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OpenSCAD Is Kinda Neat

Published [10]December 20, 2025
[11][Screenshot-2025-12-20-at-12]Designing a simple battery holder in OpenSCAD.

Earlier this year I designed a very basic box/organizer for [12]AA and [13]AAA
batteries in [14]Autodesk Fusion, making it parameterized so that by changing a
few variables one could adjust the battery type/size, rows/columns, etc. This
worked well, and after [15]uploading it to Printables earlier today I realized
that reimplementing it would probably be a good way to learn the basics of [16]
OpenSCAD.

OpenSCAD is a rather different type of CAD tool, one in which you write code to
generate objects. Because my battery holder is very simple (just a box with a
pattern of cutouts) and uses input parameters, I figured it’d be a good intro
to a new language / tool. And in the future might even be better than firing up
Fusion for such simple designs.

After going through part of [17]the tutorial and an hour or so of poking,
here’s the result: [18]battery_holder_generator.scad

[19][Screenshot-2025-12-20-at-12]Slicer showing the Fusion model on top and
OpenSCAD on bottom.

By changing just a few variables — numRows and numColumns and batteryType — one
can render a customized battery holder which can then be plopped into a [20]
slicer and printed. No heavy/expensive CAD software needed and the output is
effectively the same.

Without comments or informative output, this is the meat of the code:

AA = 15;
AAA = 11;
heightCompartment = 19;
thicknessWall = 1;
numRows = 4;
numColumns = 10;
batteryType = AA;

widthBox = (numRows * batteryType) + ((numRows + 1) * thicknessWall);
lengthBox = (numColumns * batteryType) + ((numColumns + 1) * thicknessWall);
depthBox = heightCompartment + thicknessWall;

difference() {
    cube([lengthBox, widthBox, depthBox]);
    for (c = [ 1 : numColumns ])
        for (r = [ 1 : numRows ])
            let (
                startColumn = ((c * thicknessWall) + ((c - 1) * batteryType)),
                startRow = ((r * thicknessWall) + ((r - 1) * batteryType))
            )
            {
                translate([startColumn, startRow, thicknessWall])
                cube([batteryType, batteryType, heightCompartment + 1]);
            }
};

Simply, it draws a box and cuts out the holes. (The first cube() draws the main
box, then difference() subtracts the battery holes via the second cube() as
their quantity and location (via translate()) is iterated.

That’s it. Pretty neat, eh?

(One part that confused me is how I needed to use [21]let() to define
startColumn and startRow inside the loop. I don’t understand this…)

While this probably won’t be very helpful for more complicated designs, I can
see this being super useful for bearing drifts, spacers, and other similar
simple (yet incredibly useful in real life) geometric shapes.

Published in [22]computers and [23]making things

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References:

[1] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/20/openscad-is-kinda-neat/#main
[2] https://nuxx.net/blog
[4] https://www.facebook.com/steve.vigneau
[5] mailto:steve@nuxx.net
[8] https://nuxx.net/blog/about/
[9] https://nuxx.net/wiki_archive/A/Main_Page
[10] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/
[11] https://nuxx.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-20-at-12.11.35-PM-scaled.png
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AA_battery
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_battery
[14] https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/
[15] https://www.printables.com/model/1522509-simple-battery-holder-aa-and-aaa-w-parameterized-f
[16] https://openscad.org/
[17] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_Tutorial
[18] https://nuxx.net/files/3d_printing/battery_holder_generator.scad
[19] https://nuxx.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-20-at-12.30.03-PM-scaled.png
[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slicer_(3D_printing)
[21] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_User_Manual/List_Comprehensions#let
[22] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/computers/
[23] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/making-things/
[24] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/19/solar-radiation-sun-shield-for-temperature-sensors/
[25] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/26/home-assistant-as-personal-device-tracker/
[26] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/26/home-assistant-as-personal-device-tracker/
[27] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/20/openscad-is-kinda-neat/
[28] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/19/solar-radiation-sun-shield-for-temperature-sensors/
[29] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/06/riser-feet-for-wahoo-kickr-core-2/
[30] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/10/14/wireshark-4-6-0-supports-macos-pktap-metadata-pid-process-name-etc/
[31] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/06/21/fat-bike-peanuts-presta-nuts-for-single-wall-fatbike-rims/
[32] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/04/02/windows-10-11-drivers-for-epson-perfection-3170-photo-scanner/
[33] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/03/21/the-history-of-fibber-mountain/
[34] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/03/20/fox-803-01-727-replaces-803-01-993/
[35] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/01/23/automated-private-mobile-phone-photo-backup-android-to-apple-photos/
[36] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/01/22/zooz-zse44-flat-lines-at-0-c-or-f/
[37] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/12/19/bambu-lab-p1s-on-iot-vlan/
[38] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/12/06/fix-for-leaky-valves-on-single-wall-fatbike-rims/
[39] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/11/22/ride-dirt-trails-not-mud-trails-reposted/
[40] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/09/02/hdmi-cec-to-onkyo-ri-bridge/
[41] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/08/19/onkyo-ri-for-esphome-home-assistant/
[42] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/05/12/new-xc-bike-pivot-mach-4-sl-v3/
[43] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/03/05/fork-mount-bike-rack-for-honda-odyssey-2018/
[44] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/01/19/sunrise-like-alarm-clock-via-home-assistant-android/
[45] https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/01/10/_wahoo-fitness-tnp-_tcp-local/
[46] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/acquired-things/
[47] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/around-the-house/
[48] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/automotive/
[49] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/beer/
[50] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/computers/
[51] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/cycling/
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[55] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/food/
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[57] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/games/
[58] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/health/
[59] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/livejournal/
[60] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/making-things/
[61] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/mapping/
[62] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/moved-from-livejournal/
[63] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/movies/
[64] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/music/
[65] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/nuxxnet/
[66] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/outdoors/
[67] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/politics/
[68] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/travel/
[69] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/weather/
[70] https://nuxx.net/blog/category/work/
[71] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/26/home-assistant-as-personal-device-tracker/
[72] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/20/openscad-is-kinda-neat/
[73] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/19/solar-radiation-sun-shield-for-temperature-sensors/
[74] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/12/06/riser-feet-for-wahoo-kickr-core-2/
[75] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/10/14/wireshark-4-6-0-supports-macos-pktap-metadata-pid-process-name-etc/
[76] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/06/21/fat-bike-peanuts-presta-nuts-for-single-wall-fatbike-rims/
[77] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/04/02/windows-10-11-drivers-for-epson-perfection-3170-photo-scanner/
[78] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/03/21/the-history-of-fibber-mountain/
[79] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/03/20/fox-803-01-727-replaces-803-01-993/
[80] https://nuxx.net/blog/2025/01/23/automated-private-mobile-phone-photo-backup-android-to-apple-photos/
[81] https://www.competethemes.com/period/