The PCB Enclosure Readiness Checklist

TL;DR

Yes—the Enclosure Workbench can get you from PCB to print-ready enclosure without a full CAD cycle. This checklist walks through exactly what dimensions and specs to gather before starting the build: board size, mounting holes, riser height, fastener profile, clearances, connector cutouts, and material preferences. Enter these correctly on day one, and the enclosure configuration moves smoothly from quote to print.

A working board on the bench is only halfway to a usable product demo. The moment it leaves the lab, it needs a housing that protects the electronics, holds the PCB securely, leaves room for connectors, closes cleanly, and can actually be printed without a long back-and-forth CAD cycle.

That is the job of Aiurion's Enclosure Workbench: take the repeatable parts of electronics enclosure design and turn them into a guided build flow. You enter the dimensions that matter, review the live 3D preview, quote the bottom and lid as a matched print set, and send the enclosure into Aiurion's production workflow for review before manufacturing.

Build your enclosure

Why Enclosures Slow Teams Down

Most electronics enclosures do not fail because the idea was complicated. They fail because the details were easy to underestimate:

- The wall is too thin for the insert size.

- The PCB standoffs do not match the hole pattern.

- The lid does not have enough clearance to close cleanly.

- The connector opening is in the wrong wall or too close to another cutout.

- Vents look fine in CAD but create print support problems.

- The prototype quote is delayed because the print file, material choice, and hardware assumptions are unclear.

The Enclosure Workbench is built around those failure points. It is not a blank CAD tool and it is not a PCB file importer. It is a focused enclosure builder for teams that already know the board size, mounting pattern, required clearances, connector locations, and rough use case.

What To Measure Before You Start

If you have these inputs, you have enough to create a strong first enclosure configuration:

1. PCB length and width

Measure the rectangular board outline in millimeters. The workbench can derive the enclosure footprint from the PCB size plus the board-to-wall clearance.

2. Board-to-wall clearance

Give the PCB breathing room for components, connector shells, assembly tolerance, and wire routing. The default flow is designed around entering this clearance directly instead of guessing the enclosure exterior first.

3. Mounting hole centers

Capture the X and Y spacing between PCB mounting holes. The workbench supports 2-point and 4-point mounting patterns and uses those centers to place the PCB boss geometry.

4. Riser height

Riser height controls how far the PCB sits above the base plate. This matters for solder joints, through-hole leads, bottom-side components, cable strain relief, and insert depth.

5. Fastener size

The current workbench supports M2 and M3 hardware profiles. For heat-set insert builds, the tool sizes lid and PCB features around pilot diameter, boss outer diameter, and insert depth instead of treating screw holes as generic circles.

6. Wall, base, and lid thickness

Thin walls are tempting in CAD and frustrating in the real world. The workbench applies guarded ranges so the enclosure stays closer to what Aiurion can print and review for production.

7. Lid requirements

Choose whether the enclosure needs a lid, a rabbet lip, and lid vents. The workbench generates the bottom and lid as separate quoted parts, with fit clearance accounted for in the generated geometry.

8. Connector and cable openings

List each cutout by wall, shape, size, and offset. The workbench supports rectangular and circular I/O cutouts on the front, back, left, and right walls, and it ignores overlapping cutouts rather than quietly producing a bad opening.

9. Vent or wall pattern needs

For airflow or weight reduction, the workbench includes lid slot controls and wall pattern options such as diagonal vents and an experimental Voronoi-style wall pattern. Diagonal wall vents are capped around supportless FDM print constraints.

10. Material color, quantity, and fulfillment

Current self-serve material colors include Black PLA, Red PLA, Silver PLA, and Matte Black PLA. The quote flow also supports quantity changes, standard or rush production, and fulfillment options including US shipping, local pickup, and Bay Area courier.

What The Workbench Actually Generates

The Enclosure Workbench creates a two-piece electronics enclosure package:

- A printed bottom shell with base plate, walls, rounded corners, internal base fillets, PCB standoff bosses, and configured wall cutouts.

- A printed lid with configurable thickness, optional rabbet lip, lid vent geometry, and lid screw holes.

- Hardware aware geometry for heat-set insert workflows.

- A live quote built from generated STL files for both the bottom and the lid.

When you click Quote This Build, the workbench sends the generated enclosure package to Aiurion's slicer backed print quoting flow. The quote panel then shows the live price, print time when available, estimated printed weight, production option, fulfillment option, and checkout path.

For customers, the intended path is direct: configure, quote, checkout, and let Aiurion review the build before production.

A Simple Example

The default enclosure profile is a good starting point for many small electronics builds:

- 90 x 52 mm PCB

- 76 x 38 mm mounting hole centers

- 5 mm board-to-wall clearance

- 4 PCB bosses

- M3 heat-set insert geometry

- 5 mm wall and base settings

- 5 lid vent slots

- Black PLA material

With PCB driven sizing enabled, the enclosure footprint is derived from the board and clearance inputs. That means the tool works from the board outward instead of forcing you to sketch an arbitrary box first.

This matters because most prototype enclosure mistakes start with the outside dimensions. Teams draw the shell, then discover late that the board barely clears the walls, the hole centers are wrong, the connector needs more space, or the insert geometry does not fit. The workbench reverses that order: board, mounting, hardware, clearance, then enclosure.

Where It Fits Best

Use the Enclosure Workbench when you need a fast, practical enclosure for:

- PCB prototypes

- Sensor housings

- Robotics control boxes

- Drone electronics covers

- Wire bundle housings

- Lab and test fixtures

- Field demo units

It is especially useful when the design is not worth a full custom CAD engagement yet, but it still needs to be more serious than a generic project box. You get a controlled enclosure workflow, real quote feedback, and a path into production review without starting from a blank model.

Where It Does Not Replace Engineering

The workbench is intentionally focused. It does not currently import PCB files, auto-place connector libraries, guarantee waterproof sealing, certify thermal performance, or replace detailed mechanical engineering for complex production hardware.

That constraint is a feature. For early prototypes and short-run printed housings, the fastest useful flow is often:

1. Enter accurate dimensions.

2. Generate a practical first enclosure.

3. Review the live geometry.

4. Quote the print set.

5. Let Aiurion review the build before production.

If the enclosure needs exact connector modeling, gasket design, metal shielding, threaded metal hardware beyond the configured insert stack, or injection-molding design rules, it should move into a custom engineering workflow.

Copy This Brief Before You Build

Use this as your intake checklist before opening the workbench:

Project name:
 
Use case:
 
PCB length:
 
PCB width:
 
Mounting holes: 2 or 4
 
Hole spacing X:
 
Hole spacing Y:
 
Preferred screw size: M2 or M3
 
Required board-to-wall clearance:
 
Required riser height:
 
Tallest top-side component:
 
Tallest bottom-side component:
 
Connector locations:
 
Cable exit locations:
 
Ventilation needed: yes/no
 
Preferred color/material:
 
Quantity:
 
Needed by:
 
Fulfillment: shipping, pickup, or courier
 
Notes for Aiurion review:
 

The better these inputs are, the faster the enclosure can move from configuration to quote to print review.

Build The Box Around The Board

The Enclosure Workbench is designed for the point where the board is real, the prototype needs a physical housing, and waiting on a full CAD loop would slow the project down.

Start with your PCB dimensions, choose the hardware and enclosure details, review the live 3D preview, and quote the print set directly.

Build your enclosure with Aiurion