Grain Matching Cabinet Doors and Drawer Fronts

A kitchen base cabinet has a wide drawer front above a pair of doors. Cut all three from different corners of a veneered or solid-wood sheet and they hang side by side with three unrelated patterns, even though every size is right. The cure is not a better cut list. It is an order: the parts have to come off the board next to each other, in the sequence they hang on the cabinet. That is what grain matching in CutOptim does, and this guide shows how to set it up, what it needs from your numbers and what it cannot promise.

Grain matching cuts neighbouring fronts from one stretch of board, side by side, so the figure of the wood runs on from one part into the next.

What is grain matching on cabinet fronts?

It is cutting the parts that are seen together from one stretch of board, laid out in the order they are fitted. The parts sit next to each other on the sheet with only a saw gap between them, and they all share one grain direction. After cutting you have a drawer front with the two doors directly under it, as they were on the board.

This is different from setting the grain direction of a single part. The Grain icon at the end of a part’s row in the Parts (2D) table keeps the lines running along the side the grain must follow; that works for one part on its own and is available on every plan, guests included. Grain matching is about several parts that must continue each other’s figure. Inside a set the grain of the set decides, and the part’s own Grain icon still applies to any extra copies of that part that are not in the set.

Where does it matter? Anywhere the eye reads two or more fronts as one surface: a drawer front over two doors, a column of drawer fronts, the doors of a wardrobe, a run of fronts along a kitchen wall. Where the parts are far apart or hidden, it does not matter, and a set would only cost board.

Be clear about what it is not. It is not book matching or sequence matching across several sheets: one set is always cut from one sheet. And it cannot make a plain board look matched. It keeps neighbours neighbours; the board still decides how much figure there is to continue.

How do you build a set in CutOptim?

You group existing rows of the Parts (2D) table into a set, say how they are laid out on the cabinet, and CutOptim cuts the group as one block. Grain matching works in 2D Panel mode only.

1. Enter the parts

   Add the drawer front and the doors to the Parts (2D) table as usual. A set refers to these rows: name, size, edge banding and material always come from the table, so a size is changed in one place and the set follows.

2. Open grain matching and create the set

   Click the Grain matching strip under the Parts (2D) table, or ＋ New set when you already have one. Starting from a base cabinet, wardrobe or TV stand template with two or more fronts, you can tick Fronts as one set and the set is created together with the parts.

3. Name it and say how many

   Give the set a name you will recognise at the saw, for example Base cabinet A. Quantity is the number of identical copies: three identical cabinets mean 3, and the Parts table must hold enough parts for every copy.

4. Lay the parts out as they are fitted

   Choose Rows (each row is a line of parts side by side, rows stacked top to bottom) or Columns. Put the drawer front in row 1 and the two doors in row 2.

5. Set the grain, then Done

   Along height lets the figure run top to bottom through every part and the set is never turned on the sheet. Along width runs it left to right. Free means no grain: the set may be turned 90° to fit better, though the parts still stay together. Check the Checks column, click Done and run the optimizer.

The editor shows the set twice: Cabinet front, the parts as they will be fitted with their position codes, and On the sheet, the block on one of your stock sheets. The second view is where you see why a set does not fit. A set needs at least two parts, and a part row can belong to one set only.

Which numbers have to line up?

The sizes must add up as the fronts are fitted: the drawer front is as wide as the two doors plus the install gap between them. There are two gaps and they are different numbers. The install gap is the gap between the fronts on the cabinet. The machine gap is the gap between the parts on the sheet, and it is always the kerf of the plan.

Take a base cabinet front in millimetres: two doors of 497 × 715 and a drawer front of 997 × 143, with a 3 mm install gap and a 3 mm saw kerf. The drawer front is exactly 497 + 3 + 497 wide, so the size check is green. CutOptim lays the set out as one block of 997 × 861 mm (715 + 3 + 143 high) and gives the parts the position codes A1 for the drawer front, A2 for the left door and A3 for the right door.

Leave the install gap empty and it follows the kerf, which is right on a panel saw, where both gaps are the same. If a drawer front is off by a fraction, the check names the difference and offers a button that sets the part to the right size. The tolerance is 0.5 mm, or 1/64 in an inch plan.

