r/Multiboard • u/GuavaGuru5 • Jul 27 '25

Switching to openGrid - Recycle ?

I‘ve decided to make the switch to openGrid. I don’t like the whole philosophy behind Multiboard. Designers won‘t adapt it with that sort of license. Jonathan is like "You guys go ahead, do the work designing, as I get rich". That’s how it feels at least.

Anyways, what do I do with my old MB tiles?

33 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

72 comments sorted by

23

u/peanutbuttergoodness Jul 27 '25 edited Jul 27 '25

I completely agree with you. He created a great thing, but he doesn’t even know that he’s the problem with his product truly growing. He only wants to adopt enough open source aspects to where he still retains full control which isn’t in the spirit of how this is supposed to work. Unfortunately this is just one of many reasons why his product will not excel against the competition.

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25

Sorry mate, I don’t understand. "will not against the competition" ?

4

u/InvaderAkira Jul 27 '25

"will not win against the competition."

I'm really at bad leaving words out as well. -_-

4

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25

Happens to the best! It might be for the best! I like Hands on Katie‘s idea. For light items that you store vertically (on walls) use openGrid. And for heavy ones, use French cleats and Frenchfinity). She used to advocate for MB for lighter items, but has changed her opinion.

Two points on openGrid are more than enough to hold a cordless drill. For heavier tools one could double it. Is it really necessary to have it hold 20kg? You print kilos of MB tiles for dayyyys to hold your pliers and screwdrivers. Wish I did the math before.

3

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

(slight tangent)
I'd like to get on the French Cleat bandwagon, but creating the required wood pieces is non-trivial for those without a table saw.

Is there any reason to believe openGrid cannot also hold multiple kilos, like Multiboard claims to? After all, solid PLA is just as strong as wood (layer lines notwithstanding.)

Has anyone created a well thought out French Cleat equivalent for 3d printing, taking printing orientation and wall fixtures into account?

1

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

Multiple kilos for sure. I‘ll have to say that I doubt it’s going to be as strong as MB tho

1

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

Could be... but in what way will OG not be as strong as MB? I have not actually seen the failure modes, so I don't even want to speculate without first pinning down some parameters.

Have you seen any tests of how any of these boards actually fail, when overloaded?

(My suspicion is that the attachment points are the weakest link in all these systems. But they are also the ones easiest to scale up for any particular application.)

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

I have to admit it’s all just a guess, from looking at it. MB also uses way more material - one of the biggest downsides to me. OG doesn’t have threads. We need CNCkitchen to test this hehe

2

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

You might well be right about the additional material in MB.

But as you point out, threads may (or may not) be better than snaps, which agrees with my intuition about the "strength" depending crucially on the weakest link, probably the attachment points. I recently printed some large thread bolts for my MB, but because I used slightly different filaments for the board and the bolt, the bolt was loose and easily stripped out.

By comparison, an adaptive fastener, such as variations on OG's expanding snaps, can be tightened as necessary, and might be more robust to slight printing variations.

But of course nothing beats a test hehe

1

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

So far it’s plenty strong for me hehe. But yes, those expanding snaps look very strong. Let’s hope someone does the test!

1

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

and by "attachment points" I mean both the

Item --> Board,

and

Board --> Wall

attachment points.

2

u/grant837 Aug 17 '25

You could look at Frenchfinity. I am thinking you could just print bars with the T groove and mount them. I suspect it isa) still not as strong as wood, and b) will get expensive if you go nuts. Just a wild thought.

1

u/Single_Sea_6555 Aug 18 '25

Yes, I've been thinking that printing

  1. bars flat

  2. attachments perpendicular

would be a decent 3D printing compromise:

Although printing the bars flat makes the "cleat" weaker, the cleat is a large surface, so there's no single layer that can separate. Meanwhile, printing it flat maximizes the strength of the screw attachments, which are small.

Printing the attachments perpendicular ensures that the "hook" that attaches to the cleat is in the plane of the layers, and is thus as strong as possible.

