SketchUp AR

[Arroyo]

Have been trying this out over the last month and was wondering if anyone else is using it/played with it.  So far it's coming in handy for checking viewing angles, dimensions, and getting an overall sense of design:

[JudgeRob]

Not I.  My 3d sketch skills are non-existent, although I'm trying to learn with Tinkercad.  Looks cool.  Are you converting to an outdoor, weather resistant cabinet? 

[paigeoliver]

Ok, now that you made that sketch, don't do any of that. Monitor angle looks good and the marquee is fine, everything else has serious functional and aesthetic issues.

Your cabinet features the alien control panel that doesn't seem to actually be a part of the machine and sails out full depth from the cabinet, making it both impossible to reach the coin door and making the panel edge into a lever that cab flip the cabinet over. Screw this up bad enough and a 3 year old child will be able to flip the cabinet onto themselves just jumping up and grabbing a stick. See almost every real machine ever made with a big panel, the cabinet base will be within a couple inches of the panel edge.

Nothing you are ever going to emulate is widescreen. If you insist on using an LCD then the only way to go is jamming a big one in their vertically so you can at least use a 4:3 area the width of the cabinet. Also, remember, you can still find functional CRT monitors to use, there is no reason to build LCD at this point. The games look better on CRT, CRT has the right aspect ratio. If it breaks later and you don't want to fix it then buy the LCD then.

That Rainbow button arch is not so great in real life. So many builders just have to have both the Capcom layout and the Neo Geo layout at the same time, so they install what you have show there, which includes neither Capcom's official layout (which is a bone straight 3x2 setup), or the SNK Neo Geo layout, which has the upper buttons as straight as Capcom did.

See those controls that you have to reach past other controls to use. You will eventually stop using those completely. They are not comfortable and you will start choosing games that don't use them.

Your 4-player layout is bad. The panel and machine are not actually large enough for 4 adults to line up in front of, but the sticks and buttons for the edge players are aligned as if that were the case. In real 4 player machines those players stood on the side of the panel and the buttons were aligned for that.

I have never seen a button with a different colored trim ring that was any good, those are for the gambling market. They are terrible.

[Mike A]

Is that CP really overhanging as much as it looks? That might not even stand up on its own, not to mention the tipping hazard even if it does. I don't get the infatuation with the slim design. It doesn't save much space and it looks especially odd with the ginormous control panels people staple onto the design. I would strongly recommend you increase the size of the base unless you plan on bolting your cab to a wall.

[Arroyo]

Are you converting to an outdoor, weather resistant cabinet? 

I'm calling it the Atrium Arcade 

[Arroyo]

I was mostly interested to see if this is something people are using/trying out.  I'm finding it very helpful.

Regarding the design comments, I'll gladly take those up on the build thread if you'd like.