Hi guys! I need some help with freecad to design a grid system for small parts like him in the linked video Designing 3D Printed Containers in Solidworks! - YouTube. yes I have searched for this feature on youtube without success.
I’m designing something similar using Fusion 360. One difference: I’m rounding the insides of the boxes to make it easier to remove items.
I would create a spreadsheet define x,y,width,height, spacing and number of x and y.
When creating a parametric model you can then use linear patterns and the references above x and y as number and “width+space” as space multipliers. It is not a must to use a spreadsheet, but it simplifies stuff as you just need to create a smaller size and the entire grid gets resized correctly.
This way it is quite easy to create a grid. The only problem is that you cannot simply create a 2x1 or a 2x2 in combination with the others, but if all boxes have a little 1x1 grove at the bottom, they would fit on a 1x1 grid anyway.
Agreed. That is what I’m doing, albeit in F360. But, for sure, making each box an integral multiple of the smallest one helps a lot.
This is fairly straightforward in FreeCAD but it can be a nightmare because of the lack of help and numerous “unwanted features”. It’s good but…
I would look out FreeCAD ASM - which is fork of the official one and currently tracking the 1.9 release but with some neat features I won’t bore you with.
Anyway, it sounds like what you need to do is create a basic solid shape (a solid box).
Now select a face and use “Thickness” to hollow out a box shape with nice edges or sharp if you prefer.
Then, use the “Create linear pattern” feature (twice) to create a grid of boxes.
This should give you a chessboard of different sizes and you can now use the pocket feature to hollow out the lines you don’t want.
Now this isn’t automatic and I haven’t had time to look through that video, but it should certainly allow you to customize your model to your own needs.