Inventions - Evolution of Ideas: Player Invention Card Tray

These are a pair of Player Invention card trays for the board game Inventions - Evolution of Ideas. During the game a player earns Invention cards, which go to the right of their Society board. These cards can become rather disorganized as they accumulate.

The trays shared here take up about the width of a sleeved card and can hold five cards each in each of the three Progress categories. There are two versions of the tray, depending on display preference:

Tray A: The Invention Cards go in the slots name-side first so that the available Chain Action symbol is prominently displayed.

Tray B: The Invention Cards go in with the name up top so that the Progress color band and Era icon are prominently displayed. The Chain Action symbol is still visible, but is a bit hidden in the Technology and Economy columns as cards accumulate since the symbol is lower down with this card orientation.

I thought that my preference would be Tray A, but after printing out one of each I found that I liked the visual aesthetic of Tray B better. See the accompanying photos to compare. When playing, I start filling the Economy column from the top and the Technology and Culture columns from the bottom to maximize card visibility.

The trays are designed to fit in the box on top of the plastic lid, on either side of the game board. The angled portions of the trays rest against the angled protrusions of the plastic lid.

How I Designed This

The tray was designed in Fusion 360 and exported as an .STL file through MeshMixer. The "Inventions" logo on the underside came from a screenshot of the downloadable "Upgrade Cover Sheet V6" PDF. The image was edited and converted into black and white with GIMP, transformed to an .SVG file using Inkscape, and imported into Fusion 360 for extrusion. The three Progress category icons came from screenshots of the downloadable "Action Aid Card V4" PDF, and then manipulated using Gimp and Inkscape to create .SVG files for extrusion.

Category: Games

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer: 

Ender 5

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

No

Resolution:

0.8 mm Nozzle; 0.2 mm Layer Height

Infill: 

20%

Filament: eSun; Light Brown, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Light Blue