3D Printed Fidget Toy & Switch Tester Generator - Free SVG & 3MF Download

As someone who has designed keyboards for years and has spoken to countless people new to keyboard design, finding the correct specifications and information for spacing/distances is surprisingly difficult. Naturally, a normal person won't have knowledge of datasheets or MX switch specifications, so they need somewhere to start and someone to give them the information in simple terms.

It's all very intimidating when you're new to design and making, there's so much information out there to filter through and nobody likes wasting time or making trivial mistakes due to a lack of experience. This is the reason I've made this very simple 3D printed fidget clicker generator. It follows basic MX key spec and spacing to get you started and once you're comfortable with how things work, you should be able to go from there and make your own designs.

The goal of this app is to ultimately make designing clickers more accessible for people who don't have access to CAD software, essentially lowering the barrier to entry and getting more people comfortable designing around keyboard switches.

In this app, there are many customisable settings to give users the freedom and ability to increase or decrease how big they want to make their design; they can generate a model based on how many rows and/or columns they want while also controlling how thick the bezels will be.

Normally, this process takes a few minutes in CAD but it can become repetitive and is prone to human error. Additionally, the workflow isn't very scalable, flexible or accommodating to spontaneous changes or decisions. i.e. In CAD, sketchs need to be adjusted and borders remade each time users want to change the capacity of the clicker model.

Using an app can streamline the process while also reducing the likelihood of spacing errors caused by typos or incorrect values. Anyone is able to quickly visualise what designs and styles they like or don't like without needing to spend a laborious amount of time editing sketchs.

Notes:

Wall Thickness:
This starts from the Inner Wall (red line) and is essentially your bezel width or thickness. Change this value to make your design wider or thinner.

Inner Wall:
This Inner Wall assumes you will be using standard sized, 18mm x 18mm keycaps. If you want to use a larger, custom sized keycap, you will need to adjust the switch spacing - because they're related. The Inner Wall should automatically adjust based on the value you provide to ensure there are no interference issues.

1mm Radius is the default for the Inner Wall because there can be interference issues with keycaps if the edge is too rounded. This is because there is more material which brings the edge closer to the keycap. You can increase this value if your keycaps are custom and also have very rounded corners

Switch Spacing:
19.05mm is the standard used for mechanical keyboards with 18mm x 18mm keycaps, however, it's not a hard rule and spacing can be whatever you deem appropriate. You must increase this value if your keycaps are custom and larger than 18mm in length. The inner wall will automatically adjust to avoid interference.

Cutout:
This 14mm x 14mm value is the universal cutout size of all mechanical key switches. Keeping this constant will help with troubleshooting. If your cutout is too tight or to loose you will need to adjust your [Horizontal Expansion or XY Size Compensation] in the slicer.

Between 14.1mm to 13.9mm should work if you cannot get consistent shapes but I have had the most success with a cutout size of 14.05mm x 14.05mm - so slightly larger.
<13.85mm is bad because switches will be too tight and struggle to fit
>14.15mm is bad because switches will be too loose and struggle to stay in

These cutouts are not filleted to reduce the chance of switch compatibility and interference issues. It might be tempting to make them pretty and rounded but this often does more harm than good. With these squares, the radius will realistically depend on your nozzle. A value of < 0.2mm is perfect.

If you can, print a 1x1 model to test the dimensional accuracy. You want to figure this out before spending time printing larger models only to realise the switches arn't fitting nicely.