Seems like everyone uses SolidWorks for their stuff. I've been using Inventor and have found it pretty good. Ramps and wireforms are fairly easy for me now. Just a matter of creating a 2D profile and a sweep path. Less than 5 minutes you have a nice curved piece of metal or plastic.

Considering the complexity that I have been going for with my playfield I have found that the 3D models have helped no end. It easily allows me to see where I can fit something or if there will be collisions between objects that a 2D drawing wont. However I have been jumping back and forth between the 3D and the whitewood as I refine an objects placement in 3D and rough it out on the whitewood.
I'll still have to make adjustments though based on how the whitewood actually plays.

Attached a reasonably recent version of whitewood, and what it looks like in 3D (above and below).

WP_20141008_07_53_20_Pro.jpg

Playfield Model1.png

Playfield Model2.png

That will be a mini playfield (because if I can only have 1 pinball machine it better have as many playfields as possible!!) that works like those tilt maze games with a small ball. Left and right flippers to tilt it left and right.

I think the changes to the .yaml file required to get something working are all quite easy and simple to follow and that is not where the initial problems exist. For me (a software developer) I have repeatedly run into problems due to dependencies required. The one click installer definitely helps in that regard but I have still had issues on multiple machines where I have to fix error after error while using the one click installer. - That isn't user friendly for a beginner. I imagine that a larger proportion of these errors are due to my environment (the compiler packaged with the one click installer gets confused in an existing visual studio environment) so a beginner would hopefully have a clean machine.

I've also run into similar problems when using MPF so at the moment that isn't the silver bullet framework.
Designing/building pinball machines is hard though. I wouldn't expect it to be easy and happen with the single click of a button. Though hoping for something that gets a good portion of the way is certainly achievable. If I ever get started on my software and it turns out half decent I'll look into turning it generic so that others can benefit from it.

Also, going back to the 3D printed models for placement and testing layout...
What about embedding them with magnets and then sticking another one under the playfield to hold them in place so you don't have to glue or screw anything? Not sure how big they would have to be to work through the playfield though?

Or lay a sheet of metal on top of the playfield with magnet in each of the 3D printed parts and just stick them onto that. Wouldnt need to be very strong at all then.

I feel like Aurich just called me hardcore.

I better start making some positive contributions to this community then..

I posted this on the pinball controllers forum but no one really understood the point of it there. Maybe it could be useful for someone on this thread.

While possibly increasing the number of individual wires for the switch matrix, I'm currently getting some boards fabricated that will allow for running cat5 cables between each board. From a single board you can then split out the cat5 cables to the individual devices (In my custom machine I will be adding another stage of molex connectors so that individual devices can also easily be moved)

The end result is no soldering under the playfield.

For a 16x8 matrix (16 rows, 8 columns) you run 3 cat5 cables to the first breakout board. A jumper setting is used to make the board column 1 and that column is then connected on the board to 2 complete sets of RJ45 connectors (16 wires total). Those 2 RJ45 connectors can be paired with 2 more RJ45 connectors that represent the 16 row wires. Individual wires stem from these directly to the devices so no devices need to be chained together.

3 more RJ45 connectors are then used to allow that first breakout board to be connected to the next board and so on.

Hopefully my boards should arrive in a week, I look forward to wiring/soldering it all up. It means I can just make a massive stack of different length cat5 cables and then (Im planning on making more than 1 machine) I just grab whatever length I need and plug them in. If something needs to move just unplug and grab a different length cable.

Just another different method than pinboards and careful planning.

Note: Oh I was designing this as a panel so ignore the bottom half below the solid line, Ill be using that as the initial connector header that I can then wire into the proc.

RJ45 Breakout Board.png

I dont think it'd take up that much more than a traditional wiring setup. Or maybe I haven't looked at enough wiring harnesses to see how much wiring is saved via the chaining together.
Boards are only 8x5cm, so not too big.
If you only need an 8x8 matrix then that would be just 2 cat5 cables between each board. I know Ill need a 16x8 so Ill be sure to post pictures of the wiring once that starts to come together.

I bought 300m of cable and a big bunch of connectors/components. Calculated its only about an extra $50 for a full matrix of 8 boards. PCBs are around $2 each.

I agree. For manufacture it would be terrible but I think, and why I posted it in this thread it would be helpful while you are still designing a playfield and to get a playfield up and running quickly.

