Materials
Every part's size depends on your material thicknesses, so set these before you cut anything. If your "¾ in" plywood is really 18 mm or 23/32 in, enter the real number.
Open the project and go to the Materials tab.
Material defaults
Choose what each part of a cabinet is built from:
| Setting | Parts |
|---|---|
| Carcass | Sides, top/bottom, fixed shelves, stretchers |
| Doors / fronts | Doors, drawer fronts, false fronts, finished ends |
| Drawer boxes | Drawer sides, fronts and backs |
| Drawer bottoms | Drawer bottoms |
| Backs | Cabinet backs |
A choice saves as soon as you pick it. These apply to every cabinet in the project. To make one cabinet different (e.g. a painted island), set Carcass material / Front material in that cabinet's editor.
Your material list
The Materials list comes with some starter materials, marked sys, and you can add your own with + Add. Edit a row in place: it saves when you click out of it, and Saved ✓ shows at the end of the row. For each one, set:
- Name
- Type: plywood or MDF
- Thickness: measured, not nominal
- Sheet size: the sheets you actually buy (e.g. 49 × 97 in or 1220 × 2440 mm), used for nesting
- Grain: ticked for plywood and veneers, so parts keep their grain along the sheet. Untick it for MDF, particleboard or plain melamine: nesting can then turn any part 90° to fit more on each sheet
- Colour: only changes how it looks in 3D
Measure thickness with calipers at a few points and use the average. A few thou matter when a dado is cut to fit it.
Enter the sheet's true size. If your sheet edges are damaged or you like to trim them, keep the size as-is and set a Sheet edge margin in Nesting instead. That way one setting controls the waste, and changing it never alters your material.