H3nrik V! wrote on Today, 07:03:

Briliant tool! Had it been there before I designed my own, I'd definetely use that. […]
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Lopo wrote on Yesterday, 08:31:

Today's retro activity was more CAD than retro: I got tired of CPUs rattling around in boxes, so I wrote a small generator for s […]
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Today's retro activity was more CAD than retro: I got tired of CPUs rattling around in boxes, so I wrote a small generator for stackable 3D-printable chip trays.

Chip Tray Generator (runs in the browser, single HTML file, source on GitHub, MIT)

What it does:

• PGA/LGA CPUs from 386 (PGA132) through 486, Socket 5/7, 370, A, 423, 478, 754/939, AM2/AM3 up to LGA 775, plus QFP/PLCC and DIP chips in channels.
• Pick a package, rows x columns, walls, tolerance; live 3D preview; export OpenSCAD (exact, parametric, engraved label) or STL.
• Trays stack: rim on top, matching recess underneath. With "fixed outer format" trays for different sockets get the same footprint, so a 386 tray stacks on a Socket 7 tray.
• The chip never rests on its pins: ceramic PGAs sit on a pedestal inside the pin-free centre, FC-PGA 370 on an edge ledge (Intel puts capacitors on the underside), QFP/PLCC on a pad under the body, DIPs on a centre rail like in a tube.

Package sizes and pin-free centres come from the datasheets (Intel 231630, 241997, 245264, AMD 25175, 21850, JEDEC outlines), not guesswork. What is NOT done yet: I haven't printed every variant, so if you print one and the tolerance or pedestal is off, tell me and I'll fix the defaults.

Briliant tool! Had it been there before I designed my own, I'd definetely use that.

I found a little glitch though

Using 178x130 milimeters as outer limits (to fit the trays I've designed myself), selecting DIP-20 and above the pockets gets outside of the tray.

Thanks, good catch — fixed and live now. With a fixed outer format the channel length was never checked against the tray, so a DIP-24/40 channel with 4 chips (135 / 218 mm) was placed into a 130 mm tray and the rails poked out through the walls. Now the chips-per-channel count drops automatically until a channel fits (the label shows what it was limited to), and there's a new "Channels along the width" option that rotates the channels 90° — at 178×130 that gets DIP-40 to 3 chips per channel instead of 2. And if nothing fits at all, the tray is drawn empty with a warning instead of cutting through the wall.

For anyone interested in the tray generator: I've opened a dedicated thread for it, so fixes and print reports don't clutter this one — Chip Tray Generator — stackable 3D-printable trays. The DIP channel overflow reported above is fixed there.