pico-mpad VS kicad-kbplacer

there is also this I am making, but 9x9 keys

Thanks for the tip! I'll check what it looks like from another angle. I've also tried different lighting and it might look a bit less crowded?.. and that's actually what I added to the project's page: https://github.com/dr-mod/pico-mpad but I like this lighting more and want to update the scene with this lighting I guess.

I’ve uploaded the tutorial, 3d models and code to GitHub: https://github.com/dr-mod/pico-mpad

You can see it in action in tests here (remember to expand rows too see results) or by some examples here

I developed something similar (PCB only, no cases) as KiCad plugin: https://github.com/adamws/kicad-kbplacer - it uses layouts from keyboard-layout-editor.com as input.

Once you get the hang of that, you can try using a tool to automate the key positioning stuff. There's a tool that repositions your keys given a KLE json (https://github.com/adamws/kicad-kbplacer and I used to use one called "Keyboard Layouter"), and there's a tool to actually generate the skeleton project for you as well (https://github.com/jeroen94704/klepcbgen). Just make sure you have a hang of KiCAD, footprints, symbols, etc before you dive too deep.