Help · Before you make it
Before you make it
The studio draws what you designed, exactly. Whether the design is right for your room, your loads and your workshop is up to you. Go through this list before you order the parts.
Check the project
- Run Check intersections. It finds parts that overlap each other, and lists fasteners that are chosen but not installed. It doesn't judge anything else about the design. See Check intersections.
- Check every size on the drawings. Open Documents, go through the parts list, the cutting maps and the drawings, and compare the sizes with your plan. The drawings are made automatically from the model, so a mistake in the model is a mistake on the drawing. See Drawings and Cutting maps.
- Measure the place. Walls and floors are rarely straight. Measure the niche in several places, allow for skirting boards, sockets and pipes, and leave a gap so the piece can be brought in and stood up.
- Check the cutting settings with your workshop: the kerf, the trim of the sheet edges and whether the edge band is subtracted from the cut size.
Make it safe
- Fix tall units to the wall. Wardrobes, bookcases, tall cabinets and chests of drawers can tip over when a door or a drawer is open, or when a child climbs on them. Fix every tall piece to the wall with anti-tip fittings.
- Hang wall units on brackets rated for the load. Wall cabinets, shelves and hanging fronts go on brackets and fixings rated for their weight and for what will be put on them. Choose wall plugs and screws for your kind of wall: concrete, brick and plasterboard each need their own.
- Support long worktops. A worktop longer than 2 m sags without support in the middle: add a leg or a frame under it.
- Reinforce heavy loads. Where something heavy will stand — on a frame, a worktop or a shelf — add metal angles to the joints.
- Size a bed by its mattress. Choose the mattress first, in a standard size, then design the bed around it.
Materials and hardware
- Choose the decor from samples. Colours on a screen differ from the real board. At the workshop, pick the decor and the edge band closest to the ones in your project, and check that the grain runs the way you want on each part.
- Buy the hardware. The parts list (Documents → Download → Parts list, or the specification in the PDF) has the fasteners and the bought items the project uses, with their quantities. Unless your maker supplies them, buy them yourself, and check with the maker that the holes on the drawings fit the hardware you bought.
- Mark the parts. Print part labels and stick them on the parts as they come off the saw. Their QR codes show where each part goes. See Part labels and assembly.
Have it made
When everything is checked, you have two ways:
- Take the documentation to any workshop: download the Documentation (PDF) with the parts list, cutting maps and drawings, and the CNC files (DXF) if they cut on a CNC machine. See Downloads.
- Send the project to a maker in your city with Get it made. They see the project as you made it and contact you about the price. See Get it made.
You can assemble the piece yourself, using the drawings and the Assembly view, or ask the maker to assemble and install it.
Flatma doesn't check the strength, stability or safety of a design. Using the studio's drawings and files is your decision; check them, or have them checked by a professional, before you make anything.
See also: Check intersections, Drawings, Downloads, Get it made.