Flat patterns and cut templates, worked out properly.
Cones, eccentric reducers, hoppers, square-to-rounds, pipe saddles, lobster-back elbows, multi-bend profiles and bolt circles — developed in your browser, exported as clean DXF or a 1:1 printable template. Every tool states its assumptions and is tested against cases worked out by hand or values from its published source.
Free. No account, no email, nothing to install. Your dimensions stay in your browser unless you send them in a mistake report.
Built for
- Fabrication & equipment manufacturing
- Sheet metal & enclosures
- Process & material-handling equipment
- Configurable industrial products
Fabrication drawings, flat patterns and DXF — generated, not drafted.
The developments a plate and sheet-metal shop redraws most often. Each runs entirely in your browser: the numbers you type are not sent anywhere, unless you attach them to a mistake report yourself.
Cone / Frustum Configurator
Flat pattern with inside/outside dimension basis, plate-roll or press-brake forming, bend angles and out-of-round — plus a clean DXF.
Open the tool →Hopper & Transition Builder
Develop a rectangular hopper or duct transition into four flat panels — centred or offset — with exact developed geometry and a DXF per panel.
Open the tool →Feed Hopper Drawing Package
Type the sizes on the drawing and get a seven-sheet drawing set for a feed hopper (PDF and CAD) with the four cut DXFs, in mm or inches.
Open the tool →Offset Smoker Drawing Package
Type the sizes of an offset BBQ smoker on the drawing and get a nine-sheet shop drawing set (PDF and CAD) with eleven cut DXFs, a parts list and a cart.
Open the tool →Rectangular Chute Bend Drawing Package
Type the sizes on the drawing and get a seven-sheet drawing set for a segmented rectangular chute bend (PDF and CAD) with cut DXFs for the cheek, wrappers and flange.
Open the tool →Pipe Cut Template Builder
Wrap-around templates for angled pipe ends and pipe-to-pipe saddles, with the export deviation stated rather than assumed.
Open the tool →Segmented (Lobster-Back) Elbow Calculator
Mitred elbows from straight pipe or rolled sheet: cut angle, heel and throat lengths, a cut list for one pipe, and 1:1 templates plus DXF for each piece.
Open the tool →Square / Rectangle to Round Transition
One exact flat pattern for a square-to-round or rectangle-to-round, centred or offset — with true lengths, corner bend lines and a DXF.
Open the tool →Eccentric (Offset) Reducer Flat Pattern
Flat on one side or any offset: one exact flat pattern for an eccentric reducer or oblique cone, a true-length table for hand layout, and a DXF.
Open the tool →Sheet Metal Profile Builder
Build a multi-bend open profile from segments and bends. Live formed section, live flat pattern, and a DXF blank with a directed centreline per bend.
Open the tool →All 22 tools, with what each one does not do →
Laying it out by hand instead? eccentric reducer · square-to-round · cone · pipe saddle · lobster-back elbow · bent part blank · bolt circle · hopper · press brake tonnage · minimum flange · K-factor · plate weight · rolled cylinder blank · pipe offset · sheet metal gauge · box or tray · sphere or dome in zones — step-by-step guides, with sources.
A wrong flat pattern is wasted plate. So every tool is checked before it ships.
The figures below are measured from the site's own repository, not typed in: the tests at the last release, the DXF read-back at its last full run.
- 22free tools for fabrication shops, no account
- 3drawing package generators: a full shop drawing set and cut files from your sizes, in minutes
- 1:1DXF cut files ready for laser, plasma or waterjet, in millimetres or inches
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The geometry is worked out before the page exists
Each tool starts as pure geometry code with hand-derived reference cases: a 3-4-5 cone must develop to exactly 216°, a developed arc must equal the true circumference.
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The file is read back by software that did not write it
On every release, DXF files from every tool that writes one are parsed and audited by ezdxf, an independent DXF library: version, units, layers, entity counts, no zero-length or zero-radius entities.
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Preview and file come from one drawing
Parity suites decode both the on-screen preview and the DXF and require them to describe the same geometry, so what you check on screen is what you cut.
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Assumptions stated, not buried
Every tool lists what it does not account for — thickness compensation, springback, kerf, seam allowance — next to the result, not in a manual.
The full method, the reports and who is responsible for what →
What these tools are, and what they are not
They are planning and fabrication aids that compute exact geometry from the dimensions you enter. They do not know your material, your press brake, your rolls or your seam practice, and they say so on every page. Check a first part — or a printed template against the real pipe — before cutting a batch. The tool disclaimer applies to everything they produce.
Shop geometry, written as software
Ruthen Systems, from Canada: CAD and fabrication practice on one side, software discipline on the other — and the checking habits that come from seeing a wrong flat pattern reach a laser.
Missing a tool, or found a wrong result?
Say which development you redraw by hand that is not here, or send the inputs that gave you a result you do not trust. Reports of a wrong result are dealt with first.