The same panel runs the other checks before the run: that the block fits one of your stock sheet sizes in an allowed orientation, that the table holds enough parts for the quantity, that all parts share a material in Material-specific mode, and that no part with rotation locked is being turned inside the layout. A set that is not valid is not applied; the run carries on without it and the plan check says why.

Does grain matching work on a CNC router?

Yes, with one extra number. On a router the gap between the parts on the sheet is the tool plus your allowance, for example a 6 mm bit and 3 mm, so 9 mm, while the gap on the cabinet stays 3 mm. Enter the router gap with the CNC / router: tool + allowance link under the kerf, tick CNC mode (free placement), and type 3 as the install gap.

With those numbers the drawer front still passes the size check, because the check never uses the router gap. CutOptim measures the block at 1003 × 867 mm and centres the drawer front, 3 mm in from each side, and the editor warns that the figure shifts by the difference between the two gaps, 6 mm, split on both sides. It is a warning and never stops the run. The parts cannot sit 3 mm apart on the sheet when the bit is 6 mm wide, and widening the drawer front to suit the router gap would break the cabinet.

In CNC mode the set is placed as one block like any other part, anywhere on the sheet. For the rest of the router workflow see the guide on nesting panels for a CNC router and the CNC mode page in the docs.

What does grain matching cost in material?

Usually more board than cutting the same parts freely, because a set is a large rectangle that the optimizer cannot break up. After a run, the Compare without grain matching button in the How we optimized box runs the same job without the sets and shows the difference, for example one more sheet. You can then decide whether the match is worth it.

Four rules shape that cost. A set goes straight onto new stock, never onto a stored offcut, because an offcut does not record its grain; parts outside a set still use offcuts first. A set must fit one sheet. The oversize per side applies only to the outer edges of the block, so the joints inside stay cut to size. And with limited stock the set is treated as a must-cut item, unless you flagged other parts as must-cut yourself.

So put in a set only what is seen side by side on the finished piece. The hidden shelves and the carcass do not need it.

How do you find each piece after the cut?

By its position code. Every part of a set gets a code in reading order, top to bottom and left to right: A1, A2, A3 for set A, B1 for set B. Where it is unambiguous a hint is added, left, middle or right in a row and top or bottom in a column.

The code travels with the part on every output. On the panel labels the set adds one line, for example SET A · A2 of 3 (left) · Base cabinet A. The PDF draws a dashed frame and a SET A badge around the set on each sheet drawing and adds a Grain matching page with the cabinet-front drawing and a table of the members. The Excel file has a Grain matching tab, and the CSV two extra columns, Set and Position. The details are on the Exports page.

One more aid is the cabinetmaker’s triangle: the PDF and Excel drawings put a triangle across each set with its apex towards the top of the cabinet. Draw it on the board in pencil before cutting, and afterwards each piece carries its part of the triangle and shows where it goes and which way is up. The label on the part itself is covered in the guide on labelling furniture parts for assembly.

Common mistakes

• Putting every part in a set. A set is a big block and costs board. Keep it to the fronts that are seen together.
• Using the router gap as the install gap. The drawer front then grows wider than the doors under it. The install gap is the gap on the cabinet, whatever the machine does on the sheet.
• Forgetting the quantity. Three identical cabinets need Quantity 3, and the table needs three times the parts. The check flags a shortfall and offers to raise the quantity.
• Leaving the grain on Free for a figured board. Free lets the set turn 90°. If the board has a visible figure, choose Along height or Along width.
• Expecting a run of fronts to continue onto the next sheet. It cannot. If the block fits no sheet, the set is cut part by part or left uncut, as you chose.
• Expecting an offcut to be used. A set always takes new stock.

When is grain matching not the answer?

When the figure has to continue over more than one sheet, because a set is always one sheet. When the job is in 1D Linear, Wood or Nesting mode, because grain matching exists only in 2D Panel mode. And when the fronts are inset: on the finished piece the figure still jumps by a divider and the gaps, so the set cuts the fronts from one stretch of board but cannot hide the joints.

The Engine API takes the same model, but its own PDF and label PDF draw the parts of a set as plain parts, without set marks, and its max engine does not take sets.