes along with top geometry using digital calipers. it is very useful to have a physical reference. Also, it helps to include a tolerance. Normally when I model things for work we can do .001 inches as a tolerance for finer details but plus or minus .1 inch would be much better and give you room to be able to put the screw in with a bit of room around it.

Note: My setup at work is Autodesk Inventor but I use FreeCAD at home. I would say that Fusion 360 is a much better interface than freecad and has a lot more features. I guess what I'm saying is to choose what your comfortable using as far as 3d modellers are concerned, a poor artist blames his paintbrush

Samuel Pinches

@noobmaker

Great questions. I normally take a photo (or for flat objects run it on a A4 scanner)  next to a ruler aligned with the surface to be measured. This gives some kind of scale that you can then measure from.

DukeLander

Little too late but:
Fusion 360 has great and very precise feature for "picture/scheme" modeling.
It is very simple, I use it quite often and it is always precise (if you made it so, of course).
Here is video how to do it.



Later you can 3d print or print it on paper in various ways and formats.