If you’re remodeling your kitchen or home and want to get the cabinet designs just right, here we’ve looked at the best cabinet design software for Mac and Windows of 2023.
Most home design software and kitchen design software have tools to design and measure cabinets although some do it better than others.
Almost all the best professional CAD software allow you to design cabinets and closets too although with a much steeper learning curve for amateurs.
Here we’ve looked at the best cabinet design software for a range of abilities from beginners to professionals including those that work on drawing tablets too.
We’ve also looked at the best cabinet design software with cutlists of the materials required to help project the costing of making the cabinets and those that support CNC.
So whether you’re looking to design cabinets for your kitchen or home, a commercial residence such as a small shop, or just a new closet, you’ll find something here that fits.
All of the cabinet design tools reviewed here work on all types of MacBook, Mac Studio, Mac Mini and iMac including the latest M1 and M2 Macs.
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Here then are the best cabinet design software of 2023 in order of ranking.
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1. Fusion 360
Image credit: Fusion360
If you’re already familiar with Autodesk CAD products like AutoCAD then look no further than Fusion 360 for cabinet design on both Mac and Windows.
Like most Autodesk products, Fusion 360 is the industry standard for industrial design and if you’re planning to be a professional cabinet or furniture designer, the likelihood is you’ll be using Fusion 360.
Fusion 360 is different from AutoCAD though which focuses more on creating 2D and 3D drawings whereas Fusion 360 aims to connect the entire design process.
Fusion 360 is a 3D CAD, CAM, CAE, and PCB tool which unifies design, engineering, electronics and manufacturing.
Fusion 360 is aimed mainly at industrial designers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, machinists, hobbyists and startups so it’s definitely not a beginners tool.
Fusion 360 can be used to make any kind of furniture including cabinets and is ideal for use with CNC machines.
There’s even a special CS Furniture Tools add-on for Fusion which enables you to streamline automatic parametric design, documentation creation and visualization of furniture such as cabinets.
Some professional cabinet makers use Fusion 360 alongside software like Mozaik and Vcarve Pro when they need to create more advanced designs.
You can even download a Cutlist plugin so that Fusion 360 will automatically export a cutlist for your designs.
Image credit: Fusion 360
It takes longer to design furniture in Fusion 360 than many of the cabinet design apps reviewed here but the results are aimed at professional designers that need a manufacturing blueprint.
Despite its complexity however, Fusion 360 is surprisingly easy to learn if you’re prepared to go through the many video tutorials and step-by-step guides on the Autodesk website.
Fusion 360 works on both Intel and Apple Silicon M1/M2 Macs although Apple Silicon support requires Rosetta 2.
Autodesk has announced however that a native version of Fusion 360 for Apple Silicon will be released in summer 2023.
You can download a free trial of Fusion 360 to try it for yourself.
Pricing: $70/month or $545 annually.
2. Shapr3D
If you’re looking for a powerful but accessible tool to design cabinets with, then Shapr3D works on Mac desktops, Windows and even Wacom drawing tablets.
Shapr3D is designed to take your ideas from initial sketch, all the way through to industrial blueprint although many use it for sketching ideas quickly before designing them in industry standard tools like Fusion 360.
However, companies such as 3M and ABB use Shapr3D for designing and the software claims to now have over 1 million users.
The fact that Shapr3D is multi-device and syncs seamlessly, means that you can start designing on a Mac but also switch to Windows if needed or Wacom tablets if you’re on the move.
On tablets, Shapr3D also supports pressure inputs on the Apple Pencil if you’re using the iPad as a drawing tablet and Wacom pen tablets.
You can use Shapr3D for free for up to 2 designs to test it for yourself although you’ll need a subscription for unlimited use which start at $25/m.
Pricing: Plans starting from $25/month.
3. Live Home 3D
Image credit: LiveHome3D
Live Home 3D is the best desktop home design software for Mac and the integrated cabinet designer software in it is excellent.
