Simple keeps the common controls and uses shop defaults for the rest. Fill wall and Place my Systainers still work. Pro adds toe kick, drawer slides, per-part materials, auto-fill overflow and fine tolerances. Both are free.
Pro shows every build setting, sorted into the tabs below. Switch to Simple for just the common ones.
Lower cabinets
Blank means AUTO: the standard 840 mm base-cabinet height with your Systainers fitted inside. Type a value to force one height on every cabinet.auto · standard 840 mm
Rounds a lower cabinet's built height to a grid. System-32 (32 mm) follows the shelf-hole pattern, so shelves and hardware land on real holes. An upper's height is never rounded: with System-32 on, an upper off the 32 mm grid gets a warning with the nearest balanced heights instead, and the person types the number they want.
For lowers: active when Cabinet tops is Flat or Stepped and no Lower cabinet height is typed. For uppers: never rounds; System-32 warns when the typed Upper height is not a multiple of 32 mm.
How tall the cabinets are built across a wall. Standard: every cabinet the standard height. Flat: one level top, where Place my Systainers grows them all to what the fullest one needs, up to your ceiling. Stepped: each cabinet down to its own stack, so the tops step down.
The ceiling for a lower cabinet that grows, so it applies when Cabinet tops is Flat or Stepped. Growth never passes it: a stack that will not fit under it is reported rather than built too tall. A Lower cabinet height becomes the ceiling instead, since every lower is then built to it. Uppers never grow: they are built to the Upper height you set, so this ceiling does not reach them.
Set by the Lower cabinet height you typed, because every lower cabinet is built to that height.
Active when Cabinet tops is Flat or Stepped.
Air gap between stacked Systainers for lower cabinets, so they slide without rubbing. 12 mm is the shop default, 18 mm is the roomier choice when a lid latch needs room to flip open, and Custom takes your own number.
The air gap over each Systainer in a lower cabinet, in any unit. It applies to every slot, so it adds up over a tall stack.
Inside front-to-back depth available for the Systainers. Festool Systainer³ are about 296 mm deep.
Auto-filled when you size the depth from a drawer-slide length.
Set by the drawer-slide length you chose above.
Exterior width comes from the Systainer size (M / L / XXL) plus slides and material, not a fixed number.
Upper cabinets
Overall height of every upper (wall) cabinet, no toe kick. 762 mm is standard; above that a thin back also gets a middle nailer.
How high off the floor the upper run hangs, measured floor to the bottom of the upper cabinets. 1372 mm is a common counter-plus-backsplash clearance; shops mount uppers all over, so there is no one standard.
Front-to-back depth of the uppers. A Festool Systainer is about 296 mm deep, so a 305 mm upper is too shallow to hold one on a shelf; about 350 mm clears. Still shallower than the base cabinets.
Air gap between stacked Systainers for upper cabinets, so they slide without rubbing. 12 mm is the shop default, 18 mm is the roomier choice when a lid latch needs room to flip open, and Custom takes your own number.
The air gap over each Systainer in an upper cabinet, in any unit. It applies to every slot, so it adds up over a tall stack.
Lower box: base, top & nailer
Height of the base frame the cabinet stands on. Standard is 100 mm. The box sides are cut that much shorter; the base is its own frame underneath.
How far the base frame sits back from the cabinet front, for foot room. 76 mm is the trade standard. Set it to 0 to build the base flush and you get a plinth, not a recess.
How the cabinets meet the floor. All three cut the box sides the same way. Toe kick base: a frame of front, back and side pieces with cross pieces (sleepers) across it, cut to the cabinet's outside width. Adjustable legs: four levellers per cabinet, six on a wide one, and no frame at all; a clip-on toe kick face is optional and starts off. Platform base: the run stands on a platform you build to the wall and floor, so the box sides are cut short. The platform is not on the cut list, because the room sets its size, not a cabinet.
