Designing 3D Printed Custom Enclosures for Electronics Projects
Elektor engineer Saad Imtiaz shares his workflow for designing 3D-printed enclosures using tools like SolidWorks, Onshape, and KiCad.
In a recent episode of Elektor Lab Talk, engineer Saad Imtiaz gave a detailed walkthrough of how to design 3D printed custom enclosures for electronics projects — from CAD modeling to print orientation and material choice.
If your board has horizontal connectors or screens, plan those early
When creating enclosures, Saad recommends starting with a CAD model of your PCB, exported as a STEP (.stp) file from KiCad or other PCB design tools.
- Saad’s preferred tools include:
- SolidWorks (€48 per year)
- Siemens Solid Edge (free community edition)
- Onshape, a browser-based option that requires no installation
Author's summary: Learn to design custom 3D printed enclosures for electronics projects.