Hi, I am new to this and I need to design a box with particular dimensions inside, but it needs to have tabs and slots. Such as a tab that fits into a slot, as used in boxes that have separators. It should be easy enough, but I cannot figure out how to make it. I have tried online box generators, but they all use finger joints. I am running out of time and patience. Does anyone understand what I need to make and could help me make it. It is a rectangular box with bottom, top, sides and end panels. I need to make it out of 3mm acrylic. Any help would be wonderful.
Can you articulate what specific aspect of the design that youâre struggling with?
What type of joint would you prefer?
Similar to this:
The generator has a bewildering number of options, so you can probably have it lay out whatever you want.
Itâs not clear what type of joinery you seek, because finger joints are pretty much the canonical laser-cut joint.
Pictures or sketches of your desired outcome will help us see what youâre thinking âŚ
If you can sketch out what youâre trying to end up with (digitally or just a photo of chicken scratch on the back of a CVS receipt), it might be something that is fairly simple. If itâs something that can be done with parameters in an existing Boxes.py generator, I can give you pointers. If itâs something that canât be done with an existing generator, it might be an easy mod that I could throw together (with instructions on how to quickly and easily run your own Boxes.py locally with the custom generator).
Iâm pretty sure that whatever youâre trying to do, it should be pretty straightforward. I mean, if my Battery Box generator was easy enough, your box should be a cakewalk.
Thank you, I have done a very basic sketch to try and show what I mean. Not sure if it makes sense or not, to you and apologies for the drawing looking skewed, I took the photo at a funny angle.
Okay, I whipped up and annotated a quick open-topped box just so I can make sure weâre on the same page and using compatible terms. Each side of each rectangle is labeled with its respective edge type.
As I believe I understand it, in your sketch, the left rectangle is basically four edges of type âhâ (edge, parallel finger joint holes), and the top edge of the right sketch would be âfâ (finger joint) that slots into one of the slot lines on the left sketch, yes?
Are you wanting a closed box with the top and bottom the same, like your left sketch, with four sides with finger joint (type âfâ) âtabsâ the slot into the top and bottom? What about the side-to-adjacent-side connections? Plain straight edges (type âeâ) that donât connect? Slots (type âhâ) on two opposing side panels and finger joint (type âfâ) tabs on the other two side panes (making a shape kind of like a âdouble-crossbar Hâ)? One slot line (type âhâ) and one finger joint line (type âfâ) on each side panel so they slot together in a âpinwheelâ arrangement?
I donât believe thereâs an existing Boxes.py generator for what youâre looking for, but Iâm fairly confident that it shouldnât be too difficult to throw one together.
Iâd probably use a drafting technique where you translate (or transfer) the features to another projection (view-point) in the Drawing layout.
Iâm using lines in the Red layer for âconstructionâ and Iâll turn the layer off when Iâm done.
Two larger rectangles for the cut-out of the box. Four small rectangles for slots. Those four are identical because I used copy and paste.
If I group the four small rectangles, I can use the âBoolean Assistantâ to Union the group of closed shapes with (or to) the rectangle (also a closed shape). This combines their outlines.
Copy the whole box side and paste it over the target. Copy and paste allows you to leave the original, line up the features you intend to include, and discard whatever features arenât needed.
Note that the group of four rectangles has a different dashed line indicating that they belong to a group.
Once the edges of the box are aligned, delete the features youâre not going to need.
Select the two things to âBooleanâ, the Group and the single rectangle.
Apply Boolean Union to combine their outlines. The automatic preview is very helpful.
This should get you moving. 
This seems pretty close:
Thatâs with a 2Ă2 partition in the middle and a drop-in lid.
The jawbreaker URL so you can twiddle the settings: click.
OK, yes it needs to be a closed box with top and bottom the same. Top and bottom have h only. The two end panels with f only on all sides. The two side panels with fâs on long sides and hâs on the ends, to correspond with the end panels. The material is 3mm thick, that I am using. The internal measurements I have to work with are as follows:- Sides Height 171mm, Length 257mm. Ends Height 171mm, Width 128mm. The Top and Bottom panels need to be slightly larger, just enough to secure the side panels.
Okay, hereâs an SVG of a âClosed Edge Boxâ (from my modified generator) with x=257mm, y=128mm, and h=171mm, with âoutsideâ unchecked (so those are interior measurements). This is using the default finger joint settings and a 0.1mm burn correction (in 5mm plywood, I usually use 0.14mm burn correction to account for the kerf, so this is tighter). Obviously, itâs trivial to change the settings once you have the generator.
Of course, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Feed a man to the fish, and⌠um⌠scratch that. You get the point. The point being that if youâve gone through the âitâs not that hardâ trouble of getting a copy of Boxes.py running locally, you can play around with generators (yours or your fellows) all you want. SoâŚ
How to run a local copy of Boxes.py in Windows (so you can run your own modified generators that arenât in the standard set), in something like nine-ish steps, more or less:
- Download the Boxes.py project as a zip file, or grab it via any other method from its page on GitHub.
- Unzip the file somewhere nice. Itâll all be in a âboxes-masterâ folder.
- Download this Boxes.zip file from me at WardFontaine.art which has my âClosed Edge Boxâ generator, plus a convenience shortcut to start the server and one to the browser page.
- Unzip that Boxes.zip file, and drop the contents into the folder containing your âboxes-masterâ folder from the first zip.
