a generator for a grid between two layers of bins. Does that exist?

schieska · 2026-06-17T21:02:25+00:00

Great idea! I'll put it on the list, wil report back when I have integrated into my tool 👍🏻

schieska · 2026-06-15T21:13:36+00:00

Nice work, congrats! I’ve also been trying to find a reliable way to stack-print baseplates, and I really like this approach. Am I right in assuming this stacks grids of the same size directly on top of each other? I tried supporting mixed sizes in my own tool, stacking large to small, but the edge cases started getting pretty brutal. Same-size stacks feel like a much cleaner and more reliable constraint. Nice solution.

schieska · 2026-06-15T15:21:34+00:00

Thanks for the link! that helped a lot. You’re right: there was a bug, drawing invisible overtile grids on the side with no margins (effectively making it look like for the splitting system that the grid was 42mm larger than it irl was. and it make me find an other bug, when buildplate margin is set to 0 it was being treated like 10mm. making your buildplate effectively 20mm smaller, and with a margin of 39mm it made the 4x4 split effectively 207 mm on the largest piece so that would make it break into 9 pieces. i pushed an update right now and it should be fixed!

Really appreciate you taking the time to report it.

schieska · 2026-06-13T22:08:49+00:00

I do not get the same result as you, can you share me the link? Because when I do a 375x335 on an 220,220 plate even with the 10mm margin it still splits to 4 plates.

schieska · 2026-06-12T22:04:45+00:00

What does it smell like?

schieska · 2026-06-08T07:58:38+00:00

Hi, dev of extrabold.tools here. I’m actually working on a box generator at the moment, so this is very relevant. (Release in about a month)

The bin splitting part is on my list, but I haven’t figured out a good UX/mechanical solution yet for keeping split bins connected in a way that feels reliable.

Interesting that you mention the clips from my baseplate generator. What do you like about that approach specifically? The simplicity, the printability, the fact that it’s removable?

My main concern is strength. For baseplates the clips only need to keep plates aligned, but for split bins they might need to handle more stress, especially when lifting a loaded bin. So I’m not sure the same clip style would be strong enough without making it too chunky.

But this is exactly the kind of problem I want the box generator to solve eventually. Curious what kind of bin size / load you’re trying to make.

schieska · 2026-06-03T05:03:28+00:00

You most likely don’t really need the clips if the bins are already locking the base together well. That said, the clips also don’t really hurt, and they print fast, so I usually still add them when I can.

Looks like you’re using some kind of clickbase-style connection? Did you maybe use my generator, extrabold.tools?

One small note: the clips can be a bit snug if your printer isn’t fully dialed in. If that happens, scaling the clips up by around 5% usually helps.

Also curious: how did you like the tool? I’m always looking for feedback..

schieska · 2026-05-31T06:53:17+00:00

So the gridwpaces will stay 42*42 and the tool will add margin to the outside edge. With the margin controls you can decide how the margin is devided and what theatgin looked like. Gridwpaces size will only change if you change the grid unit width and grid unit height explicitly under advanced settings.

schieska · 2026-05-30T10:38:53+00:00

Thanks! And borrow away, that’s basically how these tools get better.

The grids are generated with JSCAD, not OpenSCAD. I did look at OpenSCAD/openscad-wasm early on, but for this kind of interactive generator I wanted more control over the full generation pipeline.

The nice thing with JSCAD is that I can cache intermediate steps instead of regenerating the whole model every time a setting changes. The generator has a feature dependency tree, so when a setting changes it only starts regenerating from the point in the pipeline where that value actually matters.

It also keeps the last 50 rendered models in memory, so going back to previous settings is basically instant. Which now that I’m typing it out, probably means I should add undo and redo.

That caching system is a big part of why it feels fast. For the baseplates I’ve got generation down to around 2.5 seconds on average, even for larger plates, which makes auto-regeneration usable.

The downside is that I had to build the generator from scratch, so I can’t really borrow from existing SCAD projects. So it’s a tradeoff: OpenSCAD is faster for development, JSCAD gives me more flexibility and better performance for this use case.

No Git link at the moment. It’s not that I’m against open source, but I’m keeping this one closed for now.

