Starting Thoughts
Initially I thought about basing my design off of something that looks like this...
But I couldn't think of any way to change it enough, so that I wasn't copying this design from Thingiverse.com. I knew I really liked Apple's earbud holder/case that they come in when you get a phone that look like this...
I took this idea and changed the place where you put the earbuds to a box area where you wrap the cord around the outside of the box. My initial idea for this looked a little like this...
But I quickly found out that it was too small. So I changed it to make it a modular version. The inside square now can come out now. This way I can wrap the headphones around and then place them into that box thing. The outer part can also be a lid. This is the final product of what I came too.
Design and Print Process
First, I drew up the general idea of what I wanted in my designer notebook.
Then I designed it Inventor.
I used the assembly tool in Inventor to constrain the two together to see if they would fit.
Then I put the files into the Makerbot program to be able to print the file.
After that, I went to the 3D printer and printed it out.
What I learned
I learned a lot. I learned that machines don't always work the way you want me to. This is because I tried to print out my print in orange and the printer didn't work because the nozzle wasn't functioning properly. I think that is what was happening. I resorted to printing at another printer in green. I also learned that Inventor doesn't like it when I use too many rounded edges, even thought they look better than straighter edges. I don't know why but it wouldn't let me filet every side that I wanted to. That is ok because I figured out a better design. Basically I learned to be more patient when it comes to technology.