If you want to check how many units fit in a carton and which box size to order for a specific order, you are in the right place. Pallet3D works one level below the pallet - inside the carton - and the item need not be a cuboid, because you draw its shape on a grid.
A box size is ordered once, but you pay for it on every parcel of the run. A carton packing calculator lets you check the layout earlier - before the die-cut goes to the printer and before the warehouse gets a packing instruction. Instead of guessing "it should fit", you enter the dimensions and see a concrete number of units and a fill percentage.
It is a tool for people who prepare shipments, price packaging or watch the cost of cardboard: packers, production planners, purchasing and e-commerce. It works online, with no installation, so it fits daily work in Poland and on international markets.
You start with the item. You give its dimensions and draw its shape on a grid, then enter the carton dimensions and the number of units to pack. The calculator arranges the items inside, checks all 24 rotations and shows the result in an interactive 3D view along with a packing list - carton by carton, with contents, weight and fill.
The tool has two modes. "How many fit" answers the question about a specific carton you already have. "Which carton" works the other way round: you give the full number of units and the number of boxes, and the tool looks for the smallest size that holds the lot.
The most common reason plain "length times width times height" fails is shape. A profile, an angle bracket, an L- or T-shaped item takes up clearly less room than its bounding box - but only if it can be interlocked with its neighbour. In Pallet3D you draw the shape on a grid, so what counts is the solid, not the cuboid drawn around it.
The calculator can interlock these shapes - and it says outright how much that gained. For a T-shape, interlocking fits tens of percent more units than plain stacking in rows; for a solid cuboid it gains nothing, and the result says that too instead of leaving you guessing.
The second mode turns the question around. You say how many units have to ship and in how many cartons it should fit, and the calculator looks for the smallest box that meets the condition. The order is split evenly at the same time, so you do not end up with one full carton and one half empty - they all travel equally loaded.
You pick the carton shape yourself: 1:1:1, 1:1:2, 1:1:3 or 1:1:4. This is not a limit imposed for its own sake - a box comes from a die-cut, off a shelf or from what is already in the warehouse, not from a minimum volume. The proportion can, however, change the fill by more than ten points, so a comparison shows all four side by side: size, volume, carton count and fill. The choice stays yours.
Packing a carton is the first level, but rarely the last. The carton you have just worked out moves on with a single click: it lands on the packaging list together with its gross weight and goes straight onto the pallet, so there is no need to retype three numbers between tools.
That way the whole chain is calculated in one place - the item goes into the carton, the carton onto a pallet, the pallet into a trailer or a container. Every time we are talking about the same carton, not two independent lists of dimensions.
The result is meant to be an instruction, not just a number. Besides the unit count and the fill you get a packing list carton by carton, the gross weight of each box and a note on what limits the result - space or weight. The 3D preview shows the arrangement layer by layer, so the plan can be handed to the warehouse without explaining it.
All the figures are computed so that they can be reproduced physically: the carton is rounded down and the item up, so the program never reports more units than will actually fit.
It depends on the item's shape and dimensions, the carton dimensions, the padding and whether the item may be laid on its side. Enter your carton dimensions, draw the item's shape and give the number of units - the calculator arranges them inside and shows the result in 3D along with a packing list.
No. You draw the shape on a grid, so an L, a T, a cross or a profile is counted exactly, not by its bounding box. The calculator checks all 24 rotations and can interlock concave shapes with each other, which fits noticeably more units than plain stacking in rows.
You give the full number of units and how many cartons it should fit into, and the calculator looks for the smallest size that meets that condition. You pick the carton shape yourself - 1:1:1, 1:1:2, 1:1:3 or 1:1:4 - because a box comes from a die-cut or off a shelf, not from a minimum volume. A comparison shows all four shapes side by side together with their fill.
Yes. You can give the carton wall thickness, the padding between items, the weight of a single unit and the tare of the empty box. The calculator watches the carton weight limit and reports the gross weight - exactly the figure the pallet calculator needs to work out the load.
No. The demo runs in your browser with no installation and no account - you draw one custom item and pack it into the sample cartons. Your own carton list and more items come with the full version.
Enter the carton dimensions, draw the item's shape in the Pallet3D demo and see the arrangement inside - no installation, no sign-up.
Launch the free demo →