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Planning Layout with CAD

Borrowing Shots With CAD

If you have planned shot in an area that matches an existing machine, you can borrow/take their geometry. This way you know the geometry will be good without any revisions. PDF's of instructions manuals for games are a good source for the flat overhead pic you will need. IPDB.org is one good source for these.

Most CAD programs have a function to overlay an image file directly onto your model. Search youtube for "How to overlay image" + your CAD system.

You will have to move and skew the image until the flippers and size line up with your drawing. Once this is done you can take a shot with confidence.

Here's an example of a Spiderman pinball overlay onto a homebrew pinball machine to get the geometry of the Venom ramp shot:

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Using to CAD to Test/Plan Shots

You can draw a shot in CAD to see if it is makeable. Here is an example of testing if a newton ball shot can be made from the right flipper:

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Here we test where the balls will go coming of the orbit shots. (We left a small straight line at the end/beginning of the orbit when designing, then made the dotted lines parallel):

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Here we use CAD to see how a ball lock will exit when hit with a trapped newton ball:

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Here we use CAD to see if balls wil get trapped after the ball lock:

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Subtract the ball diameter (1.0625") from ramp and lane shots to see their actual width.

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Here you can see a .500" wide mini target is easier to hit than an over 2" wide ramp.

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