How the carcass corners (side to top, bottom and stretchers) are fastened. A joinery choice: it changes what the cut sheet marks and what the buy list orders, never a cut size.
A finished kickboard across the front of the toe-kick recess. Continuous: one board over all the cabinets, joined at a seam if it runs longer than a sheet. Per cabinet: a separate face on each. The base frame stays either way.
Height of the kickboard face. Blank matches the toe-kick height and fills the recess; a shorter number leaves a shadow line.
A full top panel closes the box and stiffens it; front and back stretchers are common under a countertop. Same height either way, only the parts differ.
Front-to-back width of each stretcher. 100 mm is typical; System-32 shops trim to about 74 mm to clear the hole grid.
Back construction
How the back panel meets the top of the box.
A dadoed back sits in a dado cut into each side, which squares the box and hides the panel edge. Leave it off and the back simply covers the back. A dadoed back is cut wider, to reach into the dado on both sides.
How far in from the back edge of the side the dado is cut. When a back nailer is going in and that back is dadoed, the dado has to clear the nailer's own thickness, typically 18 mm or 19 mm for typical carcass stock, so the default follows whichever nailer actually applies. With no nailer in the way, any depth is accepted, and a blank field uses 12 mm.
How deep the dado is cut into each side. 6 mm is what most North American shops use: common practice, not a published rule, since no standards body sets a number. European shops often go 8 mm in 18 mm sides. It never cuts deeper than half the side.
A back nailer is a board across the back of the cabinet that you screw through into the wall. It sits between the sides, so its thickness takes depth from the drawer slides, which is allowed for. Where the nailer goes sets which end it lands on.
A rail at the top is the usual way a base cabinet hangs on the wall; one at the bottom fastens it down at the deck. Choose both to hold the run at both ends. Each rail is its own line on the cut list, so nobody has to guess which board is which.
Vertical width of the rail. 100 mm is the common default; 75 mm to 150 mm is normal.
Component materials
Pick the material for each part. Anything left alone follows the Cabinet boxes (carcass) material, so one box can mix different thicknesses for sides, back and trays. A pick sets that part's thickness too, and the cut list nests each material on its own sheets. Stock comes from your Materials library. Top stretchers always cut at the carcass thickness, so their picker sets material only.
Your Materials library is empty. Add sheet or hardwood stock in the Materials library, then pick it for each part here.
Plywood thickness for the box sides, top and bottom (the carcass), on every cabinet. Thicker sides widen each cabinet slightly. Set by the material assigned below; change the material there to change it.
Set by the material assigned in Component materials. · Add to library
Box construction (toe kick, top, nailer) is on the Box and Back tab.
Box sides, top, bottom, and every piece of the toe kick base frame: front toe, back toe, side toes and sleepers. The toe-kick face has its own material.
A thin back needs a nailer (top + bottom, plus a middle one over 762 mm). A thick or full-thickness back screws to the wall directly, so no nailer. You can also build it with no back.
The lower cabinet back.The back panel cut thickness follows the assigned back material.
Plywood thickness of the tray's upright boards, set by the tray side material you assign. Thicker sides widen the cabinet slightly. The tray BOTTOM has its own material and thickness, and that is what raises each Systainer.
Set by the material assigned in Component materials. · Add to library
The drawer box bottom, often thinner than the sides. Left alone, it comes off the same board as the sides. Its thickness sets how far each Systainer sits up and how deep the groove is cut.
The nailer or nailers across the back, when one is enabled. Top, bottom or both, they all use this material.
Plywood thickness of the nailer, set by the nailer material you assign and usually the same as the box. This much comes off the usable drawer-slide depth.
Set by the material assigned in Component materials. · Add to library
The front and back stretchers across the top of a lower cabinet, when its top is stretchers rather than a full panel. Always cut at the carcass thickness, so this picker sets the material only.
The visible kickboard face, when a toe-kick face is enabled. Follows the box material unless you pick a finished one: prefinished, paint-grade, or a veneer to match the doors.
