Parametric Box With Curved Wings

I’ve been trying to learn OnShape, so for my first project I decided to design the box shape that I used for my rosary box here:

It was a fun challenge! The parameters are length, width, height, thickness (of material), and wing (which is the distance the curved portion sticks out on each side).

Here is a link to the OnShape file: Onshape

I didn’t model the top since there are so many choices for a top and you can do it yourself so easily.

Enjoy!

Edit: forgot to say that this model assumes you are going to engrave the slot for the bottom at least halfway through the material. If you don’t you will have to adjust the box bottom dimensions.

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Very cool! :grin:

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Really looks well-defined in OnShape. Nice work. I had a little issue with the Kiri Moto extension since the parts are not laid down flat which is what I’m used to. Figuring out the hot keys. ctrl+arrow up/down flips the down on the surface. Alt + arrow keys move the part. That allows you to slice correctly for the thickness at 3 millimeters for a 1/8" plywood. Make the build area 508x304 and that will allow you to see how the resulting SVGs fit.

Trying to figure out your naming convention for the sketches and the parts. The first project always is hard to name because you start putting names in and then they end up being something else.

In any case, this is really good. Will play with the parameters and such. You did a great job with the construction. I haven’t really done those much. Just get the sketches and parts made and then slap them together manually. That’s the next learning step for me I guess.

Thanks for posting this.

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Do you mind if someone makes a Fusion360 version from your design?

Oh thank you! I tried and tried to flip it down but couldn’t figure out how to do it. I tried your hot key combos but they didn’t work on my Mac. However you motivated me to try the little buttons at the bottom and the x+, x-, y+, y- etc. did the trick. It laid the cut file out pretty strangely (I’m probably not using that app correctly) but not anything that couldn’t be fixed in Illustrator, and at least it seems to have kept the correct sizes.

Yes, that was the problem. Dummy me, for some reason I thought each of the four sides was going to be different so I had a top piece with engraving at the bottom in size length, another in width, and a bottom piece with engraving at the bottom in both length and width. Then I realized, duh, only need two of those pieces to define the box. So I deleted the redundant ones.

I wasn’t sure how to correctly stick the box together but fastened mate connectors seems to have done the trick, and it was pretty easy.

No, I don’t mind–go right ahead!

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What’s funny, is ive stopped using kiri moto. I now just right click on each object’s face and select export to dxf. And then layout in illustrator. I found a few times that kiri moto messed with kerfs

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I tried that but in my box one of the faces has several parts and if I tried to select them all I didn’t get the Export to DXF option. Is there a way around that?

That is nice. I can not get scaling on dXF correct for Inkscape. I’ve tried several times.

What do you use for a slicer for 3D printing? That’s new to me.

My machine is busy for another 15 mins, then I will take a look. If your part is multiple faces then something is wrong in the model (I’m assuming they aren’t in real life separate pieces by design).

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That’s entirely possible! Any guidance much appreciated. Better to learn the right way earlier than later.

Ah, I see what you did; yes in your design (a perfectly valid design) you made the inner surfaces “3d” so they can’t simply be a DXF. So I redid the design from scratch with a tabbed bottom rather than a slide in bottom. The slide is the issue (since that is 3D which is not representable by a 2D DXF). You will notice that I didn’t use an assembly (as that is more a tool for demoing than anything else). Click on any part and you will note it exports fine as a DXF. I didn’t use a conic wing (just because I was rushing) and so the wings are circular arcs (so aren’t tied to the wings dimension), so feel free to switch over.

One little hint, if you simply right click on a surface and export as DXF it simply exports as [document].dxf while if you first select the part THEN right click and export it will have the part’s name (which once downloaded makes it all easy to figure out)

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Wow, you are fast! Thanks for the insight into the dxf export thing–something I didn’t realize.

I like your box version! I was consciously trying to avoid the finger joint look, but I can see how it makes a number of things a lot easier. I’m beginning to think I picked a starter project that was a tad out of my league, but I did learn a lot.

Thanks for the help!

In that case I’d add the slot in illustrator (or Inkscape) as a simple square. Just delete the laser joint add ins

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I’d like to do the box with some type of slotted bottom, but I realize that it would be hard to put together. I am going to engrave 1/2 the thickness of the bottom edges of the sides and then do the bottom just enough to fit into the recessed rabbet. That is a common box technique and works very well when there is no big load to carry. I can put the rabbet in with inkscape after importing the SVGs.

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That’s how I did it. There is enough flexibility in the PG maple plywood that I was able to get the fourth side on after slotting the bottom in to the three sides. But other materials might be more (or less) problematic.

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Good idea, thanks!

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I designed a box in inkscape very similar to this on Sunday night… I have a few extra details about it though. I can’t wait to show it.

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