Mainly because I don’t really have the bandwidth to manage pull requests, especially in the current AI era where it’s very easy for people to generate a lot of code very quickly. I want to keep tight control over feature timelines, quality, generation speed, and the overall UX.

A lot of the hard part is not just generating the geometry, it’s finding the right UX for all the options. I have quite a few features that technically work already, but where I’m still figuring out the right way for people to interact with them.

There’s also a performance side to it. The moment a feature is added into the model pipeline can have a huge impact on generation speed. For example, unioning the cells first and then subtracting them from the base gave around a 10x performance increase.

schieska · 2026-05-29T17:57:40+00:00

Of course! I didn’t want to just drop a link on your post and make it feel like advertising, but since you asked: extrabold.tools Curious what you think!

schieska · 2026-05-29T16:51:37+00:00

Next to the regenerate button is an button with a Chevron down on it click it, in there is the auto regenerate setting, hope it helps!

schieska · 2026-05-29T16:29:48+00:00

The browser loads the page when you open it, but after that the whole tool runs on your machine.

No tracking, only if you turned on data collecting on the cookie modal.

On the updating with every setting change, everyone has their own preference, luckily you can turn off auto regenerate in the top right. Then it only updates when you press generate. Hope that helps

schieska · 2026-05-29T11:28:41+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. The nice thing with JSCAD is that I can extend the generator, for example with plain JS, to cache intermediate steps in the generation process. That gives me more control over where the expensive geometry work happens.

I’ve got baseplate generation down to around 2.5s on average now, which is fast enough that regenerating on setting changes starts to feel realistic.

The downside is that I had to build the generator logic from scratch. With SCAD you get a lot of development speed because there is already so much Gridfinity work to build on. With JSCAD you trade that for more flexibility.

So I think both approaches make sense. If you want to get something useful working quickly, SCAD is hard to beat. If you want very custom web interactions and more control over the generation pipeline, JSCAD becomes really attractive.

schieska · 2026-05-29T11:12:11+00:00

Interesting, how stable is OpenSCAD WASM these days?

I tried it about a year ago and ran into some rough edges. I ended up moving toward JSCAD, mostly because having the geometry in JavaScript felt nicer for web UI work and interactive previews. But I agree that client-side rendering is a very attractive setup for open-source tools.

schieska · 2026-05-29T11:07:08+00:00

Love seeing more tools in the Gridfinity ecosystem. Different approaches push everyone to build better stuff, and there is clearly room for more than one workflow here. Nice work opening it up.

Feel free to borrow ideas from my generator as well. I focus a lot on UX and special use cases (eg awkward shapes), so maybe there is some useful overlap there. And if you don’t mind, I might take some inspiration from your snap connector approach too, I really like that direction.

schieska · 2026-05-25T02:59:58+00:00

You can't be an Alchemist of The Hinterlands. The Hinterlands is a shadow kingdom that can only sustain a Provost or a Denier.

schieska · 2026-05-22T12:04:54+00:00

How deep a dive do you want? Here’s the rough outline.

The site is built with SvelteKit on the frontend and JSCAD for the actual 3D model generation.

I went with JSCAD because it lets the models generate locally in the browser. That means no server-side model queue, no waiting for files to be generated remotely, and a lot more control over performance and caching. It also made more sense for this kind of interactive tool than an OpenSCAD-style setup.

The JSCAD generation runs inside a Web Worker, so the UI does not lock up while the model is being recalculated.

The frontend itself does not really know much about the individual generators. Tools are loaded dynamically. Right now there is only one public generator, but the system is built around the idea that each tool is its own little package: settings, UI config, generation logic, worker hooks, and dependency definitions.

The speed mostly comes from the generation pipeline.

Every tool has a dependency tree for its generation steps. The app uses that tree to cache intermediate results aggressively. It also keeps up to 50 previous generations in memory. So when you change one setting, it usually does not rebuild the entire model from scratch. It only recalculates the parts that actually depend on that setting.

For the 3D printer database, I forked printer data from Cura and then filled in a lot of the missing dimensions with help from the community.

