Step by Step Guide to Measure for an Acrylic Display Case
Establish the object’s “bounding box”
You’ll need three measurements, Width, Depth and Height of your item, plus your clearance around the outside, the clearance has two purposes, most importantly to allow room for error and make sure that your cover fits the displayed item easily, too tight and it wont fit, or you will risk damaging your displayed item when fitting the cover, the second purpose is to enhance the display and make sure the item does not look too cramped. We normally recommend adding 25mm all round as a minimum, this will mean 50mm added to the width and depth (25mm on both sides), and 25mm added to the height.
When entering your sizes on the custom display case calculator, remember the sizes you enter will be the inside sizes of the display case, not the sizes of your model/collectible.
Inside Width (W): As you look at your displayed item from the front as you will display it, this is the distance from left to right, ie: if you were going to display the Titanic, it is very long and not very wide (relatively), so you would most likely display it side on, so as you viewed the model in the display case, the width of the display case will be the total length of the ship plus some clearance each side.
Inside Depth (D): Again imagine how you are displaying your item, this will be the distance from the front of the display case to the back, so in the case of the model of the Titanic, this will be the total width of the ship, plus some clearance each side.
Inside Height (H): This is the easiest, just measure from the bottom of your item on the table to its highest point, on the Titanic, it would be the front mast, and then add the clearance you would like.
How to do it:
If your item is a nice uniform shape, you can simple measure it and add your clearances.
If however your item is not a uniform shape then it can be easier to measure it as follows.
Place the item on a flat surface with a right angled corner(e.g., a desk, table or worktop).
- Place the object in such a way that the furthest points on the front and one side of the item are level with the two edges of the desk, this way you can measure from the desk with your tape measure.
Now use the tape measure to measure from the edge of the table to the furthest points on the width and depth of your displayed item, and then measure the height from the tabletop to the highest point of your model, remembering to add the clearances before entering the dimensions into the website.
If the shape is very complex (e.g., branches, sculpture, fossil):
- You can use right angled pieces of cardboard to find the extremes of the model to get your sizes, rememebring to add the clearance.
Or you can make a quick cardboard mockup around it to make sure.
