A carcass holds together in three ways: by the European 32 mm system holes and their hardware, by machined finger joints that interlock without screws, or by a solid timber frame applied to the front in the North American manner. In Cabinet·CNC those are three settings of the same cabinet, not three different projects.
The 32 mm system is the grid the whole European frameless cabinet rests on: two columns of Ø5 mm holes spaced 32 mm apart vertically, set 37 mm in from the front and back edges of the side panel.
A machined finger joint assembles two panels with through fingers cut directly into their outlines, with no screws and no corner hardware.
A face frame cabinet is an ordinary sheet-goods carcass with a solid timber frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails screwed to its front.
The 32 mm system needs a CNC or a line-boring machine and a hardware supplier; it gives a cabinet that knocks down, adjusts and goes together fast. Finger joints need only a straight cutter and glue; they give the strongest joint and the only one that holds without hardware, at the cost of a permanent assembly.
The applied frame needs solid timber, a saw and a pocket-hole jig; it gives an installation tolerance the other two do not have, and it costs roughly 20 mm of inside width each side.
The system is not an up-front decision. It applies to an already-resolved carcass, as a strategy: it adds its machining, its holes and, for the face frame, its frame parts. Switching system across a whole job recomputes every file without touching any cabinet dimension.
The 32 mm system in the large majority of cases: the hardware is available everywhere, the cabinet adjusts after assembly and knocks down to move. Finger joints suit a workshop cabinet or exposed work where the joint is part of the design.
Yes: the system is set cabinet by cabinet. A 32 mm kitchen with a finger-jointed workshop cabinet in the same job is a normal case, and the nesting treats the whole lot in one go.
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