Designing for the Laser Cutter - swindonmakers/wiki GitHub Wiki

Tabbed Box Maker

A common use for the laser cutter is to make tabbed boxes like the image above. There are many ways to achieve this, from manually drawing out each side, to software programs and websites aimed at creating these boxes. If you've already got Inkscape set up, the best way however is to use the Tabbed Box Maker plugin.

To install the plugin make sure Inkscape is closed, then download the files from GitHub (get them all with the Download Zip option) and copy them to the relevant extensions folder. All three files (Boxmaker.inx, Schroffmaker.inx and Boxmaker.py) should be copied. The extensions folder can be found at the following location:

<INSTALL PATH>/share/extensions

This plugin gives you a wide array of options, and these are explained below.

Option	Use
Unit	Change what unit your input sizes are measured in. This will affect every size input.
Box Dimensions	Changes whether input sizes are internal or external dimensions. Final sizes depend on the thickness of your material.
Length	One side of the box, in whatever unit you selected
Width	One side of the box, in whatever unit you selected
Height	One side of the box, in whatever unit you selected
Minimum/Prefered Tab Width	Smallest tab size, in whatever unit you selected
Tab Width	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
Material Thickness	Thickness of your material, in whatever unit you selected
Kerf	Width of the cut itself, in whatever unit you selected. Ideally this is around 0.1mm for the laser, but may be wider depending on material and focus
Clearance	If you want loose joints, add to this in whatever unit you selected. Usually you want a value of 0 here.
Layout/Style	Determines type of drawing produced
Box Type	Decides if you want to leave open sides or if you want to have an enclosed box
Dividers (Length Axis)	Number of dividers you want along the Length Axis
Dividers (Width Axis)	Number of dividers you want along the Width Axis
Key the dividers into	The plugin can add slots and tabs to hold the dividers in place, select where you would like these to slot into
Space Between Parts	Gap between pieces in the drawing, in whatever unit you selected. Large numbers will waste material. The default of 1mm is usually fine