The shelves the Systainers rest on in wall (upper) cabinets.
Shelf thickness, set by the upper-shelf material you assign (about 19 mm is common). Shelves adjust on the 32 mm System-32 hole grid. Set how many per cabinet on each upper card.
Set by the material assigned in Component materials. · Add to library
Each pull-out tray is a low drawer box: a bottom, two sides, and a front and back wall you can switch off under Trays and Slides.
Edgebanding
Edgebanding covers a bare plywood edge with a strip of matching material, so no plies show. Pick one for the job, then tick the edges to cover. A covered edge is cut narrower by the strip's thickness, and the Cut List tool prices it by the length used.
Edgeband the exposed front edges of the cabinet carcass so no bare plywood edges show: the sides, the top and the bottom. Pick an edgebanding from your Materials library; the individual edges are ticked in the Cabinet carcass and Trays groups.
Your Materials library has no edgebanding yet. Add one of type Edgebanding in the Materials library, then pick it here.
The box itself, on every cabinet: the front edges of the two sides, the top and the bottom, plus the front edge of each adjustable shelf in a wall cabinet. Untick to leave the whole carcass raw.
Your lower top is built as two boards, so Top edge covers the front one. The back one has its own choice.
Nothing is edgebanded on this job yet. Assign an edgebanding and this choice starts driving the cut list and the buy quantities.
The short front end of the low wall down each side of the tray, the piece you see and touch as it comes out.
The long top edge of each side wall, the one you look down on with the tray pulled out. It runs the full depth, so each tray uses much more edgebanding.
Trays & slides
Gap on each side between a Systainer and its pull-out tray, so it mounts with room; the tray is never the exact box width. Tray width = Systainer + 2× this, which widens the cabinet. Default 3 mm per side.
How far the sides stand above the tray bottom, which stops a Systainer sliding off when the tray is out. 50 mm is typical: under about 40 mm it can lift off, over about 75 mm it blocks access. The boards are cut taller, because the bottom sits raised inside them.
How each pull-out tray is built
A pull-out tray is a drawer box. It always has a drawer box bottom and two drawer box sides; the front, the back and the joinery are yours to choose. The drawing follows every choice.
Untick one and that end is left open. Untick both and you get an open tray: a bottom and two sides.
Two ways to build the same tray; both hold the Systainer the same. Full height: the back matches the front and sides, and under dado joinery the bottom's groove runs through it. Dropped: a shorter back standing on the bottom, its top edge level with the sides, with the bottom screwed up into it.
Dado: the bottom sits in a groove cut into the sides, so every board holds it. The standard build, and the default. Pocket screws: no grooves; the bottom is screwed up into the sides through pocket holes in its underside.
How deep the bottom's groove is cut into each side. The default is the shop rule, half the bottom's thickness, and it follows your tray materials on its own. Type a number to override it, or clear the field for the rule again. It never cuts deeper than half the side.
How far the bottom sits up from the lower edge of the sides. Raised is standard: the groove needs material under it. It lifts every Systainer the same amount, so a tall stack may fit one fewer. Type 0 for a flush bottom, which makes the groove a rabbet, or clear the field for the default.
How far the drawer slide's own bottom edge sits above the tray side's bottom edge. 0 means flush, which is standard. Mount the slide higher and the vertical gap (or the first slide's lift, for the very first one) has to cover the difference, or the tray above would hit the Systainer below - if it can't, you'll be told so instead of getting a plan that doesn't go together.
How far up from the cabinet's inside bottom the lowest drawer slide's bottom edge sits. 0 means it sits right on the bottom, which is standard. Raise it to leave a permanent riser under the very first Systainer.
