A working library designed and built in-house for people who make physical things: ten calculators for packaging, POP, and fabrication, with the formulas shown, the standards verified, and the limits flagged. Use them, bookmark them, spec with them.
Ten calculators, grouped by what you are actually working on.
The hero tool. Cartons per layer, height, weight, and club store compliance with a live 3D preview of the display on a true block pallet.
Flute profiles, ECT and Mullen side by side, and a McKee-based stacking estimate with a pass or fail on your actual stack.
Internal to external conversions by flute, plus dimensional weight with the current carrier divisors, so shipping surprises show up early.
Product to carton with clearance presets for foam, corrugate, and bags. Internal and external dims ready to spec.
Parts per sheet with spacing, trim, and grain constraints. Compares both orientations and counts sheets for the whole run.
Gauge to thickness and weight for steel, stainless, and aluminum, with the three gauge standards made explicit.
The POP workhorse decoded: thickness applications, cast vs extruded, weight math for freight, fabrication notes, and a straight answer on recyclability.
SBS and chipboard calipers decoded: point conversions, grade comparisons from C1S to plain chipboard, typical uses by thickness, and a stack calculator.
Flat pattern length from thickness, radius, angle, and K-factor, with the formulas on the page instead of behind the result.
Inches, millimeters, points, ounces, grams, volume, and board caliper. The units designers actually bounce between.
Disclaimer: These tools were built at my desk to keep the answers I need in one place. I’m sharing them in the hope that they make your design process a little easier too. The math is checked against published standards and real-world experience, but specs change and materials vary. If you spot anything that seems off, please email me at donna@donnakadell.design and I’ll take a look.
Enjoy.