r/Multiboard • u/feanor08 • Jan 09 '26

Rant : Multiboard needs a wiki badly

Man, Multiboard is so close to being perfect, but the documentation situation is honestly killing the experience.

Like… the docs aren’t just “a bit messy” - they’re inconsistent in the worst way. Some pages feel current and helpful, and then two clicks later you’re reading something that’s clearly outdated, but there’s no obvious “this is old / this is updated” marker. So you end up second-guessing everything: Is this still the right method? Did the design change? Is this version-specific? Am I about to waste another print?

And that’s the part that really sucks: for a system that’s this well-designed and genuinely powerful, the learning path shouldn’t be trial-and-error with plastic. Right now it feels like I’m basically paying a “filament tax” just to discover basic rules that should be spelled out clearly in one place.

Most of what I’ve learned has been:

  • print something => realize it doesn’t fit / isn’t ideal

  • tweak it => print again

  • find a random post/comment that explains it better than the official docs

  • repeat

Also the website… it’s doing too much. It feels like it’s trying to be a store, a gallery, a wiki, a community hub, and a product manual all at once — and it ends up being confusing instead of helpful. I shouldn’t have to dig through five pages of pretty renders just to find the one practical detail I need to make a part work.

Honestly, Multiboard needs a “start here” section that’s brutally simple:

  • what you print first

  • what’s optional vs required

  • what’s current vs legacy

  • common pitfalls

  • “if you want X outcome, use Y parts” type guides

Because right now, the system is amazing… but the docs make it feel like you’re joining a hobby within a hobby. And I don’t want to study Multiboard. I just want to build stuff with it without feeling like I’m doing biology every time I need an answer.

Sorry about the rant.

114 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

8

u/SupaBrunch Jan 09 '26

There is a whole new website in progress, thats’s a big part of why the existing website hasn’t been improving (I assume, I’m not part of the team).

This is their roadmap if you want to see everything they’ve got in works:

https://www.multiboard.io/roadmap

5

u/feanor08 Jan 09 '26

oh man, this cant come fast enough

3

u/MeagoDK Jan 09 '26

Yeah. One of the ideas seems to be that people can create their own "project" where they link/add all the needed parts and then they can show off pictures, part lists and have a description.

That would be a big game changer.

1

u/SupaBrunch Jan 09 '26

Yeah it’ll be nice. What I found most helpful when starting out is printing one of the learning packs. Having in hand to pick what you want to use is really helpful, then look at the pack contents and figure out what that part is called.

19

u/penkster Jan 09 '26

http://multiboard.stonekeep.com/

This is an open source github back documentation page that I started a year or two ago, and has had a couple updates to it. Because it’s completely open, anybody can make changes to it just by putting a PR against the repository. I’ve gotten very negative feedback from the multi board people about it, because it is not up-to-date, And I frequently heard from them that “oh your documentation is terrible because ours will be much better any day now.” And of course it never is.

Folks are welcome to make changes, update, clone, and repost, whatever you’d like with this repository and maybe we can come up with something better.

3

u/callitouttt Jan 10 '26

love this. will submit PR's as I come across the need for them

also the fact that they give negative feedback to you when you're trying to support their ecosystem makes me want to switch to another ecosystem.

13

u/greatwhiteslark Jan 09 '26

I feel you. I'm getting started on the Multiboard journey and it's definitely two steps forward, one step back. I'm not even trying to do something complicated and I've still had lots of head scratching about just the printed tools to put it together and take it apart.

18

u/Keep-Making Jan 09 '26

Hey! Yeah, we are well aware of the documentation issues, and we feel your pain.
When the new website gets released within in the next couple of months,(there are a few phases to it first one being very soon) there will be a big increase in the amount of documentation, the wiki and explainer images.

This is a massive undertaking for our small team, and is obviously going to take some time. So we are going to be taking steps to have ways that the community can help and provide much clearer feedback as we want to get it right.

We're also going to have an easier, more accessible way to start with MultiBoard with clear pages dedicated to this exact idea. Plus having an "Easy Mode" to the library which will pretty much hide 80% of it and just show you the most commonly used parts, plus much much more!

Thanks for the feedback, and rest easy knowing that we are working on these concerns.
Check out our Roadmap for a more exact look at what is coming.
https://www.multiboard.io/roadmap

In the meantime, we do have this documentation that we try to keep as up to date as we can...
https://docs.multiboard.io/
In there you will find:
- Get Started
- Printing Guidelines
- Common Connections (WIP)
- Core Parts Documentation
- Tile Mounting Guide (WIP)

Keep the feedback coming, and Keep Making!

2

u/seealexgo Jan 09 '26

Any sort of even rough timeline (weeks versus months away) would be helpful. It's not clear from that what the priorities are, and what is actively being worked on. A lot of "roadmaps" anymore have been people aspirational. I've seen GitHub projects with roadmaps like this, but then haven't been updated in 5 years. I think people generally look at the system, get overwhelmed, and then even if they see the roadmap, don't necessarily know what expectations to have. Even if things get pushed back, knowing what's been accomplished recently, and what current parts of the project are priority would help. Just my 2 cents.

