TabbedBoxMaker: A free Inkscape extension for generating tab-jointed box patterns

version 1.2 - 4 Dec 2023

Original box maker by Elliot White (formerly of twot.eu, domain name now squatted)

Heavily modified by Paul Hutchison

About

This tool is designed to simplify the process of making practical boxes from sheet material using almost any kind of CNC cutter (laser, plasma, water jet or mill). The box edges are "finger-jointed" or "tab-jointed", and may include press-fit dimples, internal dividers, dogbone corners (for endmill cutting), and more.

The tool works by generating each side of the box with the tab and edge sizes corrected to account for the kerf (width of cut). Each box side is composed of a group of individual lines that make up each edge of the face, as well as any other cutouts for dividers. It is recommended that you join adjacent lines in your CNC software to cut efficiently.

An additional extension which uses the same TabbedBoxMaker generator script is also included: Schroff Box Maker. The Schroff addition was created by John Slee. If you create further derivative box generators, feel free to send me a pull request!

Release Notes

This is a major upgrade to support Inkscape v1.0 and CNC mills (with dogbone cuts), plus an updated dialog layout and documentation, and a number of smaller fixes. So far no serious bugs (i.e causing runtime errors) have been found. The program works with Python 3 ONLY. See issues for known issues, or to log issues and enhancement requests.

Note that in this release the extension has moved from the Laser Tools to the CNC Tools submenu. This is to better reflect that this tool can be used on a wide variety of CNC machinery, especially with the addition of dogbone corners: laser, water jet, milling, even 3D printing.

Donate

Any donations will be gratefully received:

Many thanks to those who have donated.

To do

• Tidy, modularise and simplify the code - it is rough and unpythonic. Needs some work by a master Python guru.
• Add tests and perhaps get it submitted as a core extension to be installed with Inkscape?
• Improve input checking to restrict values to correct solutions.
• Dogbone only works on tabbed joins, NOT divider keyholes or slots yet
• Would be great to make shapes closed and do path subtraction to get slot cutouts and keyholes from faces, and perhaps offer to add fill colour
• [Schroff] Maybe replace the somewhat obscure collection of Schroff rail input data with a dropdown box listing well-documented rail types (Vector, Z-rails, whatever it is that Elby sells, others?)
• [Schroff] Add support for multiple mounting holes per rail where possible (this would definitely make the previous todo item worthwhile)
• [Schroff] Add support for 6U row height

Use - regular tabbed boxes

The interface is pretty self explanatory, the extension is 'Tabbed Box Maker' in the 'CNC Tools' group

Parameters in order of appearance:

• Units - unit of measurement used for drawing

• Box Dimensions: Inside/Outside - whether the box dimensions are internal or external measurements

• Length / Width / Height - the box dimensions

• Tab Width: Fixed/Proportional - for fixed the tab width is the value given in the Tab Width, for proportional the side of a piece is divided equally into tabs and 'spaces' with the tabs size greater or equal to the Tab Width setting

• Minimum/Preferred Tab Width - the size of the tabs used to hold the pieces together

• Symmetry - there are two styles of tabs avaiable:

  • XY Symmetrix - each piece is symmetric in both the X and Y axes
  • Rotate Symmetric ("waffle block") - each piece is symmetric under a 180-degree rotation (and 90 degrees if that piece is square)

• Tab Dimple Height - the height of the dimple to add to the side of each tab, 0 for no dimple. Dimples can be added to give tabbed joints a little extra material for a tighter press fit.

• Tab Dimple Length - the length of the tip of the dimple; dimples are trapezoid shaped with 45-degree sides; using a dimple tip length of 0 gives a triangular dimple

• Line Thickness - Leave this as Default unless you need hairline thickness (Use for Epilog lasers)

• Material Thickness - as it says

• Kerf - this is the diameter/width of the cut. Typical laser cutters will be between 0.1 - 0.25mm, for CNC mills, this will be your end mill diameter. A larger kerf will assume more material is removed, hence joints will be tighter. Smaller or zero kerf will result in looser joints.

• Layout - controls how the pieces are laid out in the drawing

• Box Type - this allows you to choose how many jointed sides you want. Options are:

  • Fully enclosed (6 sides)
  • One side open (LxW) - one of the Length x Width panels will be omitted
  • Two sides open (LxW and LxH) - two adjacent panels will be omitted
  • Three sides open (LxW, LxH, HxW) - one of each panel omitted
  • Opposite ends open (LxW) - an open-ended "tube" with the LxW panels omitted
  • Two panels only (LxW and LxH) - two panels with a single joint down the Length axis

• Dividers (Length axis) - use this to create additional LxH panels that mount inside the box along the length axis and have finger joints into the side panels and slots for Width dividers to slot into

• Dividers (Width axis) - use this to create additional WxH panels that mount inside the box along the width axis and have finger joints into the side panels and slots for Length dividers to slot into

• Key the dividers into - this allows you to choose if/how the dividers are keyed into the sides of the box. Options are:

  • None - no keying, dividers will be free to slide in and out
  • Walls - dividers will only be keyed into the side walls of the box
  • Floor/Ceiling - dividers will only be keyed into the top/bottom of the box
  • All Sides

• Space Between Parts - how far apart the pieces are in the drawing produced

• Live Preview - you may need to turn this off when changing tab style, box type, or layout

Use - Schroff enclosures

Much the same as for regular enclosures, except some options are removed, and some others are added. If you're using Elby rails, all you'll need to do is specify:

• Depth

• Number of 3U rows

• Row width in TE/HP units (divide rail length by 5.08mm/0.2")

• If multiple rows, inter-row spacing

Installation

1. Download the extension from this GitHub page using the Clone or download > Download ZIP link. If you are using an older version of Inkscape, you will need to download the correct version of the extension (see Version History below)
2. Extract the zip file
3. Copy all files except README.md and LICENSE into the Inkscape extensions directory. The directory location varies depending on your operating system, and may be customised. The easiest way to find the directory is to open Inkscape, go to Edit > Preferences > System (Win/Linux) or Inkscape > Preferences > System (Mac).
4. You can either copy the files to the User extensions directory or the Inkscape extensions directory. The former will install this extension for just the current user, the latter will install it for all users of the machine.
5. Inkscape must be restarted after copying the extension files.
6. If it has been installed correctly, you should find the extension under the Extensions > CNC Tools menu. Enjoy!

Default installation directories are given below:

Windows

• User: %APPDATA%\inkscape\extensions
• Machine: C:\Program Files\Inkscape\share\extensions

Mac

• User: ~/Library/Application Support/org.inkscape.Inkscape/config/inkscape/extensions
• Machine: /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/share/inkscape/extensions

Linux

• User: ~/.config/inkscape/extensions
• Machine: Depends on installation method

Version History