Shaped panels builds a composition of tiles. Every tile is a printed frame holding a panel: a pegboard, a solid plate or an open window for an insert. You grow the layout one tile at a time, and each frame fits your print bed on its own. Included from Basic.

Section through a frame: the panel rests on an inner shelf; an LED strip can sit in a channel on the outer face.

Tiles

LatticeDefault Hexagon: Square, triangle or hexagon. Hexagons give the classic honeycomb wall; squares tile a rectangle with the fewest seams; triangles make bold geometric patterns.
OrientationDefault Pointy (hexagon): Hexagon: pointy (vertex up) or flat (edge up). Square: straight or diamond (turned 45°). Triangle: horizontal rows or vertical columns.
Tile edgeDefault 110 mmRange 30–600 mm: Length of one side, measured on the outer boundary of the frame. Bigger tiles mean fewer frames to print and join; the limit is your bed. The app flags any tile whose frame does not fit.

Largest edge that fits, with the preset margins (the Tiles settings tell you whether your tile fits and, if it doesn’t, the largest edge that does):

Bed (usable area)	Hexagon	Square or diamond	Triangle
180 × 180 (172)	86 mm	172 mm	172 mm
220 × 220 (210)	105 mm	210 mm	210 mm
256 × 256 (246)	123 mm	246 mm	246 mm
300 × 300 (288)	144 mm	288 mm	288 mm
350 × 350 (338)	169 mm	338 mm	338 mm

A diamond prints turned back to a square, so it takes the same edge as a square. Triangles and hexagons may also be turned on the bed to align one side with it.

Growing the layout

Faint ghost tiles surround your composition. Click one to add a tile; select a tile to edit or remove it. Every tile has a kind:

Pegboard — a panel with the holes of your pegboard type.
Solid — a plain panel. Use it for a name plate, a colour accent or artwork.
Insert — no printed panel. The frame becomes a window for your own acrylic, cork, felt or plywood insert. Export SVG · cutting outlines to cut it at 1:1 scale.

Each panel can have its own colour and its own artwork (an SVG graphic inlaid into the front face).

Frame

Outer widthDefault 8 mmRange 2–40 mm: Wall thickness on edges that face outwards. 8 mm looks sturdy and leaves room for keyholes and an LED channel.
Inner widthDefault 4 mmRange 1–20 mm: Wall thickness on edges shared with a neighbouring tile, per tile. Two neighbours together make an 8 mm wall — the same as the outer edge, so every line of the composition looks equal.
DepthDefault 20 mmRecommended ≥ 15 mm (capsule), ≥ 20 mm (round holes)Range 10–120 mm: Distance from the wall to the front of the frame. The space behind the panel is the depth minus the panel thickness and recess; keep it at least the pegboard type’s recommended wall distance (10 mm on the capsule system, 12.7 mm on round-hole boards). With the default 20 mm: 20 − 5 = 15 mm on the capsule system, 20 − 6.35 = 13.65 mm on US 1/4″ — enough for every hook type. Very shallow frames leave hooks no room to seat.
Shelf widthDefault 5 mmRange 1–30 mm: Width of the inner lip the panel rests on.
Shelf thicknessDefault 2 mmRange 0.8–10 mm: Thickness of that lip. 2 mm is stiff enough for glue or screws.
Panel recessDefault 0 mmRange 0–20 mm: Sets the panel back from the frame’s front edge for a shadow-box look. It reduces the space behind the panel by the same amount.
ClearanceDefault 0.25 mmRange 0–2 mm: Gap between the panel edge and the frame wall, per side. Raise it to 0.3–0.4 mm if panels don’t drop in; lower it for a tighter press fit.
Corner radiusDefault 6 mmRange 0–100 mm: Rounds the true outer corners of the whole composition only — never the corners between tiles.
Frame colourDefault Charcoal: Frames and panels are separate prints, so a contrasting frame costs no colour changes.