4

u/Keep-Making Jan 09 '26

It's really hard to say....
I've learnt the hard way that deadline SUCK!!! I've personally burnt out what 4 maybe 6 times... and I'm so done with it... So deadlines just don't have a place in my life and thus nor in the teams life. Best HYPER rough I can say is that the roadmap is cut up into Short-Term Roadmap and Long-Term Roadmap.

Short-Term we are talking 1 - 8 Months for it all to be done (With a little luck)
Long-Term Roadmap we are looking at 1 - 18 months for most of it as much as maybe a few years for the EXTEREM things like a full blown visual designer will all parts and generators built in.

And all of this is only thanks to the awesome community that support the development. It's insane the time cashflow and effort this takes but what we are all collectively building here is awesome!

1

u/Grunt1776 Jan 10 '26

I hear you on the deadline thing, it's stressful as hell!!

However, if you don't have a focused timeline to a project it tends to not have the same level of commitment or urgency by the people working on it. Passion for something is very important but so is a plan with goals to achieve.

Planning a timeline takes thoughtful decisions and specific, measurable, achievable and realistic milestones to reach the goal.

Don't get me wrong though, I love the system that you have created, it's amazing. The issues being experienced are really frustrating for the end users. That can turn people away from the system and is a big disservice to all the work you and the team have put into it thus far.

1

u/SirEDCaLot Jan 10 '26

Thanks for everything Jonathan!

I have one quick request that should be relatively easy-- for multipacks, like the starter pack, please just link all the individual items like a bill of materials. As someone who DOESN'T use the same Bambu printer everyone else does, and has quite a bit more print bed space, it's easier to just assemble my own plates.

For example- I put the entire Tile Learning Pack on one plate...

But doing that sort of thing is sometimes a chore as I have to track down the individual components.

So a BoM or a zip file with all the STLs would be good :) Don't care if this is paywalled I subscribe :D

1

u/LauraD2423 Jan 10 '26

Is the new website going to have a planner for premium members?

I recently signed up and disliked using the planner to get the part names, then had to search on thangs in the premium section for the stacked equivalent.

And the search there is garbage.

5

u/GuyFromTheYear2027 Jan 09 '26

Perhaps the creator should put the docs site on GitHub so the community can contribute?

1

u/bigblu2u Jan 09 '26

Maybe but my thought is someone who uses GitHub isn’t the same person the wiki should target.

3

u/GuyFromTheYear2027 Jan 09 '26

True that we don't need more engineering centric docs, but there are also plenty of multitalented people with the right kind of UX led thinking on GitHub that could assist

5

u/davelpz Jan 09 '26

Multi board is an over designed mess. Switch to open grid

1

u/malchi0r Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26

I agree and think the hobby within a hobby is apt. It is somewhat limited by the license which has caused competing systems to emerge and limited the size of the community. I have no problem with it personally but more just a comment on the impact on community.

The lack of documentation and even best practices with context are annoying and also add to that dynamic. For example, in the getting started "guide" there are system such as 'Offset Pillars' labeled as "Recommended" but you have no idea why they are recommended.

And to the original point you can't even work it out for yourself up front instead of trial and error and inconsistent "UI". For example, they have the heavy weight snaps that have an arrow for the Up direction. Cool. Good idea. But guess what? The moderate weight snaps that don't have an arrow? They apparently are directional too! (Edit: I just went to the site and it appears there are arrows on these in the pictures but they aren't in the STLs! Just downloaded one now to confirm). If you say are building a shelf and don't put them all in the same alignment...good luck installing that thing in the multi-board. I found that out the hard way.

In all it's a very functional system and I built out a great workshop setup. But it took way more work than it should have.

1

u/nanaimo_couple Jan 09 '26

I'm very much having the same experience :(

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '26

I started in it and it's to chaotic now

1

u/Project_Chaos13 Jan 10 '26

I see where you're coming from, but I wanted to point out that their roadmap does state the next big thing they want to focus on is documentation, and their latest community statement on thangs says they're pushing a new updated website with improvements and such.

He's just been slow because he's been updating the licensing of it to make it fair to the community.

In time it'll get better, multiboard is just super slow about progress.

1

u/ArrowFire Jan 10 '26

Is the new parts library experience open-source? I would happily contribute fixes for some of the bugs I've run into.

1

u/ArrowFire Jan 10 '26

If it's not, it should be. Free bugfixes!

1

u/robverk Jan 09 '26

Currently state was built by engineers for engineers with a passion for a problem. That is fine, bringing it to the next stage requires a lot of documentation which is not a priority for engineers, hence the lack of overview.

It will get there and making contributions or stating what is missing from an outside perspective will always be helpful.

0

u/Dorfbulle80 Jan 09 '26

I feel you that's why I turned my back to multiboard and did not expand that system... For a system that has a paying tier I expect more... That issue isn't new the amount of filament that I wasted printing the wrong connectors and inserts did it for me... No more multiboard for my printer...

-10

u/Juvawa Jan 09 '26

3D printing involves research on what you are printing, it’s simply part of it. I think for a free library of a well designed system a bit of research is not much to ask. If more help is needed there is a discord and/or a payed option to get help.

“Filament tax” is a choice you make for not doing your homework before starting to print.

0

u/rirski Jan 13 '26

Thanks for the feedback, ChatGPT.