Stacked Parametric Multiboard Tiles

This is an OpenSCAD file for generating arbitrary stacked Multiboard tiles.

Usage

Use the multiboard_base.scad file and set the following parameters:

• x_cells – The number of cells (large holes) in the X direction
• y_cells – The number of cells in the Y direction
• core_tiles – The number of core tiles to generate; these tiles have teeth in both the X and Y direction
• side_tiles – The number of side tiles to generate; these tiles have teeth only in the X direction
• corner_tiles – The number of corner tiles to generate; these tiles have no teeth
• layer_thickness – The layer thickness you will be using to print the tiles

If you want the side and corner tiles to have different dimensions from the corner tiles, you can also change the advanced settings, which should be fairly self-explanatory:

• side_x_cells
• side_y_cells
• corner_x_cells
• corner_y_cells

The default value for those advanced settings is "0", which means to use the x_cells and y_cells values for the tile.

Render the file and save to an STL.

In your slicer, make sure you've enabled ironing of top surfaces. In addition to that, make sure you're using the recommended Multiboard printing parameters (3-line thick walls, 15% infill).

After printing, it may take a little work to separate the tiles. The author has had the best luck by pulling apart the corner closest to the origin (i.e. furthest from the tile teeth) and then working along the tile from there.

Multiboard has a video about how to print stacks: Multiboard: What Is Stack 3D Printing.

Stack Printing Drawbacks

Stack-printed tiles will have one side that's smooth and the other side (the one on the bottom during printing) will be a bit rough. This shouldn't be a problem if you're only planning on using one side of the files (e.g. if you're mounting them on a wall).

You can print an entire set of tiles at once as long as the tiles are square. If you're tiling non-square tiles, you'll need at least two separate stacks: one stack with the core tiles, the top (or bottom) side tiles, and the corner tile; the other stack with the right (or left) side tiles. That's because this generator always puts the side tile's teeth on the right side, and the right (or left) side tiles need the teeth on top. For the right (or left) side tiles, swap the tile X and Y dimensions in the file parameters and just print side tiles.

Stack-printed tiles can be difficult to separate. Ironing the tile surfaces is required, and you should have your printer calibrated as precisely as possible. If the stacks aren't working for you and you have a multi-extruder printer, you might consider the Multiboard Parametric Extended model from Uno.

The author has only really tested this model with a 0.2 mm layer height. Multiboard components in general are designed to be printed with 0.2 mm layers. Although other layer heights should work with this model, they're less-guaranteed. Feedback on others' experiences of printing with different thicknesses would be appreciated. Note also that the model assumes all layers have equal heights (as opposed to using a different thickness for the first layer).

Tile Stack Sizing

To get the width of a tile, multiply the number of cells by 25 mm and then add 8 mm for the teeth. Each layer is 6.6 mm high, when printed with a 0.2 mm layer thickness.

A printer with a 220×220×250 mm print area can print up to 37 stacked 8×8 tiles.

Stacks of Arbitrary Tiles

The arbitrary_stack.scad file can be used to create a stack of tiles with arbitrary shapes and dimensions. You need to put the tile definitions in the tiles array. Tile definitions can include lists of cells to omit from the generated model.

See the comment at the top of the file for more information.

Tile Generating Program

There's a small program in the repository to generate STLs for the tiles needed to cover a given area. Run generate-stacks.py --help for usage information.

You need to have openscad in your path for the STL generation to work. You can also pass the --no-stl parameter to just display the tiles that could be used to cover the area.

For example, if you had an area 431 mm by 717 mm, you could run:

generate-stacks.py -w 431 -h 717

Which would print the following before generating the tile stacks described:

The parameters for the board are:

  Area dimensions: 431.00×717.00 mm
  Board dimensions: 17×28 (425×700 mm)
  Base tile size: 6×7
  Board tile dimensions: 3×4

2 stacks will be printed:

  Stack 1 [Stack-6x6x7_core-2x6x7_top-5x7_corner.stl]:
    6 Core 6×7 tiles
    2 Top Side 6×7 tiles
    1 Corner 5×7 tile

  Stack 2 [Stack-3x5x7_right.stl]:
    3 Right Side 5×7 tiles

Also of note is the --dxf parameter you can pass to generate a DXF file of the board layout. The author uses these files as bases for detailed project planning. You will need to have the ezdxf Python module installed.

Credits

Multiboard was designed by Jonathan of Keep Making.

These files are based on Victor Zag's multiboard-parametric project. Victor did all the really important initial work.

License

This model is derived from Multiboard files and is covered by the Multiboard License. A copy is available in the LICENSE.md file.

Note in particular that the license restricts commercial use of derived works.