- If you donât have Python installed, install it from the Microsoft Store (currently, the latest version there is Python 3.12).
- Run the âInstall Dependencies.batâ file â it runs pythonâs pip module to install affine, markdown, setuptools, sphinx, shapely, and qrcode, which are the packages Boxes.py uses, as you can see if you open it in Notepad.
- Now run âStart Boxes.py Server.batâ â it is just a shortcut that calls python with the boxesserver path. A âcommand promptâ style window will open and after a few moments show âBoxesServer serving on :8000âŚâ
- If Windows pops up a firewall prompt asking you whether you want Python to be able to communicate on the network, the answer is yes (since youâre running a local Boxes.py server).
- In a browser, go to http://127.0.0.1:8000/ (or click the âGallery - Boxes.pyâ shortcut) to access your personal Boxes.py server while itâs open.
(You really only need python, the Boxes.py project download, and one pip invocation for the dependencies, but this is the special âBut I really just want to use it, not learn programmingâ version.)
Anyway, Iâm off to be the wizard, but Iâll check back later.
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I prefer Maker CaseâŚwww.makercase.com
Thank you so much for that, I believe I have everything going OK until I try to get the Gallery - Boxes.py open, it says it cannot be reached. Grrr.
Ah, the olâ cannot be reached, a modern descendant of ye olde âan error has occurredâ. The three most logical hypotheses for that are:
- The server is not running.
- The server is running, but itâs not listening where it âshouldâ be.
- The server is listening, but something (e.g. a firewall) is blocking things.
I suppose I should reach into my decades-past helpdesk trunk and don my vintage tech support hat⌠
Check Step Zero:
Open an Incognito tab in Chrome and type precisely âhttp://127.0.0.1:8000/â in the address bar and hit enter, just to verify that itâs not just the shortcut (or Windowsâ handling of it) thatâs the problem. You can also do the same with your computerâs IP address instead of â127.0.0.1â, i.e. localhost, but it shouldnât make a difference.
If itâs still unreachable, continue to step one.
Check Step One:
When you run the batch file to start the server, you should get a nice command-prompt style window with the text âBoxesServer serving on :8000âŚâ in it. Having that window shows python is running and the server is successfully starting up.
If itâs starting up successfully, continue to step two.
Check Step Two:
With the âBoxesServer serving on :8000âŚâ window still there, open a new command prompt window (Start, Run, cmd⌠or whatever other method you want). At the prompt, type ânetstat -an | findstr :8000â to list all active ports and filter the output to just port 8000 (the port the server should be listening on). You should see a line that looks like:
TCP 0.0.0.0:8000 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
Having that line shows the BoxesServer has successfully started accepting connections on TCP port 8000 for and from any address. (If there is something other than â0.0.0.0â before the port 8000, the server may be listening differently than assumed.)
If itâs listening as we expect it to be, continue to step three.
Check Step Three:
Assuming Windows 10 or higher, click the Windows Start button and type âfirewallâ, then click to open âFirewall & network protectionâ from system settings. In the window that comes up, there are three entries âDomain networkâ, âPrivate networkâ, and âPublic networkâ. One will be marked with â(active)â after the name.
If the active one is âPrivate networkâ or âPublic networkâ and either of those says âFirewall is onâ below it, click the âAllow an app through firewallâ link just a bit down the page. That will open the âControl Panel / System and Security / Windows Defender Firewall / Allowed appsâ dialog. Scroll down to find âPythonâ and verify that âPrivateâ and âPublicâ are checked so the firewall wonât block traffic to the server.
(NOTE: If you have some other firewall software, it could be hampering things, but thatâs a bit further afield. The security software at work kept disabling our broadcast control room hardware because it classified it all as âkeyloggersâ⌠which makes no sense even for something with a Raspberry Pi Pico operating via USB HID.)
So⌠if youâve now run out of steps and youâre still not up and running, I suppose I may need to upgrade my hat⌠Have you tried turning it off and on again? 
For a simple box design checkout MakerCase.com
Here you can design boxes.
https://boxes.hackerspace-bamberg.de/SlatwallDrillBox
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Hi, try this online-tool
good luck
Apparently nobody will be satisfied until you try MakerCase, even though MakerCase doesnât accommodate your tab-in-slot joint requirements. You should definitely try MakerCase yourself to see that MakerCase doesnât have the type of joints you want. MakerCase is really slick and hides all the config options that Boxes.py (especially with custom generators) gives you, so if you donât actually need what you asked for, you should really check out MakerCase.
MakerCase! MakerCase! MakerCase!!!
Seriously, MakerCase is indeed a nice super-simplified and slick box generator, and itâs an understandable favorite of many people who just want a box. On the other hand, it doesnât have nearly the configurability of something like Boxes.py, and you canât just grab your own copy and run it yourself to make/use custom generators that it doesnât have.
In short, MakerCase is a fun basic site for those for whom it is sufficient, but for the love of the thread, people, read the thread, understand that MakerCase canât help here, and please stop suggesting it as a solution to something it canât solve. (I was starting to wonder if MakerCase had an affiliate program, hehe.)
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If you want to use LB to resize tabs and slots (instead of selecting the âburn correctionâ in Boxes.py, you have to remove 1 node from the middle of each slot (rectangle), and set inner_corners to square.
Thatâs amazing!
I didnât get it running at first. âStart Boxes.py Server.batâ only opened a command window for a short moment and closes again.
I managed to get it working on WSL (Linux subshell)