Grid maker

grid-maker designs Gridfinity bins and inserts that hold your own tools. It runs OpenSCAD itself, compiled to WebAssembly, with the gridfinity-extended library, so a model is the same as a desktop OpenSCAD render — nothing is uploaded and there is no server. For a quick bin or baseplate from a few numbers, the parametric parts generator is faster; grid-maker is for everything else.

How to use it

Start grid-maker — the first start downloads about 16 MB (the OpenSCAD engine, the library and the fonts), which the browser then keeps. Later visits start it straight away. Open full page runs the app on its own at /tools/grid-maker/app/.
Library — pick any gridfinity-extended generator (bins, baseplates, lids, drawers, trays…), set its parameters (the basic bin alone has 157) or a preset, and Render. Saved configurations are designs, as many as you like per project.
Trace a photo — photograph your tools flat on a plain background next to a coin or a ruler, set the scale from that known object, then outline each tool by hand, with a magic wand (click a tool), or Detect all. Brightness, invert, blur, threshold (auto, manual or adaptive), cleanup and smoothing are exposed so a real photo traces cleanly; show mask shows what the detector sees. Fix up edits an outline on the photo (drag points, lasso to simplify, smooth or straighten a stretch).
Design directly — fill a tray with a grid of compartments, add rectangle, circle, slot, polygon or D-shaped pockets, or pick a tool from the parametric catalogue (hex keys, sockets, drill bits, spanners, screwdrivers, pliers…, metric and imperial); print its 1:1 check sheet with a 100 mm calibration bar to test the shape against the real tool.
Arrange — place, rotate and auto-arrange the pockets; Suggested sizes lists the grids that hold them. Each pocket has a depth, a label, finger access and a fit clearance (0.4 mm suits most FDM printers; the tray’s Footprint ± nudges every pocket at once).
Fit: bin (a full Gridfinity bin with feet and stacking lip), standalone (flat bottom, no baseplate needed) or liner (a plate that drops inside an existing bin or drawer).
Export STL or 3MF from the top bar, or the insert as stacked SVG / DXF sheet layers for a laser or a CNC router. Projects autosave in this browser (IndexedDB); Export writes a .gridmaker file to move or back up a project.
⛶ Full screen (or F when the page, not the app, has focus) gives the app the whole screen; Escape leaves.

Limits

A desktop-sized designer: its layout needs a window about 1024 px wide. On a narrower screen (a phone) the frame keeps that width and you swipe it sideways to pan. The app has its own dark theme.
Renders run OpenSCAD’s single-threaded WebAssembly build: a complicated insert or a large baseplate can take tens of seconds, and the page cannot stop OpenSCAD mid-render except by restarting the engine (Cancel does that).
Photo tracing is only as accurate as the photo: shoot from straight above, keep the reference object on the same plane as the tools, and check a traced pocket with a test print or the 1:1 check sheet.
Catalogue parts are nominal profiles; dimensions that vary by maker (a spanner’s length, a socket’s outside diameter) are marked approximate in the app.
Projects live in this browser only until you export them.

Source and licences

grid-maker is free software under the GPL-3.0-or-later: source at github.com/geekychris/grid-maker. The page bundles, unmodified:

OpenSCAD 2025.03.25 (WebAssembly build from the OpenSCAD playground), GPL-2.0-or-later — source at github.com/openscad/openscad;
gridfinity-extended, by ostat, GPL-3.0 — source and licence (a copy is inside the bundled library zip);
DejaVu fonts (Bitstream Vera licence) for OpenSCAD’s text().

LICENSES.txt lists the exact commits and download used for this copy. Gridfinity is Zack Freedman’s open modular storage system.

Related: parametric parts (quick Gridfinity bins and drawer-filling baseplates from a few numbers), OpenSCAD, model splitter (cut a baseplate that is too big for your bed), mold maker, mesh repair, print tolerances and fits, box and enclosure maker.