The enclosure — the body that holds it all

The enclosure is the body of the product — for a prototype, it's usually 3D-printed. A good one quietly does four jobs:

1. Protects the electronics — from dust, knocks, and curious fingers touching live parts.
2. Holds each part in place — with mounting posts (called bosses or standoffs), clips, or slots so nothing rattles loose.
3. Gives access — openings for the USB port, cut-outs for buttons, a window for the screen.
4. Goes together and comes apart — usually two shells that meet, held by screws or snap clips, so you can get back inside.

Three ideas that make an enclosure actually work

• Wall thickness — walls need to be thick enough to be strong (around 2 mm is a common starting point). Too thin and it flexes or cracks.
• Clearance — leave a small gap around every part. Real components and 3D prints are never perfectly exact; a tight, zero-gap fit simply won't assemble.
• Openings in the right place — a port cut-out only helps if it lines up exactly with where the connector actually sits.

There's a right way to design an enclosure: inside-out.

Start from the parts — the board, the battery, the connectors — and then wrap a body around them, with the right clearances and the openings placed exactly where the connectors are. You never start from a pretty outside shape and hope the electronics fit; you start from the electronics.

That's exactly how Forge's 3D part designer works. You tell it the parts (or hand it your actual PCB file), and it:

• sizes a fitted shell around them,
• places standoffs to mount the board,
• and cuts windows where the connectors and screen sit.

Every generated design is checked by a Microscale engineer before it can be printed — a real quality gate, not just "hope it works."

Your job is the same as before: describe the parts and what needs to poke out. Forge handles the geometry.