- [Instructor] Before we actually start building
our enclosure firstly we're going to import
the PCB step file that we previously downloaded
and then we're going to use that PCB model
as a starting point to build the rest of the enclosure.
Open SolidWorks by double clicking on the icon.
Depending exactly how you've got it set up,
when it opens you might get a welcome
or a recent documents window pop up
and if you do we can just ignore those.
All we need to do is go to the top,
click on File and press Open.
Navigate to your project folder
and if you don't see the step file in there,
then you might need to go down here
and click on here
and go all the way to the bottom of the list
and just choose All Files
and now we can see the step file.
So select that and press Open
and we should now get a progress bar
as it imports into SolidWorks.
And depending on the speed of your computer
this might take a few minutes
but eventually you should see the PCB model like this.
If you're working with a different version
of SolidWorks to me such as SolidWorks 2020
then you may get a new SolidWorks document
dialog box pop-up here.
If so, then just press Ok
and your file should open as per the video.
We can hold down the mouse scroll wheel
and move the model around and we can also zoom in and out
with a scroll wheel to zoom in and out on the model.
If your model looks a little bit grey like mine,
we can click up here in the middle on Display Style,
and then choose the very top option
which is shaded with edges
and you can see immediately that gives your model
a little bit more definition.
So looking at the model,
here we have the actual circuit board
and then we've just got some representative parts
so here we have a USB socket, HDMI socket,
headphone socket and then on the end here
we've got the power socket, SD card slot
and just a small LED on top.
We're going to be making an enclosure that fits around
this PCB with cutouts for these different ports
and some other details.
So this could be something like a Raspberry Pi PCB,
an off-the-shelf PCB
or it could just be a custom project
that you've made yourself.
And one of the beauties of SolidWorks,
is that it's quite easy to adjust models
and change parameters.
So hopefully this course will show you
the principles of making a case
and then you can really customize it
to suit your own needs.
So looking back at our PCB model,
over here on the left we can expand the assembly
and we can see all the sub-parts
which make up the assembly.
Depending on your version of SolidWorks,
your interface might look slightly different to this
and you might have some small warning triangles
but you can just ignore those.
What we're going to do is save this assembly
as a single SolidWorks part file
which will make it easier to work with.
And to do this all we need to do is go up
to the File menu again
and choose Save As,
make sure you're in your project folder again,
you can keep the default file name
but before we click Save,
click down here Save As Type
and let's just change it from assembly
to part up here near the top and then you can press Save
and this part will be saved as a single part
with all of these sub-parts merged together.
So then we can close this assembly
and you don't have to worry about saving it
so you can just click Don't Save there.