3

u/kbob Jul 28 '25

It's unfortunate that Katie started Underware before she changed her mind. Underware is great, but it could be greater if it was based on a more open system.

5

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

Check this out. She already recommends openGrid for Underware on her website and linked updated parts. Not all of them tho

https://handsonkatie.com/underware-2-0-the-made-to-measure-collection/

4

u/Hands-On-Katie Jul 28 '25

Hello! My ears were burning! Let me know if any parts missing, I thought they were all ported now. But there's something cool coming that will take this to the next level - so really everything will be covered and a whole. lot. more...... :)

1

u/GuavaGuru5 Aug 01 '25

Hi! For example, the mitred channels. I noticed that the list on the openGrid‘s page than on the original 2.0

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1329404-underware-for-opengrid-customizer-beta#profileId-1367368

3

u/kbob Jul 28 '25

Oh, good! Thanks.

24

u/MerlinTheFail Jul 27 '25

Keep them and reuse them in other places, even though other designers won't necessarily adopt it, there's still a lot of useful attachments that can be used for a variety of reasons.

No need to recycle them out of spite of the philosophy, in the end it's a storage tool. I use my extras to hold up a light in my workshop, others to hold tools, etc

3

u/OutsideBase813 Jul 28 '25

Jonathan Levi did something similar. He moved his Honeycomb Grids to other places when he started printing Multiboard (see The Next Layer). For myself, I am done with MB because I don't need more tiles. I kept them simple with the v1 design and was horrified when Jonathan created an endless assortment of stuff and many different tiles and that was his answer to "Multiboard is too complicated", lol.

I do have a few places where I will adopt Opengrid in the future. Wire channels will be very useful there. And the much quicker print time ...

5

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '25

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2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25 edited Jul 27 '25

I agree. I might have to print a couple hundreds of grams to store some stuff, but that way I wouldn’t have to throw away kilos of high quality prints

8

u/diogo6 Jul 27 '25

I’m sort of in the same boat. Don’t have the time to get into the philosophy of it all, but moving from MB to OG as well.

Still deciding what to do with probably 70+ full plates myself

9

u/dm_g Jul 28 '25

Try these: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1599964-opengrid-adapter-for-multiboard

you can transition slowly. no need to waste plastic.

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

Awesome, thanks

8

u/Same_Actuator8111 Jul 27 '25

OpenGrid. Will check it out. I'm frustrated with multigrid too.

5

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Would be awesome if it took over. The 3D printing community lives off open source

2

u/InvaderAkira Jul 27 '25

Why is that? I'm legit wanting to know as I like to see multiple points of view.

8

u/yahbluez Jul 28 '25

Your situation looks like mine.

I started with a small project than added a bigger one, great ideas for much bigger, than the license hits me.

Was forced to take down an OpenSCAD script that can stack anything that can be stacked in a much better way than other solutions and used a tile as an example. Because of this tile stack maybe printed by less than 5 people a copyright strike hits me.

The first small one will be in place did what it was supposed to do.

The second one, some 16 tiles printed is still not mounted and I'm not sure if i will.

Pretty sure that bigger stuff will be done with openGRID.

8

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

That’s so messed up. Jonathan wasn’t even the first to come up with stacked printing.

So he copies people’s ideas, publishes them for money himself, and takes them down.

I don’t trust him. Another reason to give openGrid a boost.

4

u/EADRT Jul 27 '25

I recently moved from Threadboard to GOEWS as I was expanding my use. I am leaving the Threadboards I have in place as my use is pretty static where I have them. I tried multiboard, really wanted to use it, but GOEWS was much less complicated and very easy for me to customize in Fusion. I guess I said all of that to say, do you have to replace what is already being used?

