Gridfinity: Unofficial Wiki | Hacker News Reader

Gridfinity: Unofficial Wiki

gridfinity.xyz

89 pointsrcarmo33 comments

I have been printing these containers like a madman. They are really, really good.

I organized our junk drawer in the kitchen with them and I was basically hailed as a rockstar by the family. we had these little baskets from ikea that did a decent job, but now we have dedicated battery storage, pencil/pen trays, thumb drive holders, odd/ends screws and bolts, etc. I am currently printing a jewelry system for my daughters earrings, rings and necklaces. I am relatively certain my wife will want one when she sees it in action.

It is a really cool system that solves some real problems for people like me who dabble in a ton of shit (hobbies).

Zach is hilarious if you ask me, I really enjoy his videos. His discord is very inclusive even for a very rough around the edges guy like myself, its not too in your face.

This community may be more oriented towards the OpenSCAD port, gridfinity rebuilt: https://github.com/kennetek/gridfinity-rebuilt-openscad

The fusion 360 source files from the original project are a little jank when it comes to making customizations given AFAIK how fusion 360 operates. The port I've linked is much simpler to use when it comes to producing STLs for your own customized bins.

I would agree.

I would also search for 'gridfinity' on printables, yeggi, and thangs. There are master collections that download into neat folders with thousands of options, pick a base, pick a few bins, then slice it up and print. Soooooo goood!

Agreed. The shear volume of permutations out there now may be adequate for many beginners that aren't yet comfortable with 3D design clients.

The OpenSCAD version is insanely flexible and I generate all my bins from there.

Be sure to note that, like gridfinity, this is not open source by commonly accepted definitions, as it is CC-BY-NC-SA. In this case, it's even less appropriate, because it is code with a licence both specifically not intended for code and is not at all compatible with open source licences.

For an introduction to the project see this video from the original creator Zach Freedman: https://youtu.be/ra_9zU-mnl8

(Short version its an open and free expandable 3D printable modular storage system with modules to fit everything from screws to soldering irons and SD cards)

I first went to the Web site, but couldn't tell what it was.

So started this video, but it's 21 minutes of high-noise entertainment.

Jumping around, I got about 21 seconds of information, and guessed at the rest.

It looks like some kind of 3D-printable physical storage containers/compartments that fit to a grid, like desk drawer organizer trays.

Both the intro and commercial take about 4 minutes

The guy makes his STL freely available. The least anyone can do is to fully watch his video so that the YouTube algorithm won’t punish him

The least anyone can do is to not waste their time, and let the video rightly be punished.

I don't understand, the guy explains what's going on within the first minute

Then he should turn that one minute into text and add it to the website.

Front page of the site:

> Gridfinity could be your workshop's ultimate modular storage system to keep you productive, organized, and safe. It is free, open source, and almost 100% 3D printable.

These comments remind me of watching 'Chopped' where someone overcooks a fish by like, a minute, and the judges get so offended and go off about the food being 'inedible' How dare someone expect me to comprehend a sentence or watch a 5 minute video...

It would be a lot of work to seize the domain and add his own text. I'm not even sure if the Gridfinity trademark situation would allow for that.

Yes that's pretty much it

That’s what the first paragraph of tfa says.

Also YouTube is mainly for entertainment so that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Your short version cuts to the point but I have to say Zach is probably the most entertaining nerd I subscribe to on YouTube and his wit-packed, teleprompter-speedrun videos are worth a full watch (IMHO).

Two comments, unrelated.

1) I love the Gridfinity system and have printed several drawers worth of organizers using parts I've found in this system.

2) It's not actually open source, though. Almost every part I've found, especially those by the original creator, are Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. This is not an open source license. That's not a criticism of the project, or of the license, it's just not actually open source. "Noncommercial" is a limitation on redistribution.

2) It's open source, as in software with an open source. But it's not “OSI Certified” open source software.

The term “open source” is not trademarked. It's high time well-meaning people stopped appropriating the term and pedantically corrected people who use the term outside of their own narrow definition.

Gridfinity is source-available, not open source. The commonly accepted definition of open source includes the freedom to redistribute without discrimination against certain types of use.

For me, open source means that sources are available to the end-user, that's all. What you describe is free software (as in freedom). Open source is typically also free (as in freedom/libre) and free (as in beer), but it is not always the case.

Here is an article by Richard Stallman about the difference between free and open source: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point....

The page you linked to clearly states that "open source means that sources are available to the end-use, that's all" is a misunderstanding:

> However, the obvious meaning for the expression “open source software” is “You can look at the source code.” Indeed, most people seem to misunderstand “open source software” that way. (The clear term for that meaning is “source available.”) That criterion is much weaker than the free software definition, much weaker also than the official definition of open source. It includes many programs that are neither free nor open source.

Stallman then advocates for the term "free software", which he says would avoid this misunderstanding. A more comprehensive summary of the history of the terms "free software" and "open source software" can be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_terms_for_free_sof...

According to the FSF, the only software that is open source but not free is "tivoized (tyrant) devices" which "contain nonfree executables made from source code":

> Among all programs that are open source, only a minuscule fraction are not free. If the bottom row were drawn to scale, its text would have to be in a tiny font, perhaps too small to read.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-open-overlap.html

"Open Source" gets weird with physical objects, though, since functional elements aren't covered by the copyright system software licenses rely on. Copyright would apply to decorative elements and the name plus trademark on the name, but unless there's a patent the functional elements are public domain.

Yeah, it does. To be clear, I'm only referring to the license of the files themselves. In absence of a patent or trademark, the "system" is effectively unlicensed. So, "free" might be a better descriptor anyway.

One of these days we may get same terminology around open source stuff, though I suspect that's the same day hell opens an ice skating rink.

Super excited to see Gridfinity on HN, it introduced so many new people to 3D printing as well as introductory 3D design.

It’s simple, modular storage that is practical and really grounds 3D printing in a genuinely practical use case.

To provide anecdata on how big gridfinity has become - it’s the #1 search, every week on Thangs.com, which is the largest 3D model search index available (over 14M models, and search volume is ~ 1 search every 1-1.5 seconds on Thangs). (1)

Gridfinity is literally more popular than Christmas in this community. And it’s been the top search term for a long time. (2)

There are entire subreddits dedicated to it. (3)

Zack, the guy who started it, is a genuine treasure of a human as well. Check out his YouTube channel (4), he recently built a Google Glass like device - and then shared all the designs, openly.

Disclaimer: CTO, CPO, co-founder at Thangs.com - total 3D design and 3D printing zealot

(1) https://twitter.com/Thangs3DSearch/status/160156271186268160...

(2) https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hv4FBexbf6isW57j063H...

(3) https://www.reddit.com/r/gridfinity/

(4) https://www.youtube.com/c/ZackFreedman

Wasn't Alex chapel that started this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHFK5sY8ToE

Good share!

I believe Zack started Gridfinity, but I don’t know who the very first designer was that built a modular storage system for the 3D printing community.

I’ll say this - the Gridfinity community is, from my POV, unique in how they’ve taken this and really run with it as a crowd sourced concept.

Not the same thing, and not the same approach altogether.

That's addressed in the video. Inspired, not started, as this is a different more open system.

3D printing helped me tackle my perfectionism in an effective way. You fail fast and iterate faster as you get more printers. I have a lot of home projects which never get finished because there's always something missing. Even if my CAD and printing skills are rookie, I can finally finish these projects and clear my head.

I fish for something like Gridfinity but supporting converting into a case so I can easily move around "workbench" without worrying everything will fall out

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