Carcassonne Magnetic Tile Grid and Box Organizer

I tried out a few of the other existing printable Carcassonne grids, and most of them worked great. But I wanted a version that would fit inside the game box. So I designed my own grid from scratch (though it's definitely inspired by some of the other designs ).

One of the first things I realized was that the interlocking “puzzle-piece” style grids weren't going to work—because there just isn't enough side-to-side room in the game box for even tiny interlocking tabs on the side of a 4x4 tile grid. So I ordered some of the smallest neodymium disc magnets I could find (1mm x 2mm), and adjusted the design to accommodate gluing them in. I still wish I could have made it work without needing magnets—I tend to love fully-printable solutions to things—but in this case, I think it turned out to be worth the extra time/money to glue in the magnets

The end result is great! Each grid has perfectly-sized openings for the tiles. They're not too snug, but they also don't wiggle around too much. The magnets are just strong enough to keep the grid sections together nicely, without needing much effort to attach/detach them.

To top it off… I created an easy-in/easy-out “stand/holder" that goes inside the game box (inspired by this model ) which holds the grid pieces in a neat stack, and makes sure there's room for the rest of the game pieces. I then created a few other little containers to store the game tiles and each of the sets of Meeples individually.

I also made it so that (if you want to) you can remove two halves of the box organization system, and have them out on the table during gameplay. Each half shares the same magnetic attachment pattern as the grids themselves—so you can have the “stock pile” of the game tiles attached to one side of the grid… and the stack of spare grids attached to another side of the play area. Or, of course—you can just leave it all inside the box. My main goal was to make it even easier to quickly set up the game and start playing… and make it easy and quick to put things away when you're done!

Everything you see in my pictures was printed on my Prusa MK4 printer, using the default “InputShaper” 0.2mm speed profile, on the Smooth Steel PEI sheet, with no brim or supports or anything.

• I printed my grids using Prusament “Simply Green” PLA
• each grid section took about 1 hour 20 minutes to print
• I printed the box organizers using Prusament “Galaxy Black” PLA
• the large flat box insert section (with the grid holder tower) took about 3 hours
• the game tile holder + all 5 meeple storage boxes took about 4.5 hours

So in total, creating 12 grid sections + both halves of the box insert + 5 meeple storage boxes… this took around ~24 hours of print time total on my MK4. Depending on your printer & settings, your times will obviously vary.

For the magnets, I ordered a set of 2mm x 1mm Neodymium disc magnets from amazon (not an affiliate link or anything—feel free to buy them from wherever you can find them). For the complete set, you will need at least 120 magnets. Or, for the grids alone—if you don't care about magnets for the box organizers—you'd only need 96 (8 magnets x 12 grids). That sounds like a lot—but the set I bought for $13 USD came with 500 magnets.

I also used common super glue to fix all of the magnets into their designated recesses.

I highly recommend printing the “Carcassonne Test Grid” file first, and adding the magnets in, and checking their fit… to verify that the materials and print settings you plan to use will actually work well, and that there won't be any issues getting the magnets in place.

You will also need to be VERY sure that your print bed is level and clean , so that edges don't peel up and come un-stuck while you print. I didn't end up having to use a brim or anything… but my printer is also brand new. You can definitely add a brim if that helps, though. In fact, if you set it to use a brim on the internal edges only , you wouldn't even really need to remove them afterward, as they wouldn't interfere with the grids connecting together.

Once you're sure you've got good settings, go ahead and print 12 grids.

Then print 5 copies of the Meeple box, 1 tile organizer, and 1 box insert.

I personally waited to glue the magnets until after I had printed all 12 of the grids… since setting up & cleaning up the glue felt easier that way.

Doing it that way also helped me keep this next part straight:

— THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT! Make sure you've thought this through! —

In order for the grid sections to fit together correctly, you'll have to make sure you use a CONSISTENT pattern for the polarity of the magnets when inserting them into the slots on every grid. Otherwise you'll end up with grids that will repel each other instead of connecting together!

My system was to look at each edge of the grid, and insert the magnet in the left slot so that it had a “negative” attraction, and then insert the right-side magnet so it had a “positive” attraction. Then, rotating the grid 90 degrees at a time, I'd repeat that same pattern on all 4 edges of the grid—left negative, right positive. Then I did that same thing on all 12 grids.

I kept my first grid with already-glued-magnets nearby while doing each of the rest… in case I got lost in the process, and needed a reference/tester to make sure I was getting the polarity correct on the rest.

The best way I found to insert the magnets (and keep track of polarity) was to make a “pencil-like” stack of about 20-30 magnets at a time, and use that as a “stick” to get leverage and control while inserting the magnets. They're just too tiny and hard to manage individually otherwise.

I used a system like this:

• I squeezed some super glue into a pile on a disposable paper plate
• I picked up a “stick” of 20-30 magnets
• I checked the polarity of the stick/stack against my “reference grid”, to find the correct end I needed to insert into the next slot on the new grid.
• I then “dipped” that end of the magnet stack into the glue, (just barely), to get a little bit of glue on just the end magnet only
• then I aligned that gluey magnet with the slot on the grid, and pushed it in.
• once the magnet was inserted into the slot, I would sorta “drag” the rest of the magnet stack to one side while still pushing down (rather than pulling the extra magnets directly away from the grid, and probably pulling the seated magnet with it), until the stack was disconnected from the lone inserted magnet.
• next, I would flip the stack of magnets around (so the OTHER polarity was now facing the grid), and set it down on the table.
• If needed, I then used a flat edge of one of the Meeples to push the magnet further in place, until it was as flush as possible with the top of the hole.
• Then I'd pick up the stack of magnets… double-check the polarity needed for the next slot on the grid (it should repel the magnet I just inserted), and repeat the process.

Once you get into the rhythm of it, it goes pretty quick, and you can get them all glued in no time.

I also added magnets to the bottom of the Meeple boxes (and the matching top area of the box inserts) … just to give it a nice “snap in place” feel when adding/removing them from the game box. That's not strictly necessary, so feel free to skip those if you'd like. But there are also spots for magnets on the sides of both box inserts, so that they snap together while in the box … or snap to the sides of the grids if you take them out during gameplay.