When I was working on the Planet Bike tail light, I had designed a custom PCB and had it manufactured using ExpressPCB.  I had etched my own boards before.  This was a big improvement from that experience.  I initially tried to use proto board and ended up damaging the components while I assembled them.  I would have spent more time doing it any other way.

While brainstorming ideas about a case design, I thought something 3D should already be available.  It turns out there was.  Google’s SketchUp has an Eagle plug-ins available, but the PCB has to be drawn already with Eagle CAD.  I don’t really want to change gears and learn a new CAD program unless I know I’ll get something from it.  If I can find some good tutorials, examples, and ease of setup, then I’ll take a stab at it.

Another interesting 3D offering is DesignSpark PCB, they even offer a way to port it over to Google SketchUp.

The ability to creat a model in 3D and having a the means to construct it will save time, effort, and materials.  It will be a requirement for any future projects that are involving.