-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 19
Home
Welcome to the openforge-tutorials wiki!
Bases, or "What's with OpenForge/OpenLock/DragonLock(Bite)/Infinitylock" OpenForge is based in flexibility. There are people who produce single piece print tiles, but if you want wood floors with your stone wall, or want to use a different clip system, you are out of luck. This is where OpenForge Bases come in. OpenForge bases are intended to be glued (using CA or 'super' glue) to the bottom of your tile. Each base offers different connection options, and I now publish a wide variety of options that I ensure are available on all new tiles (don't worry, old tiles get updated too, but that takes time with the gigantic backlog). There's also a pile of terms that can confuse people. Don't blame me, I started this project before anyone else doing what one would today recognize as 3d printable tiles ;-).
Un 2013, I started OpenForge as a 3d printed alternative and complement to Dwarven Forge. I made some tiles, it was fun but totally a hobby.
OpenForge 2.0 came in 2016 which is when I introduced the bases. My first locking scheme was to use paperclip wire, and I promise you, it was a terrible idea and I lost a lot of blood. This is also when I started treating it as a real project and created the Patreon.
In 2015-2018, some other producers entered the scene. Fat Dragon Games introduced Dragonlock in a kickstarter, Printable Scenery released their new OpenLock and DungeonWorks did their kickstarter where they introduced Infinitylock. (Fun fact, if you look at the first Dragonlock Kickstarter, their clips were nothing like what they are now.) OpenLock as it said in the name was open, and Printable Scenery reached out to me to see if I would be interested. I quickly took a license with them. As time went on, I engaged with the other two creators and decided to add support, mostly because of advocacy from people inside the OpenForge community.
This brings us to today. There are a bunch of options for bases (read more about magnets below):
- dragonlock
- dragonlock, magnetic
- infinitylock
- infinitylock, magnetic
- magnetic
- openlock
- openlock, magnetic
- openlock topless
- openlock topless, magnetic
I still default to openlock, and the topless magnetic (flex) bases are my personal favorites. The topless bases have no overhangs, which means no supports, which in turn means no sagging and less work after you print to get the tile ready.
For the longest time, the main option was 5mm spherical magnets. During the pandemic, these became increasingly difficult to get ahold of, or even impossible in some parts of the world. So I designed a set of bases that I call flex magnetic. The flex magnetic bases can still take 5mm spheres, but they are also able to take a variety of cylindrical magnets including:
- 5mm diameter, 3mm thick
- 5mm diameter, 2mm thick
- 4mm diameter, 3mm thick
- 4mm diameter, 2mm thick
- 3/16" diameter, 1/8" thick
The design of the flex magnetic bases allows these to still spin in place, so you don't have to worry about polarity.
Yeah, clips. Do yourself a favor, print your clips in PETG. PLA is rigid and brittle, which means the clips can't flex much without breaking. PETG has much more flex and is also stronger, so perfect for clips. So should you print bases in PETG as well? No. PETG is harder to glue and harder to paint. Keep the clips PETG and that will give you enough flex.
I've created something I call the OpenForge Tile Tree. This shows all the potential designs that could exist for a set, with markings by style for what's actually created. It's a good place to go to understand what's done and what is not.
Patreon OpenForge is funded as a Patreon project. Patrons see new designs first and get to vote every month for what I should be focusing on next. Patrons also get access to Dropbox, and get roles on the OpenForge Discord server. As I get my arms around Reddit, I may also extend that to Reddit flair.
I wrote up a doc with an explanation for how OpenForge Licensing works. Suffice it to say, most new tiles are released under the CC-BY-SA-NC. Some older sets on Thingiverse, including all of the basis of Dungeon Stone and Cut Stone are offered under the CC-BY-SA. A person who pays $10/month or more on Patreon can use any tile under the CC-BY which basically means you just need to give me attribution.
We’re offering the entire OpenForge collection with all models through 12/2022 on a single USB stick in our online store, Masterwork Tools. It’s $35 for about 1,400 unique designs (and ~12,000 stl files, almost 128 gigs). All designs remain available on Patreon, Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory, but this is a nice convenience if you don’t want to spend all that time downloading files. Not every file is in each of these places (well, except the USB stick). I'm actively trying to clean up the file situation. MyMiniFactory will be where I release entire sets when they are completed. Thingiverse will start getting designs again, as I'm intending to put releases up there mapping to each Patreon release. Finally, Patrons get access to dropbox where I share every design, and even the blender and other files I use when designing them.