Tutorial for Universal card box project that you can find on my thingiverse page

Prerequisites

This project was developed in FreeCAD 0.21.2 it should be compatible with version 0.21.0 and later. FreeCAD, an open-source 3D parametric modeler, can be downloaded from freecad.org

How to configure

The FreeCAD project contains 3 parts, a lid, box body with divider slots and a divider to separate cards.

You can modify the box dimensions via the spreadsheet stored in the Data folder within the project

startup

Double clicking on the spreadsheet will open it in a new page: Project Spreadsheet

The spreadsheet contains 15 variables that can be adjusted to modify the model: `

  1. Width : Width of the box
  2. Length : Length of the box
  3. Height : Height of the box
  4. WallThickness : Thickness of the box wall
  5. DividerStartDist Distance of first slot from the front of the box
  6. DividerCount Number of divider slots
  7. DividerDist Linear pattern distance of the divider slots
  8. DividerSlotDepth : Depth of the divider slots
  9. DividerThickness : Thickness of the divider
  10. DividerTol : Divider tolerance, this value is subtracted/added to parts of the divider/divider slots to allow for printer inaccuracies overshoot etc.
  11. DividerTopHeight : Height of the top section of the divider
  12. DividerTabHeight : Height of the tab on top of the divider
  13. DividerTabWidth : Width of the tab on top of the divider
  14. DividerTabLeft : Height of the tab on top of the divider
  15. LidDepth : Depth of the lid over the box

Warning: Don’t set any value to 0mm as this will cause FreeCAD to fail to compute the objects

Values entered into the spreadsheet need to be in the following format: =valuemm e.g. to set height of the box to 100mm change Height to =100mm. Without the = or units FreeCAD will fail to compute the objects

Box Dimensions

Box Drawing

If you want to generate a box without divider slots, set DividerSlotDepth to 0.001mm.

If you want to generate a box without a lid, set LidDepth to 0.001mm (note the lid will still be generated in the project you can ignore it when exporting)

The dimensions of the lid will automatically update to fit over the box with a 2mm tolerance

Divider Dimensions

Divider Drawing

Currently the project only generates one object for the divider.
If you want multiple dividers with different tab positions, you’ll need to generate and export a separate divider for each desired tab position

If you want to generate a divider without a tab set DividerTabHeight to 0.001mm

Exporting for 3D printing

3D model parts can be found in the models folder in the project. To export objects for printing, expand models folder and select the part you want to export

Select Body

Click File Export

File Export menu

Set the file type as STL Mesh (*.stl *.ast) in the export file window, and click save. File Export dialog

License

This work (Universal card box) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0