Once I have a playfield done using this method Ill make sure to show it off so if others think it might help them they can use it. If thats the case then at that stage Ill list where I got everything from and make the Gerber files available.

This thread hasn't seen a lot of action lately so here is an update of my pinball software that I am working on. Obviously still in development but it'll be a client-server architecture. Machine can run standalone as a normal pinball machine with the server software but then for testing/designing purposes the client can connect from a different computer.

I have an executable that runs on the client and one that runs on the server. Both use WPF, all of it is C# and .net.

Windows Presentation Foundation (or WPF) is a graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications by Microsoft. (wikipedia)
Caliburn.Micro is a lightweight framework with great support for MVVM applications (Model-View-ViewModel pattern). It has a built in event aggregator, automatic binding conventions between the View and the View Model, plus some other great stuff.
Mass Transit is a service bus that I'm using for the communication between the client and server. It serializes my C# objects to Json and sends them between the 2 applications.

As well as the 2 executables I have a couple of dlls...
Common - Few common classes but mainly the Devices and objects that get sent between the server and client.
DataContracts - Interfaces that define what will be sent between the server and client.
ServerLibrary - The guts of the server side. Does all the talking to the pinball hardware.

I've only seen Jersey Jacks LCD display in action on a pin so can't really say what support software they provide. If it is anything like what I am making it does sound quite interesting.

Im using an old 17" monitor at 1280x1024 and 720p video. I'll cut off some of the monitor top and bottom. Because all my code is c# .net (probably do some Unity graphics as not happy with WPF for 3D) Im using windows 8 embedded and running on an old i5 laptop that I stripped down.

That is probably the cheapest option. I feel like I am always replacing a perfectly good 2 year old computer because it cant keep up with the latest games, so re-purposing it for a pinball PC is a pretty good option.

Also including an Arduino because they are awesome. I cant remember my current servo count but I can support upto 18 with my current setup. Might use up most of them as decided I need to outdo JJP and Sterns dragons with my own animatronic version. Small plug for LedShowEditor that will allow me to create the fire effects across the Leds that I need.

You can get it from here if you want to try it:
https://bitbucket.org/rampantslug/ledshoweditor/downloads

Tested out a loop style ramp today to replace what was originally going to be a long upward curved ramp a-la Pinbot. Haven't tested with a flipper yet but doesn't require a great deal of force to get it to complete the loop. Seems like it will be a really good space saving solution compared with my other option of a really long straight ramp to get the desired height. Final assembly will be plastic with molded exterior to resemble The Eyrie. Will also be wider than this test so should be an easier shot.

That TFTC one looks pretty big. Could be close in size to what I am going for.
Just need to save my pennies for a 3D printer. I've really got a lot of things on the playfield that I can use it for.

I've modelled it but I had to eye ball a lot of the values from photos cos I don't have one myself. If you are happy to measure it up once you get it I can update my model and share it.
They haven't been available for ages, or have been over $100 so good to see that someone is making them again. Wouldn't mind getting one but I think I'll have to make my own as I need 3 in-lines that reset with 1 coil.

drop_target_(resized).png

Damn, now I want a 3D printer even more. I've got a bunch of SS rods sitting round ready to be bent. Now we need to design some jigs to help with the bending process to keep the spacing even.
Would ABS be strong enough to bend the wire? Did a quick sketch of a bending block (excuse the shoddy paint drawing). Maybe use a bunch of these while positioning the wire to get smooth bends, then switch over to the snap in parts.
Or is it easy to bend within the snap in parts without the wire coming loose?

Bending_Blocks_(resized).png

Finally picked up a 3D printer on the weekend. It's a Cocoon Create (rebranded Wanhao Duplicator i3). I've started printing off some mods for it to try and improve the quality but out of the box it seems pretty good so far. Long weekend over Easter so hopefully get some pinball related prints done. Game of Thrones wall lift should be pretty fun to make...
First print
Calibration test before mods. 16mm bridging is pretty good.

Got my 3D printed Gamer of Thrones wall lift wired up and working. It is a bit slow at the moment, not sure how much I can speed the stepper motors up.
However I will likely play an animation/video when the ball enters the lift and then eject the next ball into the shooter so the player doesn't have to wait for the lift if they don't want to.
Also need to clean up a bit more of the support material that was harder to get off.

Next step is to build the ice wall that it mounts to and stores the locked balls.

Don't think Id be able to do half of what I want for my pinball machine without a 3D printer!