# Encolsure Design



## abnrmal91 (Feb 23, 2011)

Just did a drawing for a enclosure I will be building in a couple of weeks just wanting any suggestions to make it better. It will be made of 16mm Moisture Resistant Melamine. Its got a cutting list so anyone that whats to build one can use the sizes. It should be easy enough to build.

View attachment Snake enclosure 1200x600x600.pdf


----------



## saximus (Feb 23, 2011)

Nice work Daniel which program do you use? 
If I can make one suggestion though, standard widths (at my Bunnings anyway) are 454, 595 and something smaller I can't remember. So you might find it easier designing it with them in mind. That's what I did and it made the cutting and buying much simpler

Dan

I just noticed you intend to use a single sheet cut to the necessary dimension so just disregard my ramblings :?


----------



## AusConstrictors (Feb 23, 2011)

i dont get your plans as each piece of wood has a totally differnt measurment to all the others what is the first one top left and what is the one in the middle left side and the one next to that


----------



## saximus (Feb 23, 2011)

This is an orthogonal drawing of the completed enclosure. He said he will provide a cutting list which will show individual sheet sizes (that's the table in the top right)


----------



## abnrmal91 (Feb 23, 2011)

I am using Autodesk Inventor 2011 got it for tafe. I was just looking at going down to mister ply-wood in penrith the standard sheets are 2400 x 1200 x 16 so having it at full sheet width reduces the amount of cuts. Well thats the idea any way

I will do a drawing of each step which will make it clearer the way it is designed is so there are little exposed ends. The cutting list is basically the chart in the top corner. 
Column 1 is the quantity 
Column 2 is the size of the panel to be cut


----------



## AusConstrictors (Feb 23, 2011)

oh ok it looks like it will be good i make my tanks at 3ft (900mm) long x 600 wide x 600 high and i make tem out of melamine wood i get it all cut and pre drilled at a kichen makeing place in my town so all wood is corect and spot on the size i want it and than all i have to do is drill and glue it together and than seal all the edges than wire it up and than i can put my reptile in it


----------



## cadwallader (Feb 23, 2011)

looks good mate good program to just make sure to get it checked and Q.A done and you will be sweet


----------



## Sock Puppet (Feb 23, 2011)

Hi abnrmal, I've also done my own enclosure designs (AutoCad), it was very handy in my case where I was fitting custom stacked, corner banks into a small room, as I could also lay out the furniture in the room to ensure it all fits. If you want to get really tricky, you can use a render package & create 3D images of the completed unit. Google Sketch is actually very easy to use for anyone with some drafting skills, & you can render it in many different textures & colours, add light angles, there's even a transparent render for glass. Speaking of which, don't forget to add glass, glass tracks, vents etc to your materials list. Also, you can get melamine strips to cover any exposed ends of the sheet.


----------



## abnrmal91 (Feb 23, 2011)

Ok this is a step by step showing how it all goes together. 
View attachment snake enclosure 1.pdf

View attachment snake enclosure 2.pdf

View attachment snake enclosure 3.pdf


Sockpuppet its done in Autodesk Inventor the way it works is you model it in 3D then work backward to create a 2D picture. Very easy


----------



## Sock Puppet (Feb 23, 2011)

No worries, never used Inventor, sounds like a handy package for home use.


----------



## Virides (Feb 23, 2011)

abnrmal91 said:


> I am using Autodesk Inventor 2011 got it for tafe. I was just looking at going down to mister ply-wood in penrith the standard sheets are 2400 x 1200 x 16 so having it at full sheet width reduces the amount of cuts. Well thats the idea any way
> 
> I will do a drawing of each step which will make it clearer the way it is designed is so there are little exposed ends. The cutting list is basically the chart in the top corner.
> Column 1 is the quantity
> Column 2 is the size of the panel to be cut


 
I used to use Inventor lol I hated it, was not intuitive and was always hard to get what you wanted done. I did learn it from scratch on my own while having a 3week project which relied on it heavily - I used it to make the new Westpac W floor illuminated boxes (There is one in Melbourne and they are rolling these out to alot of Westpacs around the country).

These days however, I use Solidworks - so so so much better. Costs alot more, but is well worth it. The Westpac job would have been done in half the time if i knew of it... Inventor is good to learn the basics, but if you really want to use 3D CAD, Solidworks is the go.

Interesting fact as to why BMW is an expensive car  - they use software called Catia. The base package with no plugins (each function of the package is a plugin, so the base package is basically useless compared) is about $400 000 per license per computer. BMW is the only company in the world to buy it with all plugins which set them back $1.5million per license per computer and they roughly have 50-100 licenses.... and they update this every year which is about another $500 000 per upgrade. Found this out through a trainer at Solidwork's open day. Big money...


----------



## abnrmal91 (Feb 23, 2011)

I have only used inventor but with Tafe I get a licence for free for 3 years for any of the autodesk programs. So I am quite happy with that. It's amazing how expensive some of the CAD programs can be.


----------



## Virides (Feb 23, 2011)

Yea, go to take advantage of freebies


----------



## Sock Puppet (Feb 23, 2011)

abnrmal91 said:


> I have only used inventor but with Tafe I get a licence for free for 3 years for any of the autodesk programs. So I am quite happy with that. It's amazing how expensive some of the CAD programs can be.


Any AutoDesk product? Including a full AutoCad? AutoCad Light I can understand, but a 3yr full cad licence is generous, where do I sign up? haha


----------



## Virides (Feb 23, 2011)

I am not sure what your license has, but I have used Simulation and the good thing with things like this is, you define a material type, add a load force and areas of contact/bonding and it will show you areas of stress and displacement in mm. Then you modify the design to accommodate the stresses involved. This would work especially well when considering making stacked enclosures.

I use this analysis at work for steel structures, need a mean computer though lol.


----------



## abnrmal91 (Feb 23, 2011)

It's a licence for any of the programs it pretty good. But to get it you need to sign up for a Mechanical Engineering Diploma at Mt Druitt Tafe


----------

