As we dive deeper into designing real parts in CAD, one of the most important skills you’ll need is controlling space and clearance between components. Not every part sits flush, sometimes pins, connectors, or other hardware extend past surfaces, and you need to account for that in your design. That’s where offset planes and projected sketches come in. These tools let you create precise references in space, add the right amount of clearance, and build features like enclosures that actually work when manufactured.

In chapter 2 lesson 3, we continue our Arduino enclosure project by offsetting the bottom of the box away from the board’s pins and projecting the Arduino’s outline and mounting holes onto a new sketch plane. This ensures the box fits correctly, the ports align, and the design is clean and manufacturable.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to create offset planes to add clearance between parts for hardware or connectors
• How to project geometry from one body onto another plane for accurate positioning
• Using calipers to translate real-world measurements into CAD features
• Designing the base of an enclosure with proper spacing and port alignment
• Applying two-sided extrusions to control both upward and downward dimensions
• Organizing your model with named components for a clean, scalable assembly