Maker Growth Hub

Member tool

Lantern Insert Generator

The difference between a design and a cut file is whether every piece is still attached when the last cut finishes.

Nothing is uploaded. It runs in your browser, so your files never leave your machine.

Part of the Maker Toolkit: fourteen tools that share one shop profile and one product list, so what you set up here is already known everywhere else.

Maker Toolkit v1.0 · August 2026

How it works

Lantern Insert Generator, step by step

It generates cut-out insert panels for your lantern — star tessellations, lattices, arches, trellises, spider webs — at the exact size your lantern needs. Then it checks the one thing that decides whether the file is any use: that every piece of material is still attached to the frame when the last cut finishes. Anything loose is tethered on, or dropped, and you are told which.

  1. Set the panel sizeOr send it straight from the Lantern Maker, which already knows it.
  2. Pick a preset, then push it aroundPattern, shape, density, size. The seed means you can find a panel again.
  3. Read the verdictOpen area, thin webs, and how many pieces would have dropped out.
  4. Back the openingsTranslucent acrylic or vellum behind the cut-outs, cut to lap onto the frame so there is something to glue.

Why it is built this way

The decisions behind it

Nothing drops outThe generator finds every unattached piece of material and tethers it to the frame with the shortest strut that reaches. That is the difference between a design and a cut file.
Geometric on purposePatterns, not pictures. A generated vine looks like a snake and a generated pine tree looks like an arrowhead — so those were cut. What is here tessellates, carries load in two directions, and is what pierced lanterns have used for centuries.
Sized to your materialTell it the thinnest web your stock will hold and it reports how much of the panel is under that. Plywood and 3mm acrylic do not agree, and neither does the same plywood in July.
One body, a year of productsThe lantern is the expensive part to design and the boring part to re-sell. Swapping the panel is what makes it a range.
Backing pieces, sized to glueA diffuser cut to the exact size of its opening drops straight through it. These are grown to lap onto the frame — and you are told when the overlap merges neighbours into one sheet, because past a point that is the better part anyway.

Questions

Lantern Insert Generator — common questions

Why do pieces fall out of laser cut panels?

Because a shape that is fully enclosed by cuts has nothing holding it to the frame. On a honeycomb bed it drops through mid-job and can catch fire. Every panel here is checked after it is built, and anything unattached is either tethered to the frame with the shortest strut that reaches, or removed. You are told which happened.

How thin can the material between cut-outs be?

You set the limit and the generator respects it, because the answer depends on your material. 3 mm ply tolerates thinner webs than MDF, and anything that has to be pushed into a slot needs more than something that sits in a frame. The report tells you what percentage of the panel is narrower than your threshold.

Can I put acrylic or vellum behind the cut-outs?

Yes, and the generator will cut the backing pieces for you. Each one is grown past its opening so it laps onto the frame and has something to glue to, rather than being cut to the exact opening and falling through it.

Can I cut the same design again next year?

Yes. Every panel is generated from a seed, and the same seed with the same settings rebuilds it exactly. You can copy the settings out as plain text and paste them back later.

Next in the workflow

What most makers open after this

These are not a list of everything. They are the tools this one hands off to, and they already know what you did here.

MemberLantern MakerDesign a lantern on screen, then download the cut files.FreeSheet NesterFit more parts on less material, and see exactly what didn’t fit.MemberShadow Box MakerLayered shadow boxes with slotted walls and tabs that don’t show.

Members

Lantern Insert Generator is part of the Hub

Ten of the fourteen tools are free and stay free — everything that gets a file onto the machine correctly. The four generators and the planner are what turn a craft into a product line, and they come with the Hub.

Join the Maker Growth Hub