Need plans and help with how to make panels for 738NG

[Jozer12]

Helloo my friends, my school just recieved a 1million dollar avionics facilty, they have a cnc mill, laser and a few printers. Now the teacher said i could use any machine to produce parts for my 737 cockpit, so i decided to go with building the forward overhead first. Whould anyone be able to provide me with CNC plans and how to engrave and get the panels looking spot on.

Many thanks in advance, Jozef

[No Longer Active]

Whould anyone be able to provide me with CNC plans and how to engrave and get the panels looking spot on.

I think you are asking the complete wrong thing here, there are no such thing as cnc plans....G-CODE....maybe, but that's generated from CAD drawings, such as dwg files converted to dxf or similar. You start off with CAD drawings, and then you get editing, modifying, arranging, removing and layering etc. I guess many will start off panel by panel and build up a collection of panels to build up a complete overhead using many different types of materials, thicknesses, paints and coatings.

There are drawings of the overhead and MIP in the download section to download, but you first need to learn your schools cnc machine first, and learn how to profile, pocket and engrave using either your own drawings first. Dont run before you can walk as they say, you are jumping in the deep end, and you cant swim mate, you need to go back to basics, learn the wropes and educate yourself in machining. As you are in a school, you are in the best place, having teachers all around you to help you (wished I'd had that). You will need to learn the steep learning curve of CAD>CAM and once you have grasped that, then maybe some of the answers to your questions you are asking will be more obvious to yourself. To get the panels looking spot on...this will takes years of practice....ask the pros such as Gwyn (westozy) or Wendy....I'm sure they will agree....

Good luck, but one step at at a time mate!

All the best to you!

[Jozer12]

Well that is why i wanted some dxf files ( or as i call them plans ) and print or mill them right away so i could just explore the way they are made, i became really proficient with After effects and Cinema 4D in this way, I downloaded some project files and then kind of reverse engineered them so i could see how to implement different elements. I was hoping to learn in a similar way with illustrator and then just put them into some kind of program which could turn it into a 3D object and extrude the parts for me, If that fails i might as well learn autodesk or pro desktop.
Im not actually that much of a noob that i may seem, well with CNC i am but ive been studying the dimensions and plans for the 737 sim for 2 and a half years now which is a long time for someone my age i would say. Also the teacher is kind of making us jump into the deep end, the coming up tuesday he might already start using the machines and we have only had like an hour on a CAD program so, its a bit rushed, but i guess i have to deal with it.

Thanks for your input, appreciate it
~ Jozef

[No Longer Active]

I think Vectric Cut2d would be good for making basic panels. You could profile a panel to size, then using layers, you could pocket engrave lines and text which is my way of cheating when engraving with cut2d.

[Jozer12]

then using layers, you could pocket engrave lines and text which is my way of cheating when engraving with cut2d.

so would this work for backlightable panels or? Because i thought since they need to be painted the paint will just seep into the letters and then bye bye to backlighting, so what i thought to do is to make a thin panel with the lines and text that need backlighting cut right through and then stick it on another thicker panel which is just a white diffuser colour with LED's on the back, do you think this will work or no? To me it seems to be the most logical and easy approach.

~Jozef