Box enclosure library for OpenSCAD that make use of BOSL2.
This library makes it simple to design enclosures for electronic projects, etc.
Clone this git repo inside your OpenSCAD libraries folder. You also need BOSL2 installed, latest version from git.
The latest development snapshot of OpenSCAD is recommended. Tested with version 2024.01.28.
A box has 6 sides (left, right, front, back, bottom, top) and can be divided in any number of halves, for example base and lid. Each half can contain more than one side, for example both base and lid will also have left, right, front, and back sides.
Attached to the box are parts or components, mostly on the inside but they can also be on the outside.
The main module is box_make(), which takes a box shell child. It allows to generate all box halves, or only specified ones. It also lays them out as assembled, or for 3D printing.
The box shell module defines the box, and takes all the parts as children. There's currently only one box type included, but it's easy to add more.
To place parts, you use box_half(half, inside=true) to decide which box-half the part belongs to, and if it's on the inside (default) or outside. You can also give a list, or the BOX_ALL constant, as half to include the part in several halves.
This is followed by one or more box_pos(anchor, side) which takes one or more parts as children. The anchor defaults to CENTER and decides which box anchor to place the part at. side is a single face to decide how to orient the part(s), and defaults to the current half. The anchor is automatically adjusted according to side, so side = LEFT will include LEFT in the anchor, and orient the part so it points to the right.
For convenience, there is also box_part(side+half, anchor) that wraps box_half() and box_pos(), and allows combining the box half and side in a single vector, so BOT+FRONT means the front side of the bottom box half. You can pass a list of such half+side vectors, to place a part at multiple sides. If the given side does not match any half, it's applied to all halves, so LEFT will mean the left side of both BOT and TOP halves in a base & lid box.
The most basic example looks like this:
include <jl_scad/box.scad>
include <jl_scad/parts.scad>
box_make(explode=30)
box_shell_base_lid([20,20,20])
{
box_part(BOT, CENTER) cube(5,anchor=BOTTOM); // add a cube in the center of the base.
}
Use box_cutout() to easily create cutouts from a 2D path, or box_cut() to cut with any 3D shape. Cuts uses the standard BOSL2 diff(), with BOX_CUT_TAG and BOX_KEEP_TAG.
See the examples folder to learn more!
A box can be displayed assembled, with variable explode amount:
Or laid out for printing:
Sometimes it's useful to have a part that has both a half in the base and one half in the lid. These are simply modules that gather parts for both TOP and BOT sides. They should be made attachable() so that they react correctly on the positioning and orientation:
module my_compound_part(size, anchor=CENTER, spin=0, orient=UP) {
inside_height = $parent_size.z;
attachable(anchor, spin, orient, size=[size.x,size.y,inside_height]) {
union() {
box_part(BOT) cube(size, anchor=BOTTOM);
box_part(TOP) cube([size.x, size.y, inside_height - size.z], anchor=BOTTOM);
}
children();
}
}
Some included compound parts:
box_standoff_clamp()- A standoff with a pin in the base and hole in the lid part, to clamp a PCB or similar in place.box_scew_clamp()- similar but with a screw hole in the base, to screw the base and lid together.
The box_pos() module automatically orient parts for the sides like below, with their bottom against the box face, either on inside (default) or outside. Note that parts oriented downwards are rotated around X-axis instead of Y-axis.
A box for a laser module, 9V battery, and toggle switch. The parts to be installed are show with box_preview() and shown transparent, and are not included in the final render.
A box for D1 mini, OLED display and DHT22 sensor:
