Cabinet design guides
Plain-words guides on how cabinets are planned and built, for the homeowner working out a kitchen and the pro running a shop. Every guide is researched, cited, and tied to CabDesign so you can go straight from reading to doing.
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All guides12
Designer9
Materials Library6
Cut List Optimizer6
Gola Profile Configurator1
Hinge Calculator1
Hardware Library3
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Showing all 12 guides.
Cabinet Construction
techniqueHomeowners & pros
From a Sketch to a Cabinet Cut List, Step by Step
Turn cabinet outside dimensions into a parts list you can cut: the order to work in, the formula for each part, and the back panel people get wrong. ModulesDesignerCut List Optimizer referenceFor the shopWhere Your Drawings Live When Cabinet Software Runs in a Browser
What changes when cabinet design software runs in a browser instead of on a workstation: where the drawing lives, what needs a connection, and how you get it out. ModulesDesignerMaterials LibraryCut List Optimizer conceptHomeowners & prosFrameless vs Face Frame Cabinets, Compared
What really changes between a frameless cabinet and a face frame one: interior width, drawer size, hinges, cost, and how each one behaves on a crooked wall. ModulesDesignerHardware Library referenceFor the shopSwitching Cabinet Design Software: What Comes With You and What You Rebuild
Moving a shop to new cabinet design software: what your parts and materials bring across, what the library and the shop standard cost you to rebuild once. ModulesDesignerMaterials LibraryCut List OptimizerHardware LibraryShop Details conceptHomeowners & prosThe 32mm System, Explained
The 32mm system is the hole grid behind frameless cabinets: the 32mm spacing, 37mm setback and 5mm holes that let almost any hinge or slide fit. ModulesDesignerHardware Library referenceFor the shopWhat a Cabinet Cut List Has to Carry Before Anything Gets Cut
The checklist a production shop runs a cut list through before anything gets cut: kerf, grain, edgebanding, offcuts, labels and the file that leaves. ModulesDesignerMaterials LibraryCut List OptimizerDoors, Drawers & Fronts
referenceHomeowners & pros
Cabinet Door Overlay and Reveals, Explained
Overlay and reveal are the same gap measured from opposite sides. Here is what full, half and inset mean, and how to size a door from an opening in either build. ModulesDesignerHinge Calculator conceptHomeowners & prosGola & Handleless Kitchens, Explained
How the handleless Gola kitchen works: the recessed channel that replaces handles, the C, J and L profiles, and three ways to build with no pulls. ModulesDesignerGola Profile ConfiguratorKitchen Planning
Materials & Finishing
techniqueHomeowners & pros
From Cut List to Sheet: Nesting for Yield
Turn a cabinet cut list into sheets with the most yield and least waste: sheet sizes, kerf, grain direction, edgebanding and how nesting really works. ModulesMaterials LibraryCut List Optimizer guideHomeowners & prosEdgebanding: Types, Thickness and How to Choose
PVC, ABS, melamine or real wood veneer, and 0.4 mm through 3 mm: what each edgebanding is good for, how it goes on, and what the thickness costs you at the saw. ModulesMaterials LibraryCut List Optimizer conceptHomeowners & prosPlywood Grades Explained: A1 vs B2, AA and G2S
What A1, B2, AA and G2S actually promise on a plywood spec sheet, explained plainly, so a grade code means something before you buy or cut it. ModulesMaterials LibraryWant to know what just changed?
These guides are kept current rather than dated, so they do not say when a feature arrived. That is what the blog is for: a short, dated post every time something new goes live in CabDesign.
Guides are written and researched by Ahmed Hamade. New guides are added over time. Back to CabDesign.