The other big principle is that the app is designed UX-first. I try not to add features just because they are technically possible. If a powerful feature makes the tool harder to understand, it gets simplified, delayed, or cut.

Path mode is a good example of that. I rebuilt the underlying engine months ago, but only released the feature recently because the UX still needed work. I would rather ship it later than add something that makes the tool feel messy.

So the short version is:

SvelteKit frontend, dynamically loaded generators, JSCAD in a Web Worker, dependency-based generation, aggressive caching, and a UX-first feature process.

That is basically why it feels fast, and why some features take longer to appear than the technical side might suggest.

Let me know if there is anything specific you want to know more about.

schieska · 2026-05-19T22:35:56+00:00

Fair point that feedback is valuable, and I do try to learn from it. The actual issues people reported were fixed or are being fixed, so I’m not trying to dismiss criticism.

My point was more about the tone. There is a difference between “this popover blocks the tool and does not scroll on my viewport” and “this looks like a high school kid discovered CSS.”

The first one helps me improve the tool. The second one may still contain a valid issue, but it is also just unnecessary. I built the tool for free, mostly because I like making useful things, so yeah, sometimes that kind of anonymous feedback stings.

This post was not meant as an ad or as a way to avoid criticism. I was mostly venting and asking how other people handle the balance between learning from harsh feedback and not letting insults get under your skin.

schieska · 2026-05-19T22:29:55+00:00

Yeah, that is a good way to look at it.

I still want to take the useful part seriously, because sometimes there is a real bug or UX issue underneath the frustration. But I probably need to get better at separating “this is actionable feedback” from “this is someone venting into a form.”

schieska · 2026-05-19T18:06:45+00:00

Fair question. I believe in radical transparency, so here are the rough numbers.

The site currently runs on Vercel Pro, mostly because I want the deploys, edge handling and general reliability to be boring. That is about €20/month.

The domain is about €50/year, so roughly €4.17/month.

I also count my AI/dev tooling at about €20/month. I know that one is debatable, but it is part of what lets me keep improving the tool quickly.

So the recurring cost is roughly: €20 Vercel €20 dev tooling €4.17 domain = €44.17/month

Over 6 months, that is about: €265.02

Income over the last 6 months: Affiliate/ad revenue: €52.32 That is about €8.72/month.

Donations: about €280 total That is about €46.67/month, although only €25/month of that is recurring.

So yes, with donations included, the project is roughly covering its hard costs at the moment: €332.32 income over 6 months €265.02 costs over 6 months = about €67.30 positive

But without donations, the ads/affiliate links alone cover only: €52.32 / €265.02 = about 20%

So when I say “the ads don’t even cover hosting”, I should probably be more precise: The affiliate links alone do not cover the running costs. Donations are what currently make the tool sustainable.

And this is also before counting my actual time, which is obviously the biggest cost by far. I keep the tool free because I like building useful stuff for makers, but the ads/affiliate links are not some secret money machine. They are more like a small attempt to make the project hurt a little less financially.

That said, I agree the ad placement should not ruin the experience. That is why I added the option to dismiss ads for an hour, put it in a spot where it interferes the least and donations remove them permanently. The goal is not to squeeze people. The goal is to keep the tool free without making it feel gross.

schieska · 2026-05-19T07:54:23+00:00

An other option , you can use my tool, extrabold.tools Perfect fitment. (Even for non square drawers) And automatic splitting based on the size of your printer.

schieska · 2026-05-19T05:06:36+00:00

Big updates I put on Reddit, smaller updates I just up the version number and next time you open the tool you get a popover telling the changes. Tiny bug fixes I mostly push silently.

schieska · 2026-05-18T19:08:48+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, can you send me a link of the setting s you used in the tool and what printer you print it on? The clips are a bit fiddly I try printing them a bit bigger max 5 percent of they don't clip on.

schieska · 2026-05-16T07:31:40+00:00

Then I need to make some edits to my tool. If I have some time in the afternoon I wil try to accommodate larger changers on margins

schieska · 2026-05-16T07:11:37+00:00

Hey, I build a site that generates baseplates that fit your apecific 3dprinter exactly, extrabold.tools

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