I thought up this idea of having interchangeable front plates so people who are developing multiple cards can just print the base card with minor modifications and on the plate, it has rails that slot into the card, anyone have ideas on how to make it stable and strong? It could also be used by consumers if they only want one main card and various plates and you could even extend the card using it.
Isn’t that what the expansion cards already do? It only takes about 30 minutes to print a whole new open-top expansion card. (far shorter than the time it takes to manufacture / order a new PCB that would require the new front plate). I see where you’re going, but I think that the benefits would be marginal if not non-existent.
However, if inside the expansion card there was a GPIO board with exposed pins, then I could see a front plate that could be plugged in with various connector ports. Maybe this is what you were thinking about and I misinterpreted your post. 
I was intending for it to be for expansion cards but the whole point of it is less plastic, if you have multiple plates but one card you do not have to print as much plastic.
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Mmmm, I see. I was not thinking about it from the environmental / cost saving angle.
I just do not know if it would be strong enough.
I think it could be strong enough. The tricky part would be the mechanism to snap / lock it into place securely. A friction fit may not be suitable for very long at all.
Yep, you would have to have some clip mechanism.
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