Cabinet door drawing in Alphacam: membrane, panel, American, framed, glazed and louvred doors

The kitchen and furniture door is the part a CNC router machines most: its outer size comes from the order list, its surface depends on the type, and handle and hinge holes are standard. This article looks at the door types common in Turkey through Alphacam's eyes: which geometry each consists of, which layer it lands on, which cutter machines it and where automation applies. Names vary by region; the most common equivalents are used here.

Common to every door: outer contour, holes, edge

Whatever the type, a door is three geometry groups: (1) outer contour — a closed rectangle on KESIM, usually with corner radii; (2) holes — hinge cup (Ø35 mm, 21–23 mm from the edge), handle holes (32/64/96/128/160 mm spacing), push-to-open hole; on DELIK; (3) edge treatment — edgeband allowance or a rebate. Because these three are constant they are the first things to automate: entering the door size should produce contour and holes by calculation.

Membrane (vinyl-wrapped) door

A membrane door is an MDF blank with a routed pattern, wrapped with PVC foil under heat and vacuum. It is the most common kitchen door in Turkey. The CNC's job is the pattern: the outer contour is cut, and grooves or sloped profiles giving a frame look are routed with V or profile cutters. Because the membrane press does not wrap deep, sharp corners, pattern depth and inner corner radius are limited; a macro must carry these limits as parameters (pattern depth, inner radius, distance from edge). The balloon door (domed membrane door) is the same family: the surface is routed with a curve from edge to centre and the foil wraps the dome; on the CNC the difference is a surfacing cut and edge profile instead of a flat pattern groove — outer contour and holes follow the same rule.

In Alphacam a membrane door is drawn on two layers: KESIM (outer) and KANAL/DESEN (surface profile). Because the same pattern is adapted to hundreds of doors by size, this is exactly where a parametric macro belongs: the Framed Door tool in GMacros Cabinet Door takes edge allowance and profile width and derives the pattern from the door size; Panel Door Design in GMacros Tools produces as many inward offset lines from the outer frame as you ask for.

Panel (raised-panel) door

A panel door — tabla kapak in shop language — is the classic door of a surrounding frame (rails and stiles) and a central panel. It is made two ways in solid wood or MDF: (a) the panel look is routed into one MDF piece (finished as membrane or lacquer), (b) a real frame plus a separate panel is assembled. On the CNC, type (a) is outer contour plus inner panel offset lines; type (b) is frame members drawn separately, the panel separately, and a panel groove. The variables are the same in both: rail/stile width (top/bottom/left/right may differ), panel depth and number of offsets. Panel Door Design and Panel Door Layout in GMacros work with these two variable sets.

American door / American panel door

The American door (or American panel door) is a classic-looking door with one or more recessed panels and profiled edges; it is the furniture-door adaptation of the pressed-HDF surface known as the "American panel door" in interior doors. Geometrically it is the multi-panel, profiled-edge variant of the panel door: outer contour, an inner rectangle per panel, and a profile-cutter line around the panels. In Alphacam the panels go on KANAL/DESEN and the surrounding profile on a separate layer so different cutters can machine them. When the panel count and arrangement (2, 3, small top / large bottom) are parameters, one macro produces every variant.

Framed door

A plain door with a single frame line on its face; the most common membrane pattern and the type sold as "framed" in lacquered doors. Its drawing is the outer contour plus a groove line at a fixed distance from the edge; groove width follows the cutter, distance follows the design. The Framed Door macro takes both, plus the corner style (square/rounded).

Glazed door

A door with the centre removed and glass fitted from the back. Two operations on the CNC: a through cut of the inner opening (a second closed contour on KESIM) and a rebate pocket for the glass from the back (CEP layer, glass thickness plus allowance deep). Inner corners are usually left radiused because glass will sit there, or squared with corner clean-up. The Glazed Door macro takes frame width, glass allowance and rebate depth.

Louvred door

A door whose face is divided by sloped or flat slats (louvres); used where ventilation is needed and for decorative work. In one-piece MDF the louvre look is machined as a series of grooves with an angled cutter; in a real louvre, equally spaced slots are cut into the frame. Either way the geometry is equal-pitch repetition: pitch is calculated from door height, slat count and slat width. The Louvred Door macro does that calculation; dividing by hand ends in unequal spacing.

Groove (fitil) door and slatted door

A groove door (fitil kapak) is a plain door with a single thin groove line running around its face; in series production it is drawn in dozens of sizes from a dimension list. Gasket Door Design in GMacros Tools takes a width×height list and produces the whole series with fixed allowance and panel gap. A slatted door (çıta kapak) has its face divided into a grid by vertical/horizontal slats; Slat Door Design takes edge allowance, rebate allowance, slat thickness and count and draws the grid.

Layer and cutter mapping (Auto Style)

Once this mapping is defined in Auto Style, every door that lands on the right layers is machined with one command. That is where macros earn their keep: they draw the door onto the right layers as a rule, independent of the operator's attention that day. Auto Style itself is explained in What is Alphacam? A CAD/CAM guide for furniture and wood CNC.

Instead of drawing by hand: a series from a dimension list

A kitchen order means 20–40 doors, three or four types and different sizes in each. By hand a door takes 2–5 minutes, more with holes, and the error rate grows with the number of dimensions. With a parametric macro the list is entered, the type chosen, and the whole series is drawn onto the right layers. That flow is ready in GMacros Cabinet Door (10 macros: plain, framed, glazed, louvred doors; handle, hinge, push-to-open holes; finger groove, edgeband, size calculation) and GMacros Tools (groove, panel and slatted doors; panel door layout). How the macros are structured: How Alphacam-based parametric door and cabinet door macros work