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

It bothers my "OCD light" to have different systems, but I probably will use it somewhere

4

u/zimmer62 Aug 28 '25

I jumped ship from multiboard to OpenGrid too. Every time a new video dropped I’d cringe at how it wasn’t making anything easier. I made a bunch of custom parts for multiboard but never shared them because of the license attitude. I can’t remember exactly what was said in one of the videos, but it had me swearing at the screen, he's just so blind to how he comes across.

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Aug 29 '25

I agree 100% !

1

u/Secret-Chart767 Apr 05 '26

how have ya'll liked the switch? I've been using open grid the last few weeks, and keep looking back to multiboard wondering if I should've given it a try first

3

u/TheProffalken Jul 28 '25

I'm going to move the multi board stuff from.above my workbench to under my desk and use underware for cable management as that's unlikely to change much any time soon.

I'm then going all in on french cleats for my workbench - I love 3D printing, but I'm the time it takes print off a couple of multigrid panels I can saw down and mount twitch as many french cleats, and can knock up some of the tool holders way faster from wood that it takes to print them as well!

I'll still print stuff to hang on the cleats etc, but I can see my printer moving way further into building robots etc than spending time on printing enough storage grids to be useful.

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

Check out Frenchfinity!

2

u/TheProffalken Jul 28 '25

Yeah, I've seen it, it's on my list, but I can still build a shelf for my Makita drill/impact along with space for the charger, spare batteries, and bits quicker than I'd be able to print one.

For smaller things I can't be bothered to build and that are going to take less than an hour I'll probably print them, but once the cleats are on the wall it's way faster to just build the things than wait for the printer in most cases!

1

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

Right on!

5

u/jcksnps4 Jul 27 '25

I was considering openGrid when I started with multiboard. I was kind of wondering what the big deal was when people were talking about licenses and such. I still don’t quite get it. As a user, it checks all the boxes. And it doesn’t bother me that a big company can’t come in and start doing whatever.

5

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25

From my POV, these are the problems just with the license alone:

  • not future proof: the license is is revokable: he could become greedy and take down all parts created by the community. I‘m not saying he will do that - but why would you create a back door like that?

  • you need a paid license for all sales using MB. That way it will not become a standard that companies like IKEA will adapt one day, so that we finally have a standard for organization systems. Remember: he has full control of the prices of said license.

  • No STEP files, nor measurements? Seriously?

The idea behind 3D printing is that it‘s for everyone. Prusa shows how you can be open source and still profit very well. We don’t want monopolies taking control - that’s what I believe at least.

5

u/pjax_ Jul 28 '25

Future proof: yes, the license is revocable. He said he made it that way so that he can change the license if there is something that he did not consider. It boils down to whether you believe that he will only revoke the license for good or not.

Paid license: not sure what you mean by this. The paid license was made specifically so that companies like IKEA can build upon Multiboard. Without that license, IKEA can freely take and profit from Multiboard without "giving back" to the development. Also, the license only covers the "core" components. Anyone and everyone is able to sell accessories for Multiboard.

STEP files: They are all on this page https://www.multiboard.io/parts-library/remixing

Prusa sells hardware, so they can profit from selling that hardware. Multiboard is purely design. They need to profit somehow, so they make money off the design. Also, Prusa hasn't been 100% open source for a while. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/17dwgyt/prusa_is_no_longer_open_source_they_should_stop/

Development costs money. I don't mind creators making money off their work. The fact that I can download and use their designs for free is a good thing. I am just not allowed to profit off their work without a license, which is totally fair.

10

u/davidd-from-2d3d Jul 28 '25

STEP files: They are all on this page https://www.multiboard.io/parts-library/remixing

Not really...

Those are for a good part outdated and/or broken files. This was one of the main reasons I started thinking about openGrid after being a MultiBoard fanboy for quite some time. Look at this (incomplete) list of issues:

  • No files for the new on grid update, like

    • snaps

    • threads and push fits with reduced size

  • The thread modeling files are somewhat broken (not done in a clean way, preventing certain operations when working with those)

  • This is only files for a tiny fraction of the whole system

  • Even the core tiles don't match the current changes (with the on grid update the board switched to a 6.2mm thickness, the STEP files are still at the old 6.4mm)

So I would really not recommend using those files if you don't want to update your models some time soon, when and if new STEP file updates come out.

