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Session 6: CAD Leveling-Up II — A Full Practice Assembly

Unit 2 — Manufacturing Foundations, Week 2

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Session 6

CAD Leveling-Up II

Two Panels Was the Easy Case

One corner, one mate, easy to check by eye.

A real cabinet has several panels meeting at several corners — today, scale up.

Today's Build: An Open-Top Box

Front, back, two sides, and a bottom — five panels, four corner joints.

Same Skill, More of It

Every joint uses the exact same Fastened-mate technique from Session 5. Nothing new to learn — just more places for a small error to hide.

Name Your Parts

"Part 3" tells you nothing three steps later. "Front Panel," "Left Side" does.

One More Idea: Flat Panels Are What CAM Sees

Each panel is modeled as a 3D part, but for a flat panel, what CAM Studio actually needs is the 2D outline.

One More Idea: Flat Panels Are What CAM Sees

Thickness matters for the assembly fitting together.Shape is what next week's CAM work is actually about.

Two Things to Remember

More parts means more places to check, not a harder technique.

If one joint fails, isolate it. Don't assume the whole assembly is wrong.

Two Things to Remember

A clean-looking assembly can still hide a bad joint.

Zoom into every corner individually — don't trust a glance at the whole box.

Next Time

Session 7: Toolpath Types & Profile Offset

CAM Studio begins — turning a flat panel's shape into an actual cutting path.

'F' → Fullscreen

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Build

Step 1: Model Five Panels

Front, back, two sides, and a bottom — all at the same real stock thickness from Session 5. Name each part clearly (e.g., "Front Panel," "Left Side," "Bottom").

Step 2: Assemble and Mate All Four Corners

Using Fastened mates, build an open-top box. Every corner should use the same technique from Session 5 — just applied four times instead of once.

Step 3: Verify Every Joint Individually

Zoom into each of the four corners separately. A box that "looks right" from a distance can still have one bad joint hiding in it.

Step 4: Note Any Fix You Had to Make

If any joint needed correcting, write down what was wrong and what you changed.

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Checkpoint

Before you move on, confirm:

  • All five panels are clearly named, not left as default part names
  • All four corner joints are individually verified — no gaps, no overlaps
  • Every joint uses a real Fastened mate
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Reflection

Answer the following questions before submitting your work.

  1. Did any of your four joints need fixing? What was actually wrong with it?
  2. Session 6's box has 5 flat panels. Which one do you think would be hardest to actually cut on the CNC, and why?
  3. What's the difference between a panel's thickness mattering and a panel's shape mattering — and where does each one actually get used?
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Submit

Submit your five-panel box assembly and your reflection.

Activity Complete