Panel fixing

How each panel is held in its frame.

MethodDefault Glue: Glue — a few dots of CA or epoxy on the shelf; simplest and invisible. Screw from the front — small screws through the panel into hubs in the frame; removable, heads visible. Screw from the back — blind holes from the back leave a thin skin on the front, so nothing shows and panels can still be removed.
Screw diameterDefault 3 mmRange 1.5–6 mm: For the screw methods. Self-tapping screws for plastics, 3 × 8–10 mm, work well.
Screw headDefault 6 mmRange 3–12 mm: Head diameter of those screws, used for the countersink of front screws.
Front skinDefault 1 mmRange 0.6–4 mm: Screw from the back only: material left in front of the blind hole. 1 mm hides the screw; go to 1.2 mm with light colours if you can see a shadow.

Joining tiles

ConnectorsDefault Dowels: Dowels adds matching holes in the shared walls of neighbouring frames; push in short pieces of filament and add a drop of glue. None leaves the walls plain for glue only.
Dowel diameterDefault 1.75 mmRange 1–6 mm: Matches standard filament. Use 2–3 mm with steel pins or bamboo skewers.

Wall mounting

Keyhole mountsDefault On, top row: Keyhole slots in the back of the frame: hook the frame over screw heads and slide it down. Top row puts them in the tiles with nothing above them; Every tile puts one in every tile — use it for heavy loads or when tiles are not glued together.
ScrewDefault Ø 4 mm: The screw the keyholes are sized for. See Shaped frames: keyholes, fixing and LEDs.
SeparatorsDefault Off: Extra standoff feet. Frames already hold the panels off the wall, so you rarely need them.

Each keyhole sits as high as its tile allows, centred horizontally. Tiles in the same row share one keyhole height — the lowest any of them needs — so the screws of a row are level and can be drilled along one line; a tile that can’t reach the shared height keeps its own. The assembly map in the ZIP includes a drilling guide for the keyhole screws: each row as a level line with its height from the bottom and top of the composition, and each screw’s distance from the left edge. The screw position is where the head locks, at the top of the neck.

LED rail

An LED strip in a channel on the outer face of the frame washes the wall around your composition with light. Only outward-facing edges get the channel.

LED railDefault Off: Turns the channel on.
Strip widthDefault 10 mmRange 3–30 mm: Width of your LED strip. The channel’s ceiling is chamfered at 45° so frames print back-down without supports, which makes the opening taller than the strip. The frame must be at least strip width + strip thickness + 2 × clearance + 3 mm deep (1.5 mm of wall above and below the channel): 16.8 mm with the defaults. The app raises the depth when needed and tells you.
Strip thicknessDefault 3 mmRange 0.5–10 mm: Sets the channel depth (thickness + clearance). The outer wall must be at least strip thickness + clearance + 2 mm wide (5.4 mm with the defaults); again the app adjusts and tells you.
ClearanceDefault 0.4 mmRange 0–2 mm: Extra room in the channel so the strip presses in without buckling.
Cable exitDefault On: A hole that routes the cable to the back of the frame.

Pegboard type, panel and colours

Pegboard type, hole clearance, board thickness, light profile and paint (border and hole rings) work the same in every workflow — see Settings every workflow shares and Pegboard types and compatibility.

What you get

Every tile exports as separate, pre-oriented pieces: a frame and, unless the tile is an Insert, a panel. Panels print front face down, with any colours as the first layers. The ZIP includes an assembly map showing where each tile goes and where to drill for the keyholes. Assembly and hanging are covered in Shaped frames: keyholes, fixing and LEDs.

The pieces are named after their tile’s number: frame FR1, panel P1, and I1 for the cutting outline of an Insert tile. Numbers follow the order in which you added the tiles, so adding a tile never renames the ones you already have. The same names appear in the Plan view, on the assembly map, in the README and as object names in the 3MF files. Frames are FR, not F, because F1, F2… are the filament slots.