Heroscape Terrain Tile Generator

This is an OpenSCAD program that can generate terrain tiles for the game Heroscape, originally published by Hasbro and now published by Renegade Games.

Installation and Setup

1. Save the ‘Hex Tile.scad’ file to a folder, and unzip the ‘Hex Face Images.zip’ file to this folder.

2. Install the version of OpenSCAD for your platform, downloaded from https://openscad.org/downloads.html

3. Run OpenSCAD. It should ask you what file you want to open to start with.

4. Navigate to where you saved the program and unpacked the zipfile, and select "Hex Tile.scad".  This will open the file in the left-side pane, with a preview of a one-hex tile with a blank top in the preview pane.

5. If you do not see a pane labeled 'Customizer' in the OpenSCAD window, click on 'Window' in the menu bar, then uncheck 'Hide Customizer'.

6. Near the top of the Customizer pane is a section labeled 'Parameters'. If you do not see a list of parameters you can change, click on 'Parameters' to turn on the parameter list.

7. If 'Automatic Preview' is not checked at the top of the Customizer pane, check it; this will make OpenSCAD automatically update the preview when you change any of the parameters.

At this point, you are ready to generate tiles. To create tiles, you will use the Customizer pane and the rendering controls in the toolbar above the editor window. The icons in the toolbar are for 'new file', 'open file', 'save file', 'undo', 'redo', 'reduce indent', 'increase indent', 'preview', 'render', 'save STL', 'save DXF', and '3D print'. You will only need to use the 'preview', 'render', and 'save STL' icons. You can also access the 'preview' and 'render' functions from the 'Design' entry of the menu bar, and the 'Export STL' function from Export -> Export as STL from the 'File' entry of the menu bar.

• The Preview icon shows '>>' over a greyed-out isometric-view box, and has   a keyboard shortcut of F5. If, when you make a change to the settings in the Customizer, the preview doesn't update, or the options in the Customizer pane are greyed out, click on this icon or press F5 to generate a fresh preview. This is a quick-and-dirty preview that doesn't fully render the tile geometry, so you can get some visual inaccuracies when the preview displays.

• The Render icon shows an inverted caret and horizontal line in front of an isometric-view box, and has a keyboard shortcut of F6. You have to render your tile before you can export it as an STL file.

• The Save as STL icon shows 'STL' over a document icon, will save your rendered tile as an STL file, and has a keyboard shortcut of F7.

The Heroscape Tile Generator OpenSCAD program has been set up to display preview images in a gray color, while rendered images are in the default yellow color. This gives you an easy way to tell whether you have rendered a tile and can save it as an STL file.

With the files included in this model, there is a file 'Tile Options.png'; this file shows the different hex arrangements that the program will generate. Hex arrangements in red replicate tiles that are found in the official Heroscape product line; hex arrangements in blue are unique to this program.

Using the Heroscape Tile Generator

In the Customizer pane, select the characteristics of the tile STL you want to create:

• HexName -- This is the overall pattern for the tile you want to create, from a single hex tile to a 24 hex tile. Click on the box and select the tile layout you want. Refer to the "Tile Options.png" file to see what arrangement of hexes are produced by each type of tile.

• HexType -- This can be either Ground, Water, Riser, or Blank. Riser tiles have a narrow rim instead of a full hex top, and are intended to be used as 'lifts' to raise parts of a map higher without needing to use a lot of regular terrain tiles. Blank tiles have a completely flat top surface, and are intended to be used for applying further modeling to the top surface of the tile, such as was done with the terrain tiles used as bases for trees and plants in the 'Ticalla Jungle' and 'Grove at Laur's Edge' terrain packs. Note that Water and Blank tiles will render and save top down so they will print without needing supports.

• TileHeight – This is how many layers high you want the tile to be; you can generate single-height tiles like the official tiles, or multiple-height tiles for making cliffs more easily. Water tiles with a height greater than 1 will have the normal thinner water tile on top of regular layer walls; this lets you make multi-layer water tiles to use for waterfalls.

