Best Cabinet Design Software: Six Questions to Ask First
The best cabinet design software is the one that fits what you do with the drawing afterwards, and that is different for a remodel, a shop and a weekend build. Six questions sort the options quickly. Each one can be answered in the first hour, on a job whose right answers you already know.
The short version
Start with what the drawing has to become, because every other answer follows from it. Then check the other five in whatever order matters to you.
| 1. What the drawing becomes | A picture, a parts list, or both from one job |
|---|---|
| 2. Whose construction it builds | Your boxes, your overlay and your material |
| 3. What it knows about your stock | The sheet sizes you buy and the offcuts you already own |
| 4. What comes in and goes out | Files you can open elsewhere, and parts and materials you can bring across |
| 5. Where it runs | On one machine, or in a browser on any of them |
| 6. What it costs, and until when | A price you can find on one page and a date you can plan around |
On this page
Start with what the drawing becomes
Three people can open the same kind of software and want three different things out of it.
| A remodel | The room has to look right, and the sizes have to be buildable by whoever builds them |
|---|---|
| A small shop | The parts have to cut right the first time, on the sheets the shop buys |
| A weekend build | One cabinet or a built-in, done properly |
Name yours before you compare anything. A tool that is right for the first can be wrong for the second, and the comparison only means something once you know which one you are.
Six questions
Try these on any tool, including this one. Use a job you have already built, because you know what the answers should be.
1. What does the drawing become?
Take the job and get from the drawing to something you could hand to the person at the saw: a parts list with sizes, quantities and the cabinet each part belongs to. Count how much of it you retype.
2. Whose construction does it build?
Change how the boxes go together, for example the sides running to the floor instead of sitting on the bottom, and see whether the parts follow.
3. What does it know about your stock?
Enter the sheet you buy, at the size it is sold. A metric 4 by 8 panel is 2440 by 1220 mm, which is 1.6 mm longer and 0.8 mm wider than a 96 by 48 in sheet, so enter the one you actually buy. Then look for a way to tell the software about your offcuts.
4. What comes in, and what goes out?
Export once and open the file in the program that has to read it. Then check what you can bring across: your stock list, and the parts you have already worked out.
5. Where does it run?
Count the places you work: the shop computer, the office, a tablet at the install. Then ask which of them can open the job.
6. What does it cost, and until when?
Find the price on the product's own site, on one page, with a date. Ask what free means in each case: a trial, a limited plan, or the whole product for a stated period.
How CabDesign answers each one
Each product claim in this section was checked against the shipped product.
| What the drawing becomes | The Designer holds the room as one model in a floor plan, an elevation and 3D, and the parts come from that model. The Design Outputs page prints a report, prints labels for the cut parts, prints a customer quote once the job is priced, exports CSV and sends the job to the Cut List Optimizer |
|---|---|
| Whose construction | Construction is set for the job, for a cabinet class or as a named method your shop saves and applies in one click, and every cabinet inherits it unless you change that cabinet |
| Your stock | A part takes its real thickness from the material assigned to it in the Materials Library. The Cut List Optimizer cuts from your saved offcuts (it calls them remnants) first, or aims for the fewest sheets, whichever you pick |
| In and out | Your stock list comes into the Materials Library as a CSV, and part rows paste into the Optimizer as a list. Out go three export profiles, each versioned: a spreadsheet CSV, a cut station parts list and a DXF drawing of the nested sheets |
| Where it runs | In a browser, with nothing to install. Your projects are stored against your account, so the same job opens on the shop computer and the office one. A computer or a tablet is what the Designer is built for |
| What it costs | Free during the open beta, with no card. The pricing page carries the price and the dates |
Each export profile carries a version in its id. A change of format gets a new id and never alters an old one, so an export you set up once keeps producing the same file.
Where CabDesign fits
CabDesign is built for the case where one job gives you the drawing and the parts. The pages below match the three situations from the start of this page.
| Planning a remodel or a built-in | Kitchen cabinet design software: what a kitchen needs from it, and the step-by-step guide |
|---|---|
| Running a small shop | The Cut List Optimizer, and what a shop cut list has to carry |
| Coming from other software | Moving off a CAD seat: what comes with you and what gets rebuilt once |
What free means here
Both CabDesign and StackDesign are free during the open beta, with no card to enter. The pricing page carries the price and the dates, along with what the plans look like afterwards.
Five smaller tools run with nothing signed in at all: board feet calculator, material cost calculator, the hinge calculator, the Gola profile configurator, and spec photo to cut list.
Start with a job you already built. You know what the answers should be, which makes it the quickest test of any tool you try.
Common questions
What is the best cabinet design software?
It depends on what you do with the drawing, and six questions sort the options. What does the drawing become, whose construction does it build, what does it know about your stock, what can come in and go out, where does it run, and what does it cost and until when. CabDesign is built for the case where one job gives you the drawing and the parts.
Is there good free cabinet design software?
CabDesign is free during its open beta, with no card, and that covers the Designer, the Cut List Optimizer and the rest of the product. The pricing page carries the price and the dates. Five smaller tools run with nothing signed in at all: the board feet calculator, the material cost calculator, the hinge calculator, the Gola profile configurator, and spec photo to cut list.
Do I need CAD experience?
No. The room and the cabinets are drawn in a floor plan, an elevation and 3D, so you can see what you are making from three angles before anything is cut. Where trade knowledge is needed, such as your overlay or your reveal, the guides library has an article on both.
Can I bring my own materials and parts?
Your stock list comes into the Materials Library as a CSV, and part rows can be pasted into the Cut List Optimizer as a list. What you build here once is your cabinet catalog and your construction method.
What screen does it want?
A computer, or a tablet held wide. A floor plan and an elevation want room to work in, and the Designer is supported from 1280 pixels wide by 720 tall.
Keep reading
A CabDesign page. Every product claim here was checked against the shipped product. Check every measurement against your own tooling and a scrap before you cut. Browse all guides.