interlocking_containers

Table of Contents

• install
• Create
  • box
• honeycomb
• Batch factory
• Print

Python script used to generage the interolocking containers for any random size. See below:

Some sample of generated containers

sizes[thingiverse]

install

$> git clone https://github.com/jujumo/interlocking_containers.git
$> cd interlocking_containers
$> python -m venv .venv
$> .venv/Scripts/activate
$> pip install .

Create

box

To create a specific configuration, call create_box. Print help message to get the detailed list of arguments:

# by default, create a 3x3 40mm height box:
$>create_box -h
usage: create_box [--config CONFIG] [--output OUTPUT] [--nx NX] [--ny NY] [--height HEIGHT] [--fill FILL] [--scale SCALE] [--up UP] [--verbosity VERBOSITY]

Save a 3D box model.

options:
  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.
  --config CONFIG       Path to a configuration file.
  --print_config[=flags]
                        Print the configuration after applying all other arguments and exit. The optional flags customizes the output and are one or more keywords separated by comma. The supported flags are: skip_default, skip_null.
  --output OUTPUT, -o OUTPUT
                        Output STL filename. (type: str, default: model.stl)
  --nx NX, -x NX        Number of divisions along the X axis. (type: int, default: 4)
  --ny NY, -y NY        Number of divisions along the Y axis. (type: int, default: 4)
  --height HEIGHT, -t HEIGHT
                        Height of the box in millimeters. (type: float, default: 40.0)
  --fill FILL, -f FILL  Whether the box is hollow (0 = solid, 1,2,3 = hollow). (type: int, default: 0)
  --scale SCALE, -s SCALE
                        Scaling factor applied to the model. (type: float, default: 1.0)
  --up UP, -u UP        Up direction axis (x, y, or z). (type: str, default: z)
  --verbosity VERBOSITY, -v VERBOSITY
                        Verbosity level (0 = quiet, 1 = show warnings+export, 2 = show mesh). (type: int, default: 1)

By default, create_box creates a 4x4x40mm tall solid box into "model.stl".

$> create_box
  exporting "model.stl".

Of course, you can override the parameters you want. For example, to create a 4x8x50 hollow container, do:

$> create_box -x 4 -y 8 -t 50 -f 2 -o container_solid_H050_X04_Y08.stl -v 3

creates a :

• -x 4: 4 notches wide

• -y 8: 8 notches deep,

• -t 50 : 50mm tall,

• -f 2 : use hollow_2 model,

• -o container_solid_H050_X04_Y08.stl: output in STL file "container_solid_H050_X04_Y08.stl",

• -v 3 : very verbose: it will open an interactive 3-D model viewer (see below). Hit "Q" for quit.

interactive viewer

honeycomb

$> create_hex -n 5 -t 80 -f 3 -o honeycomb_hollow3_h80_n5.stl -v 3

creates a :

• -n 5: 5 notches per side (or 9 on complementary sides)

• -t 80 : 80mm tall,

• -f 3 : use hollow_3 model,

• -o honeycomb_hollow3_h80_n5.stl: output in STL file "container_solid_H050_X04_Y08.stl",

• -v 3 : very verbose: it will open an interactive 3-D model viewer (see below). Hit "Q" for quit.

interactive viewer

Batch factory

Finally, to create all config at once, call create_batch. If you want a different set of configuration, you might want to modify "interesting_*" variables in the source code.

$> create_batch
# this will create a lot of different configurations (see below).

This will create all models in:

models
├── box
│   ├── hollow1
│   │   ├── height040
│   │   └── height050
│   ├── ...
│   └── solid
│       ├── height040
│       └── height050
└── honeycomb
    ├── hollow1
    │   ├── height040
    │   ├── ...
    │   └── height100
    ├── ...
    └── solid
        ├── height040
        ├── ...
        └── height100

Be aware the total combinations of models use ~7Gb of disk space.

Print

For details instructions, refer to description_thingiverse_box.md