Magnetic tiles for tabletop games

A Magnetic Modular Tile System designed for playing tabletops like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, the tiles can be printed in different colors to represent different terrain. The tiles are easy to connect and stack because the magnets are able to rotate freely inside the print. This model works with 5mm ball magnets which you insert during the print, these magnets are also the most expensive part of this system, in my region they are about €40/€50 for a set of 1000. This would get you 250 single tiles which is in my opinion already enough for some small to medium-terrain building. 

I designed the medium and larger tiles to use fewer magnets and honestly they work great, you could add some extra magnets in the center if you want to but I haven't encountered any problems so far. the larger tiles are also a good place to start when building a terrain and you can use the smaller tiles to refine it. the large tile uses 22 magnets(2.44 magnets per tile) and the medium uses 12 magnets(3 magnets per tile). 

How to print

the magnets are embedded into the prints, this is done by adding a pause just before the boxes for the magnets are covered by the top layers and dropping the magnets in which will be pulled towards the metal build plate. This pause can be added in prusaslicer. 

I haven't tested this on a glass or non-metallic buildplate and i am not sure if that would result in any problems. 

I printed this in “draft” mode (0.25mm layer height)

Why

I wanted to play D&D with friends and got a bit carried away with all the possibilities that a 3D printer brought to this hobby. We couldn't find a great and affordable alternative besides magnetic hexagons, which look nice but are less practical than squares especially when creating walls or 3d structures, or any other magnetic systems as they feel so much more refined and premium than mechanical ones so I decided to create it myself.  

Future

I think this is a promising and versatile system, a lot can be added like thicker tiles, trees with magnets imbedded, doors and all other kinds of building blocks. I hope to add more in the future if there is interest and to see different remixes