Pack Studio
User Guide & Wiki

Planar Layering builds a box one flat layer at a time. Each layer is a tidy grid, and the layers stack straight up. The result is predictable, easy to unload by hand, and simple to audit on the floor.

Flexible Layering builds a true three-dimensional lattice. Parts interlock in every direction instead of sitting in separable flat layers, which gives the highest fill on awkward shapes. The trade is a less uniform stack and a little more compute time.

Stacking is the column builder. It fills one column with as many parts as it can, running up the box or laid on its side, then tiles that column across the rest of the space. It shines on parts that nest cleanly along one axis.

Compartment places each part in its own rectangular cell, one per cell or two nested head to tail. It is the fastest method and pairs naturally with cardboard dividers, so finished parts never touch.

Bulk runs a physics simulation. It tosses or drops parts into the box and lets gravity, contact, and friction settle them, exactly how loose parts behave when poured in for real. Turn precision up for a clean final count, or keep it fast while exploring.

Partitions are cardboard or plastic dividers that give every part its own cell. They pair with grid style layouts, and Pack Studio sizes the cell around your actual pack, then folds cost and weight into the result.

Foam inserts are strips of foam with a contour cut into the top, so parts nest into the foam rather than rest on it. Pack Studio draws each piece in 3D and rolls its cost and weight into the shipment.

A molded tray is one contoured foam block with a cavity for every part. It gives the most controlled fit and presentation, and Pack Studio designs the cavities around your pack and prices the tray into the cost per part.

Expendable cartons are the ship-once boxes most operations run today. Pack Studio searches a range of dimensions and proposes the cheapest per-part carton for each pallet, sized around your protective packaging and weight limits.

Returnable assets are totes, bins, steel racks, and crates that come back empty and get reused. Each carries its own weight, crush strength, and fleet economics. Pack Studio sizes the fleet you need, then answers the real question: how many months until reuse savings repay the upfront cost.

Orientation changes everything about how densely a part packs. Pack Studio studies the geometry and proposes the poses worth trying: stable poses it can rest on without tipping, minimal poses with the tightest bounding box, and an optimal option that hands the rotation to the engine. You can add custom angles by hand, and every pose is packed and ranked on its own.

Two ideas push density further across most methods. Horizontal nesting lets neighboring parts tuck into each other's concave features instead of each keeping a rigid footprint. Repacking goes back after the main pack and slots extra parts into leftover corners and the headroom above.

Every option collapses to a single figure: cost per part. Box, protective packaging, pallet, and freight all roll in, then divide across the parts on board, so the cheapest option simply rises to the top of the ranking. For returnable fleets, Pack Studio reports the break-even in months instead.

Every analysis ends in a deliverable. Pack Reports capture the part, box, pallet, truck, and protective packaging with the full cost picture, rendered from your real pack. Save templates with costs shown or hidden for different audiences, and export the pack itself to CAD.