Parametric Box with Snap-fit Lid (Terraforming Mars)

A parametric box with cuboid interior. Cover slides and snaps closed.

I was looking for a box to exactly fit small cube-shaped game pieces for the game Terraforming Mars: Player Markers and Resource Cubes. I wasn't happy with the sliding lid on the boxes suggested in this collection, though I loved the idea of "self-assimilating boxes" that, "when you dump in a bunch of cubes while lightly shaking it, the cubes will magically line up with an almost borg-like consistency." Other boxes on Thingiverse either had weird interior shapes or hard-to-print lids. gryn's Small Organizer with Sliding Lid looked great but had a rounded inside and wasn't parametric. Inspired by that design, I made a parametric version with a cuboid interior cavity to fit cubes exactly.

This design is customizable using Fusion360. If there's enough interest I'll port it into OpenSCAD so it can work with the Customizer. See the design section for details.

Notes:

Print the box with opening up, and the cover with one of the open sides on the bed.

Design

I designed the parts in Fusion360. You can probably get a copy of Fusion360 for free either through the education license or by downloading as a hobbyist. I think it's tricky to download on Linux though.

Customizing

I've included the Fusion360 file in the Thing Files. You can open it and use the Change Parameters tool to customize the design.

If you know the exact internal dimensions you want, you can directly change the internal_l, internal_w, and internal_d parameters. However, if you want to fit 3D tessellating cubes, you can instead modify the following parameters:

1. Change cube_size to the size of your cubes.
2. Change cubes_l, cubes_w, and cubes_d to the dimensions (in number of cubes) the box should fit.
3. Change tolerance_factor to what percent of a cube the internal tolerance should be.

More parameters are included, that I used to fine-tune the design. Their current values are work well for printing on my Ultimaker S5s, but you can change these to fit the design to your printer.

The Parameters window in Fusion360

Cover Sizes and ANGLED_PEG

For thinner covers, I found the material will flex out of the way of the peg while you're putting the cover on, so no angle or ramp on the peg is needed.

If you're modifying the design to use a thicker cover, use the "...ANGLED_PEG" Fusion360 files so it's easier to install the cover after printing.

Terraforming Mars Box Sizes

I measured my Terraforming Mars pieces and chose these parameter values to make boxes for them. Use these if you want to recreate them in Fusion360 from the parametric file.

Tolerance factor for all: 0.25