csc-boxes

An OpenSCAD generator for customizable, stackable and connectable boxes for 3D-printing

Overview

The script can generate boxes and connectors. The connectors are placed at the borders of each box and hold boxes together.

Every box is made up from a grid of square base units. Every base unit has one cutout in the bottom for a connector on the outside of the box. The size of each box is given as number of base units along the x and y axis.

Boxes can have an inset bottom. When matching the inset to the wall thickness, the boxes become stackable. See the comments in the script parameters for more details.

Getting started

Download the script, open in OpenSCAD, and run the script. This will create a set of boxes based on a 40mm base size with connector bars.

Feel free to experiment with the parameters in the top sections (marked by Start Editing and Stop Editing comments).

Next, comment out the create_demo_box_set command and un-comment the create_fitting_test line. Set the simplify parameter back to false. This will generate one connector bar and two half boxes without walls. These can be used to print and check how well the connectors fit the cutouts in the boxes.

Experiment with the parameters for the box and connector geometry, if you want.

When you are satisfied with the geometry and want to start creating boxes, create one or more boxes and/or connectors, export to STL and print.

Feel free to examine the samples in the run() module to see how it all works.

The simplify parameter

For printing, the boxes should have rounded corners and rounded connectors. However, displaying the model with all this rounding slows down generation and responsiveness of the 3D viewer.

Therefore the rounding can be switched off by setting the simplify parameter to true.

Stacking

The boxes have grooves at the bottom, along the outlines of each square base unit, and with the width of the bar_overlap parameter. If the bar overlap is slightly larger then the wall_thickness, it will be possible to stack the boxes. Because of the grooves, even larger boxes can be stacked on top of multiple smaller ones.