Live Home 3D features a collection of pre-designed cabinets in the and you can easily choose one that’s similar to yours and then adjust the dimensions and materials.
You can of course choose to draw a cabinet from scratch or import a printed cabinet blueprint and then digitize it in Live Home 3D.
You can switch between 2D and 3D mode at any moment and add cameras to watch a video walkthrough of how your cabinets will look from any angle.
We also like the split view in the Mac version which allows you to design in both 2D and 3D at the same time.
There’s a huge collection of over 2,000 objects and 2,100 materials in Live Home 3D’s kitchen designer with plenty of pre made cabinets to choose from.
If there’s something missing, you can buy even more for a modest fee from the Live Home 3D store. You can also import your own models, images and materials.
There are even some professional cabinet design software touches in Live Home 3D such as the 2D elevation view which provides a convenient side view of the structure.
This can be to decide where to place wall panels, doorways and also allows you to export and print elevations.
The dolls house view in particular are impressive and the sort of feature you only usually get in professional kitchen planners.
You can check out our full Live Home 3D review for more.
You can also try Live Home 3D free to test it first.
Pricing: Licenses starting from $29.99.
4. SketchUp
Image credit: SketchUp
If you’re looking for the HGTV home design software for Mac used by Chip and Joanna Gaines in the show Fixer Upper, then SketchUp will look very familiar.
That’s because Chip and Joanna Gaines use SketchUp to redesign houses in the HGTV show Fixer Upper although they use the rather more expensive Sketchup Pro which costs $299/year.
SketchUp (formerly Google Sketchup) has evolved from a free online 2D design tool that was once owned by Google to a very powerful 2D and 3D modelling software that can be used to produce professional cabinet designs.
One thing that Google SketchupPro really excels in is furniture and objects such as cabinets. There’s an enormous database of 3D models of just about any type of furniture or object – for chairs alone there are 35,000 choices.
The professional version of SketchUp is SketchUp Pro which is a professional tool costing $349 per year and there’s a more limited version SketchUp Go which costs $119 per year.
However, there is also a basic free version for non commercial use called SketchUp Free which works online allows you to model cabinets and furniture in 3D for free with a generous 10GB of online storage.
The free version is perfect for hobbyists although professionals in architecture, construction, engineering and commercial interior design will need SketchUp Pro.
There are also far fewer templates in the non Pro versions of Sketchup to get you going although it’s very easy to create them from scratch.
SketchupPro isn’t cheap at $349 per year but it’s a very powerful professional house planning and interior design tool.
You can check out our review of SketchUp for more.
Pricing: Free / Plans starting from $119/year.
5. Cabinet Solutions (Windows Only)
Image credit: Cabinet Solutions
Cabinet Solutions is used by professional cabinet makers that don’t have the time to learn professional CAD software but need something tailored for cabinet design.
Although Cabinet Solutions works on Windows, it’s important for Mac users to be aware that there’s no Mac version but you can still use Cabinet Solutions on a Mac if you install Windows on your Mac first.
We recommend using Parallels for this which easily allows you to run Windows 11 on a Mac or Windows 10 on a Mac simultaneously with macOS so that you can run Cabinet Solutions on your Mac.
You can find the full system requirements for Cabinet Solutions here.
Cabinet Solutions is designed for creating cabinets of all types including kitchen cabinets, garage cabinets, bathroom cabinets, entertainment centers and more.
Cabinet Solutions includes a cutlist with job costing as well as 3D pictures, cabinet customization and panel optimizing.
You can take a virtual tour of how your final cabinet solution or kitchen will look, customize wood colors and appliances and take screenshots to share with customers or architects.
Job costing in Cabinet Solutions is surprisingly accurate and includes essentials such as pricing by Linneal Foot, Materials, Labor and Profit.
You must request access to Cabinet Solutions to start using it but remember that you’ll need to install Windows on your Mac first.
Pricing: $89/month or $549/year.
thank you for clarifying about Cabinet Solutions!