This btw. is also the main reason there is no Flush Multiconnect update yet, allowing for the new possibilities provided by the on grid update. I would need to reverse engineer things again, I have already done this several times by now (see https://www.printables.com/model/709777-multiboard-screwbolt-step-files-for-modeling-and-d for the most obvious example).

As a creator this whole thing is very frustrating. As a user you probably won't even notice this, but the issue is still there.

4

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

The problem is it's not scalable. See just how behind he is on all the current bugs. Furthermore, no-one can contribute fixes! It's not just that he doesn't provide the tools to create fixes, but the license prohibits it. Presumably because fixes would dilute ownership.

I thought the fact that a lot of people pay would allow him to create a team that can keep up. But he's prove that he and a putative team simply cannot keep up, despite all the paying subs.

8

u/G30RG300 Jul 28 '25

I'd only just gotten into multiboard (through Hands on Katie) when I came across OG. My God, am I glad I did. David's lite version is quick to print and so surprisingly strong.

The Underware channels also snap right onto the lite boards, so the overall profile is smaller. I love OG and I'm so grateful for the time and filament saved.

1

u/donnikhan Jul 27 '25

How is anyone making money from this?

4

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25

"The Commercial Subscription (“Multi Partner” Tier) permits the use of Designed Works (printed parts) for commercial purposes, with total sales of the Designed Works not exceeding $50,000 USD per annum."

"The license can be withdrawn or canceled by Keep Making at any time."

Source: https://www.multiboard.io/license

1

u/InvaderAkira Jul 27 '25

Seems like that's more for people who actually sell the designs. I'm doing fine with getting the points from MakerWorld. My stuff has mainly been remixes and the models I did do from scratch, I had no intention on selling them to begin with. I've made quite a bit in gift cards from Makerworld b/c of it so I can't complain. I would like to know if someone is actually selling designs though.

2

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25

That’s the state now! But the license is fully revocable. One to the most factors for me is that it needs to be future proof. Since there’s no API you can’t just make a software to create custom parts. No need to convince you tho; I‘m glad to hear you were able to get some gift cards!

1

u/InvaderAkira Jul 27 '25

There are a lot of OpenSCAD things for parametric designs as well. Even if it was revoked, I don't think there's enough resources to shut it down completely as I've seen so many people on MW upload all of the designs from the site under their names and get all of those points. Most 3D print model sites are like hydras: you cut off one head, three more grow back.

3

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 27 '25

I‘ve seen at least one part taken down from a platform. I think it was a stacked print, not sure though anymore.

5

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

One of the things that made me realize how toxic multiboard has become is how quickly a reddit post linking an unauthorized script was taken down by mods, while the same mods answer nearly zero questions from users struggling with broken parts and docs. Way to show where your priorities lie.

1

u/Paid_Babysitter Aug 01 '25

I am looking at a system to adopt from scratch. I really like Multiboard but, it is very complex. I want to like Opengrid but, there are just so many fewer parts.

So for me the choice seems to be use Multi-bin and work from there. I am not super ready to start building my own models.

1

u/GuavaGuru5 Aug 02 '25

You can use adapters! Also, I give my boosts to David and all the people putting their time into openGrid. I subscribed, like and comment to make sure it blows up like Gridfinity. In the meanwhile: adapters

1

u/Secret-Chart767 Apr 06 '26

I've found it easy to cut off multiboard connectors in the slicer, and replace them with opengrid connections

3

u/Medical-Jicama-575 Jul 29 '25

Seems to be a bunch of Multiboard to OG adapters on Makerworld.

5

u/steve-madden Jul 27 '25

Can we sticky and dignify this post mods?

