Is something like this possible to draw for a total beginner?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I'm a new guy here. I have never tried AutoCAD before. I have tried some simple things in SolidWorks but nothing special. I am not in engineering field but I am keen to learn in this field. I have spent a lot of time studying mechanics, self learning, working on my own vehicle, repairs, some welding, restauration, disassembly and reasembly, etc.

However, when it comes to 2D or 3D drawing I have no experience whatsoever. 

Now, a few weeks ago my key fob for my car broke in two pieces, literally in half. I have been using my second one since then. Having only one key bugs me and I want to fix that. A new one costs a fortune and I am that guy that does not want to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something that I can do myself, possibly.

The key fob housing is plastic. It has electrical components inside and a rubber button for unlocking. My idea is to construct the key fob in AutoCAD and make a 3D printable file and reproduce a key fob and make multiple copies, maybe even sell some. 

The problem is that the key fob inside seems very complex to me. Finally, my question after this obnoxiously long intro is, what do you think, is a total beginner able to learn and draw this up in 3D in lets say a month or two?

I will try to attach some pictures of the key fob to show you what I am talking about.

Kind regards everyone,

Stjepan from Croatia

 

john.vellek has embedded your image(s) for clarity

[pendean]

How many months you got?

[Anonymous]

Undefined. It is a personal project of mine. I am just curious is it possible to do it in a reasonable amount of time (is it worth it to do it myself)?

[WarrenGeissler]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am just curious is it possible to do it in a reasonable amount of time (is it worth it to do it myself)?

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Is it possible? Definitely! Is it worth it? Questionable.

Learning CAD (2D and 3D) is EASIEST to do when you have a personal interest (the fob design). You have certainly chosen a difficult project to start with, but depending on your focus, this is actually a good thing. I'll tell you up front that what you are showing CAN be designed and turned into a 3D printable format. I say that so you won't get frustrated, because it won't be EASY. I once taught an eye surgeon 2D and 3D AutoCAD so he could design an eye drain for glaucoma patients, so what you are doing is comparatively simple to that.

[Anonymous]

The thing that I see as a big obstacle to overcome is taking precise measurements of tiny components since it is a two piece which need to connect in various places.

[WarrenGeissler]

Bingo! The CAD end is actually easy - it's getting the existing measurements down precisely that's going to be trouble.

[Anonymous]

We'll see, we'll see. Today I was practising 2D. Furthermore, I would like to see a couple of more insights and opinions. Thank you warren.geissler for your input!

[ChrisRS]

You could go old-school and make a mold and cast I using Bondo.

Or you could scan it. I have never done this. The photogrammetry portion of Recap Pro by Autodesk is supposed tp do this.

Many City parks and recreation departments, and museums have 'maker labs' available to the pubic. (For a fee.) You might get access to a laser scanner, software and 3D printers there.

I am not very familiar with 3D and solids, but thjs looks more like an Inventor project to me

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I have considered 3D scanning and have sent a couple of inquiries to firms that do 3D scanning in my country but there aren't many and I am afraid it would be too expensive.

[ChrisRS]

You might want to try the free trial of Recap Pro. You take photographs and upload to Autodesk,

[Anonymous]

I will give it a try. Thank you for your recommendation!

[Patchy · Accepted solution]

Put the part on grid paper, use your phone to take a photo, insert the image into autocad and trace it and scale to get correct dimensions.

I've done it without the need of scanning and 3d printed the part.

[Anonymous]

That sounds awesome! I hope it works just as well since my key fob has extremely small and detailed parts inside. Does regular grid paper work? Thank you!

[Patchy]

The smaller grids works best, it's for scaling the photo to actual dimensions.

[Anonymous]

I will try it ASAP next week.

[Patchy]

It's fairly easy, if you have trouble, we'll try to make it work for you.

[Anonymous]

Very nice of you, honestly I did not expect such a response from you guys, you have been very helpful, thank you a lot!

[Anonymous]

Okay, so, got the ReCap, got it for 3 years for free since I am a student which is amazing. I took about 50 photos from various angles, watched some tutorials how to take these pictures. I imported the pictures in ReCap, uploaded successfully but in mid of the processing part I always get returned with an error. The processing part lasts very long probably because my laptop is not the fastest but it is frustrating to wait so long to get an error 3 times. Sometimes after uploading photos it gets to 1% processing then says "waiting in queue", but I don't know which queue because I did not touch anything during the process. Some thoughts on this? Should I contact Autodesk support? Thank you.

EDIT: The queue issue goes aways but the error returns.

[Patchy]

Draw on Plan View.

Drag and drop the photo into autocad and draw on it. Take a caliper and measure the height of the interior and extrude the height. I don't have ReCap.

[Anonymous]

I though you used ReCap. I will try it your way.