June 10, 2024
Description
Discover the Flexigrid, a versatile and engaging fidget toy. The Flexigrid consists of a grid of interlocked shapes, each capable of sliding vertically to adjust their height relative to their neighbors. This simple yet captivating design provides endless possibilities for customization and personalization.
Whether you enjoy tinkering with different configurations or simply want a unique fidget toy, the Flexigrid offers a delightful combination of creativity and functionality. Download, print, and enjoy the Flexigrid, and share your creations!
Printing Recommendations: Be sure to start with a freshly cleaned print bed. Each Flexigrid is made of dozens of independent prisms and they all must stick to the bed in order for the model to be successfully printed.
It prints fully assembled and there are no special slicer settings required. I’ve been printing the Flexigrid with a 0.4 mm nozzle and a layer height of 0.28 mm. This is about the maximum layer height you can use with a 0.4 mm nozzle, and I haven’t encountered any issues with this setup. But smaller layer sizes should give you better quality.
Silk Filament: Silk PLA filament is generally too brittle for small features, so I don’t recommend it for fidget toys. It’s best to steer clear of filaments that emphasize aesthetics over mechanical durability.
Large Grids: If you try to create a grid larger than 15x15 with the customizer, it'll probably give up before it is done. The alternative is to download OpenSCAD to your computer and run it locally. Unfortunately it is a little involved. Here's a page to get you started. https://www.dr-lex.be/3d-printing/customizer.html
June 13th, 2024 - Added “Movement Range” customization. This lets you adjust the vertical movement between pieces, from minimal (50%) to maximum stretch (100%). Setting it around 50% will hide the slider slot that is between all of the pieces.
June 15th, 2024 - Added custom shapes. Choose from Rectangle, Heart, Circle, Diamond, and Cross. For the non-rectangle shapes, it will adjust the size to be an odd number of rows and columns so the shape is symetrical.
June 20th, 2024 - Added a Checkered shape.
July 12th, 2024 - Added a basic animal face shape. Can be used to create pixel colored animal faces.
July 14th, 2024 - Added a Sleepy Cat print profile that uses the basic animal face shape.
August 4th, 2024 - Added a Fidget Capsule print profile of 3x3 super fat “capsules”.
September 10th, 2024 - Added a collection of Haunted Flexigrid fidgets.
November 17th, 2024 - Added two new Flexigrids with a two-dimensional design, differing from the usual three-dimensional style. The first is a single row of five prisms, while the second features a single row of seven prisms. The seven-prism Flexigrid can extend to over half a meter.
December 29th, 2024 - Added two Snowflake Flexigrids. Both use the larger 8x8 mm prism size which allows them to be built from 3 walls for added strength. It was surprisingly hard to create a Flexigrid snowflake pattern that looked right because Flexigrids are created from squares with 4 sides and snowflakes have 6 sides.
January 18th, 2025 - Added a Rainbow Heart Flexigrid.
January 19th, 2025 - Added the Blushing Heart Flexigrid.
January 21st, 2025 - Added the Huggable Heart Flexigrid. This one is the first to feature a thicker center with tapered edges.
January 30th, 2025 - Compass Rose Flexigrid is another one made with different height prisms.
February 7th, 2025 - Large Panda Flexigrid 🐼 in black and white.
February 22nd, 2025 - Added the Stripeshift Cube Flexigrid.
March 18th, 2025 - More Space Invader Flexigrids.
April 10th, 2025 - Decorated Easter Egg Flexigrid.
May 21th, 2025 - Poke Ball Flexigrid.
June 3rd, 2025 - Gradient Flexigrid: Two-Color Vertical Blend
September 20th, 2025 - Minecraft Terrain Flexigrid
October 13th, 2025 - Creeper Flexigrid
October 14th, 2025 - Steve Flexigrid
November 1st, 2025 - Santa Flexigrid
Happy Printing!
Even more Flexigrid fidgets
License:
Standard Digital File License
jetpad