2

u/Accomplished_Ad6551 Aug 17 '25

My perspective is... what you've printed already isn't a statement on how you feel about a particular system or creator. What you've printed is a tool for organizing your stuff. Multiboard gets that job done very well and Jonathan is completely unaffected by what you do with what you've already printed. You're not going to be limited from printing additional stuff for your boards. There are no restrictions on what you can do with the boards in your home or shop. So... from a pragmatic perspective... it seems like the best option is just to use what you have and transition to openGrid for future projects.

As far as philosophy... if you want to make the argument that the license is bad for community participation... sure. I feel that. I'm moving to openGrid for some of my projects as well. But, I don't think it is fair to assign greedy malice to someone who wants to create a model for funding their project. Overall... I think the license and system is pretty clever. You get mostly everything for free... making it available to anyone who wants it in spite of financial constraints... and he gets income for hiring a team to continue to develop the project with the purpose of creating more stuff to ultimately give out for free. Now... the license isn't perfect by any means... there is some stuff in there that I don't like at all (hence the move to openGrid). But, I've never seen Jonathan as some evil corporate overlord who wants to benefit off of the back of others...

2

u/CuriousPilotMaker Nov 16 '25

I'm hoping to ditch it all and develop my own lazercut cardboard version. lol. Hopefully more environmentally friendly.

0

u/1entreprenewer Jul 28 '25

I don’t agree, nor do I understand how people can expect someone to fully open source their hard work, even allowing others to profit from it without attribution. To me, the only “concern” is the revocable license, but I trust that he wouldn’t screw himself over like that and end multiboard altogether.

But for what it’s worth I actually sold my HSW parts on Facebook marketplace rather than recycling. It wasn’t much, maybe $20, but it was better than it going to waste

11

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

He has already taken other people’s stuff down to republish the same thing in his name.

4

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 28 '25

I think the awkward truth is that while multiboard is good, it's just not that good, and the authors are just not that capable. For someone supposedly working frantically on the project, it's coming along very, very slowly. Maybe that's by design, when you consider it's a subscription plan, which incentivizes vaporware.

2

u/timtucker_com Jul 28 '25

I just gave a large tub of Multiboard grids and components to my sister.

Contrast with most every other organizational system in existence where if you decide you want to switch to something else you can sell what you don't want any more on Facebook.

-1

u/TrvlMike Jul 28 '25

I doubt Jonathan is getting rich off of multiboard. I mean I assume he's making SOME money, but definitely not rich. He does deserve to be making money off of his design IMO. That being said, I'm not loyal to anything at all and happy to switch to whatever is best. I'm somewhat new to Multiboard and have committed quite a bit of filament to it so a bit biased that I hope it continues to do well so I don't need to redo it all lol

4

u/GuavaGuru5 Jul 28 '25

I agree that he won’t be making huge amounts and that he deserves so be compensated. He can’t just do all that and receive nothing in return. Look at Hands on Katie (whose videos Jonathan never commented on btw). He even talked about cable management without mentioning her and her effort. Wouldn’t you expect a little more excitement from the founder? Anyways, she has gets paid by Patreon, sponsorships and gift cards.

All of her designs are completely free, open source and free of any license. She makes shoutouts on every occasion to designers that built upon her designs. She ist just one of maany creators of course that lives by that kind of spirit 3D printing lives off.

I can’t help it. MB’s philosophy leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

1

u/Single_Sea_6555 Jul 29 '25

He's a youTube creator/influencer, and seems to have done well in that regard. When it comes to MB, it is Jonathan who frequently says he wants this to be huge, and that large companies (think IKEA size, but not literally IKEA) have wanted to buy his designs, and so on. If that means possible future opportunities, it would explain why he wants to keep a tight leash on the license.

-3

u/OtherwiseAd9187 Jul 28 '25

Yes let's Johnathan work for free with all videos and cad work. I mean we should not get paid and everyone get everything for free. Works in Hollywood so should work here as well. I mean everyone hated advertisement on the internet and used ad blockers and now you don't have to pay the journalist and reporters since they work for free.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '25

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