Side-mount slides take 12.7 mm per side and add no height. Undermount slides run under the tray and need 21 mm per side instead of 12.7 mm, so the cabinet comes out wider for the same tray, and each tray costs about 21 mm of height.12.7 mm per side · 0/tray
A Systainer is 296 mm front to back and has to come right out of the cabinet before you can lift it off its tray. Full extension brings the tray out by the whole length of the slide. Three-quarter extension, which is what a lot of slides off the shelf at a big-box store are, brings it out about three quarters of that. Over-travel comes out further still, and is counted here as full extension because how much further is set by the model you buy.
Optional: pick a slide from your Hardware library and cabinets are sized to its exact clearance and depth. Generic uses the side-mount or undermount profile instead. A model locks the slide type; Generic unlocks it.
Tick this to size the inside depth from a standard drawer-slide length, allowing for the slide type and any back nailer. Untick to type your own.
Standard sizes for the chosen slide type. The cabinet depth is set to fit, and every pull-out tray is cut to run on it. Deeper than 609.6 mm: untick and type your own.
How far each pull-out tray sits back from the cabinet front. At 0 the tray fronts finish flush. Sizing the depth from a slide length makes the cabinet deeper by this much; with a typed depth it leaves the slides less room, so a shorter slide may be picked.
Auto-fill & adding cabinets past the wall
Cabinets fill from the bottom up: the first Systainer sits on the cabinet floor, the next above it, the spare height at the top. That is how a shop loads a cabinet, and what the drawing shows. Tick this to stack down from the top instead: the same Systainers go in the same cabinets at the same height, and only the end they stack from changes.
When the wall is full, keep adding cabinets past it, flagged as over the wall, so every Systainer gets a home. Off makes the wall a hard limit: whatever does not fit is reported instead of placed. With neither Lower cabinets width nor Upper cabinets width set, Off adds nothing.
Applies whenever cabinets can grow (Cabinet tops on Flat or Stepped). When a Systainer overflows, this decides what to try first: grow a cabinet taller, or add another - inside the wall's own free space, or past it too if Add cabinets past the wall is on.Active when Cabinet tops is Flat or Stepped.
Grouped by brand and category keeps your Systainers in that order and packs each into the tightest cabinet that fits. Tightest by height ignores grouping and stacks the tallest first, so each cabinet packs as short as it can.
Upper cabinets
Gap on each side between a Systainer and the upper opening, so it slides onto the shelf. Upper interior width = Systainer + 2× this. Separate from the lower tray gap, so an upper can be narrower than the base cabinets. Default 3 mm per side.
How the upper's own side panels are drilled for adjustable shelves. System 32 is the standard 5 mm hole on a 32 mm grid, 37 mm in from the front edge and 37 mm in from the back panel. Custom types your own numbers. No shelf holes leaves the sides undrilled.
Each box reads the unit picked beside it. Leave a box blank to keep its standard value.Hole sizeSpacingFront setbackBack setback
Back construction
How the back panel meets the top of the box.
The same choice as the base cabinets: a dadoed back sits in a dado cut into each side and squares the box. The dado depth is shared with them, so a shop sets its saw once. The dado position is set on the Box and Back tab, and it still has to clear this cabinet's own back nailer.
Width of the nailers used with a thin back. 100 mm is the common default.
A thin back has no rigidity of its own, so the rails hold the cabinet flat and screw it to the wall. On a tall upper the back can bow, and too much wall sits unfastened between the top and bottom rails, so a third goes in the middle. Standard over 762 mm. Leave it on.
An upper taller than this gets the third (middle) rail. 762 mm is the standard break: an upper that height is fine on two rails, and the taller sizes are the tall-cabinet case.
When unlinked, the upper cabinets can be a different width than the lower cabinets (e.g. uppers stop short of a window). When linked, one width drives both the lower and upper cabinets.Set the lower cabinets width to see how many cabinets fitSet the upper width to see how many cabinets fit
Models
⌕
Wall elevation
Place the Systainers below. Drag each one into a cabinet's tray; the wall picture appears above once a cabinet is on the wall, and follows every change after that.
Set up your project
A short guided walk. Safe shop defaults are already filled in at every step, so Continue accepts them and you can change anything you like.