• ShowWaterEdges -- for multihex Water tiles, you can either generate a featureless top surface, or one with slightly recessed lines showing where the edges between hexes are; for multihex tiles, this can make tracking movement easier.

• MakeSupports -- For ground tiles, if you're satisfied with the bridging capability of your 3D printer, you can leave this at 'No'; if you want supports under each hex face, change it to 'yes', and a support structure will be generated under each hex in the tile. This option is ignored for Water, Riser, and Blank tiles.

• UseFaceTextureFile -- This controls whether the tile is generated with blank hex faces (a simple raised hexagon), or reads an image to use as a heightmap to texture the hex top. Set to 'Yes' to use a texture file. This setting is ignored for Water, Riser, and Blank tiles.

• TextureFileName -- This is the name of the texture image to use for the hex top. Enter the name of the file to use for the texture of the hex top. The texture image file should be in the same folder as the "Hex Tile.scad" file itself. There are two files included in the zipfile -- "HexTop.png" and "RoadHexTop.png"; these files imitate the hex center texture of the standard hex tiles and road hex tiles, respectively. If you have a different texture image in the folder you unpacked the zipfile into, you can enter it here, and the program will use that file when making the texture for the hex face(s).

Once you have made your choices in the Customizer, if they haven't updated in the preview window, press F5 or click the Preview icon. If it looks good to you, press F6 or click on the Render icon. Depending on the number of hexes in the tile you are generating, if you're using a textured hex face, and if you're generating supports, the rendering may take a while; there will be a progress bar at the bottom of the window. When the rendering is complete, press F7 or click on the STL icon and save your generated tile as an STL file to print.

The tiles are generated with assumed units of millimeters; this is the standard unit for most slicers; if yours is different, you will need to scale the STL appropriately in your slicer. All of the generated tiles, with the exception of the "24HexFullTile" tile, will print on a 250mm x 210mm print bed. The "24HexPart1" and "24HexPart2" tiles can be fitted together to make a 24-hex tile. The STL files are generated as single color tiles; in order to print them with a different color for the base and top of the tile, as in the ‘6Hex Color’ image, you have to manually add a color change where you want it to occur.

This program was originally written back in 2016, when I had a less reliable 3D printer and was less facile with OpenSCAD, and was posted on Thingiverse with a much more limited functionality. Beginning in early June of 2025, I rewrote the program almost from the bottom up, and posted the tile generator in the heroscapers.com forums to get feedback; this resulted in a number of additions to the functionality, ultimately reaching the version I'm posting here.

Update 20250705 – Tile rim modified to have two walls at the back of the cutout on each hex face rather than one, improving the quality of the prints.

Update 202500709 - The support structures have been thickened to make them more likely to hold together when removing the print from the bed, rather than breaking off at the stabilizing disc. Additionally, the protruding tab on each hex face has been shifted slightly to better align with the notch in the official tiles.

Update 20250712 - Modified the tab and notch positioning and the intertile offset to improve the interlinking of tiles that wrapped around multiple sides of an individual tile. Also added small support triangles to the underside of the rim of riser tiles to improve bridging and combat stringing for this tile type.

Update 20250801 - After seeing a picture of what appeared to be a backdrop of a Renegade Games booth with a Heroscape map showing stacked water tiles used to make a waterfall, I have modified the program to allow making water tiles of multiple levels. The top level will still be the normal lower water height, but the lower levels will be the standard terrain layer height.

Update 20250814 - The base of the tile supports was altered to a hexagon, rather than individual pads; this makes the supports more stable, and each hex's support will almost always come out as a single piece. Also, the upper surface supports for the riser tiles was enhanced to reduce the incidence of stringing.

Update 20250907 – The file “Additional Textures.zip” has the full set of hex-face texture files for the customizer choices; the two loose PNG files in this model are the ‘stock’ hex face and road hex face, but if you want more options, you can unpack this zip file into the same folder as the OpenSCAD file, and it will give you more options.

Update 20260317 –The OpenSCAD code has been updated to generate thinner top surfaces, which will reduce or eliminate visible infill patterns when printing water files in translucent filament.