Construction and hardware
Set up how your shop builds cabinets once, and every cabinet in the project follows it. Open the project and choose Construction & Hardware. From inside a room, use the ⚙ Construction & Hardware link at the top.
These settings apply to every room in the project and auto-save. Watch for Saved ✓.
Tap the (i) next to any setting for a short explanation, with an example and a link back to this guide.
Construction
| Setting | Options / meaning |
|---|---|
| Carcass joinery | Butt (screwed), Confirmat screw, Cabineo (Lamello). Decides which holes are drilled |
| Butt-joint screw holes | Pilot/clearance holes through the side at each butt joint. 0 = none |
| Corner clearance | A strip added where a cabinet meets a corner, so its door clears the run beside it. A cabinet can override this in its own editor |
| Toe kick | Integral (notched sides) or Separate (levelers + kick board) |
| Toe kick face | Painted (front material) matches the doors; Case stock (carcass material) doesn't |
| Kick scribe allowance | Extra height cut on the kick face so you can scribe it to an uneven floor. 0 = cut to exact height |
| Back groove depth | How deep the groove that holds the back panel is cut into the sides, bottom and top. The back is cut bigger to reach into it |
| Back groove width slop | Extra width on the back's groove: groove = back thickness + this. Lower it for a snug back; raise it if backs are a fight to fit. The rear stretcher or top always stops on the groove's front edge, so it moves with this |
| Back depth slop | How far short of the bottom of the groove the back is cut, on both sides and the bottom, so it slides in easily. Its top edge stays flush. 0 = the back bottoms out in every groove |
Measure your back material with calipers and set its real thickness under Materials. "¼ in" plywood is often 0.20–0.22 in, and the groove is cut from the thickness you enter, so a thin sheet leaves a visible gap behind the rear stretcher.
Drawer boxes
| Setting | Options / meaning |
|---|---|
| Joinery | Dado (captured) or Vortex 9282 dovetail |
| Dovetail bits | Two bits. The 9282 dovetail bit cuts the sockets in the front and back. A new ¼″ straight bit, not resharpened, cuts the tails on the sides; a resharpened bit is smaller and cuts a joint that won't fit. The "Tail bit" check shows the ¼″ one. |
| Tail fit | How much narrower the tails are cut than the sockets, in total (half off each side of every tail). Default 0.003″. Raise it if the tails are too tight to push in, lower it if the joint is loose. The sockets don't change. |
| Material | What the drawer boxes are cut from |
Hardware
- Drawer runner: the default slide for every drawer.
- Hinge: the default hinge for every door.
Manage runner and hinge types
Under Manage runner & hinge types you can add your own hardware alongside the built-in entries (marked sys).
Drawer runners: undermount or side-mount, with the lengths the maker sells and where the holes go (Length catalog & drilling). Tap the (i) on any field for an explanation. Rows save themselves when you click out of them. For side-mount slides you set:
- the height of the slide's centreline above the drawer-box bottom
- the front (cam) hole and rear hole positions
- pilot hole diameter and depth
- clearance behind the drawer box
- the slide's height and thickness, used for the drawing
Hinges: name, and the blind-corner door push-out.
Take these numbers from the hardware maker's drilling template, not from memory. Check the drilling preview before your first cut.
Countertop
The default countertop thickness and overhang for new countertops.
Presets: set up once, reuse everywhere
- Get a project's construction and hardware the way your shop builds.
- Under Save current as preset, name it (e.g. "My shop standard") and click Save preset.
- In a new project, find it under Load a preset and click load.
Loading a preset copies its settings into the project. Changing the project later doesn't change the preset.