How to Design MDF Doors in Mozaik – Phill Anton Consulting

Q: We buy our doors from outside vendors. How do we still show the right shapes in Mozaik?

Turn on Buy out door so the doors stay off your cut list and Mozaik only tracks overall sizes. To display the vendor's profiles, build "faux" tools in the optimizer to create matching panel profile tool groups, and name the tool groups to match each vendor's profile names so you can select them and show the correct door.

Q: How do I set up beading on a routed door?

Turn on Applied beading in the routed door options, then configure it under Settings > Beading. Choose the tool, the bead type (single or double), whether to show high-detail beading, the bead width, the spacing between beads, the depth of cut, and a bead stop distance that stops the bead short of the rail.

To design MDF doors in Mozaik, build them as one-piece routed doors: open the Door Library's Routed tab, add a door, set your stile and rail widths, choose a panel type (pocket for a Shaker, one-piece for a raised panel), then assign panel tool groups and edge tool groups so the CNC carves the profile you want. The same base door can wear many profiles just by swapping tool groups, which keeps your library lean and flexible.

This guide follows Mozaik's official walkthrough. Watch the original video on Mozaik's channel:

You can also follow along with Mozaik's official video.

What is an MDF door in Mozaik, and why use one?

An MDF door is machined from a single sheet of material (the webinar demonstrates 3/4" MDF) instead of being assembled from separate rails, stiles, and a panel. Because it's one solid piece, it's typically a painted component, so you generally do not edge band it and MDF has no grain direction to worry about. Mozaik routes the door shape and pockets the center out with CNC tooling, which lets you reproduce a range of styles (Shaker, beveled Shaker, beaded, raised panel) from the same starting door. If you're weighing whether to make doors this way at all, see slab vs 1-piece vs 5-piece doors: in-house vs buyout.

Step 1 — Open the Routed tab in the Door Library

Breadcrumb: Libraries > Doors > (Door Library) > Routed tab

The Door Library has several tabs, and the Routed tab is the one for one-piece MDF doors:

Thumbnail — preview of every door style in the library.
Traditional — five-piece traditional doors.
Miter — five-piece traditional doors with miter joints.
Slab — flat doors and drawers.
Routed — one-piece MDF doors (your starting point here).
SketchUp — represent an intricate door with an imported SketchUp model.

A note on organization: you can create multiple door libraries, but only one door library can be selected per room. Splitting every style and profile into separate libraries can restrict your design flexibility, so it's often better to keep one solid door library you use across all jobs.

Step 2 — Add the door and name it usefully

Breadcrumb: Routed tab > Add > name the door

Click Add and give the door a name. A practical naming habit from the webinar is to include the style/rail width and the pocket depth (for example, a "2 1/4 Shaker" with the pocket depth noted in parentheses). The pocket depth in the name matters because it helps you pick the matching panel tool group later — the tool group's depth should match the door's pocket depth.

Step 3 — Set your stile and rail widths

In the routed door setup, set the style and rail widths to your spec (the demo uses 2 1/4", changed from the 2 1/2" default). You can set one margin and copy it into the rest. The preview updates live as you change the widths, and you can open the 3D preview to see the door.

Step 4 — Choose the panel type (and pocket depth for a Shaker)

Breadcrumb: Routed door setup > Panel type

The panel type tells Mozaik how to treat the center of the door:

For a Shaker, change the panel type to Pocket, then set the panel recess to the pocket depth you want (matching what you put in the door's name).
For a raised panel, use a one-piece panel type (covered in Step 9), where the recess isn't used.

With the pocket type set, the 3D preview shows the center removed because Mozaik knows the pocketing tool will carve it out. Without this, the center would stay the full thickness of the door.

Step 5 — Split the door into more sections (optional)

Just like cabinet faces and interiors, you can subdivide a door with the splitting tools:

Vertical split — adds a center stile (e.g., a two-pocket door).
Horizontal split — divides top to bottom.
Multi-split — splits a section into equal parts (e.g., three equal sections for a four-pocket door).

This lets you lay the door out to match the style you're after.

Step 6 — Set the door options

On the right side of the routed door dialog are the door options:

Buy out door — tells Mozaik these doors are made by an outside manufacturer; they're kept off your cut list and Mozaik only tracks the overall sizes.
Oversize — adds size so you can square-cut the doors on a saw afterward.
Bore for hinges / poles / locks — enables those machining operations during CNC production. Note: turning on bore for hinges forces flip operations, because the pocket is machined on the front while the hinge cups are machined on the back.
Applied beading — adds beaded/fluted tool paths to the door face (configured under Settings > Beading; see the FAQ).
Apply banding — edge banding. For a painted MDF door you typically leave this off (it's more relevant to melamine flat doors and drawers).
Applied molding — shows a separate molding component sitting on top of the frame. This is for representing the design to clients; it does not change the machining.
Horizontal grain — switch from the default vertical grain if your material has grain. MDF has no grain, so this doesn't apply to MDF.
SKP model for display — represent the door with a SketchUp model.
Pricing and labor options are also set here.

Step 7 — Create the matching drawer front

Breadcrumb: Copy the door > rename > enable Drawer front

Copy the finished door, rename it (e.g., swap "door" for "drawer"), and tick the Drawer front checkbox at the top so Mozaik treats it as a drawer front rather than a door.

You can also build a reduced-rail drawer front for shorter drawers. In the demo, drawer fronts below 7" use narrower (1 3/4") top and bottom rails to leave more room for handles and hardware. To automate the swap:

Make another copy of the drawer front and set its top and bottom margins to the reduced (1 3/4") rails — this is your reduced-rail version.
On the regular drawer front, use the minimum/maximum width and height fields at the bottom: set the minimum height (e.g., 7") and set the replacement to the reduced-rail version.

Now Mozaik automatically switches to the reduced-rail drawer front whenever that drawer goes below the minimum height — you just select the regular drawer front in your job and let Mozaik decide.

Step 8 — Apply the doors in the job and assign tools

Breadcrumb: Job Settings > door style selector > pick the door

After selecting your door, Mozaik opens the routed door options so you can tell it how to machine:

Outside edge — by default uses the cutout tool from your tool set; you can choose a different tool or an edge tool group here.
Routed door tools (panel tool groups) — select the group whose pocket depth matches your door's pocket depth (e.g., the Shaker 1/4" pocket group).
Pocketing tool — set to pocket tool, which tells Mozaik to use whatever tool in your tool set is marked as the pocket tool.

Repeat for base cabinets, walls, and each drawer position. For drawers, select the regular drawer front (not the reduced-rail one) and let Mozaik decide when to switch — it will use the reduced-rail version automatically on the shorter top drawers.

Step 9 — Build a raised panel door

Breadcrumb: Routed tab > copy your Shaker door > Panel type = One piece

Copy your Shaker door and rename it (e.g., "2 1/4 raised").
Change the panel type to one-piece and set the panel recess to zero (it isn't used for a one-piece door).
Build a matching panel tool group that includes a panel tool (the raised-panel cutter) — start from an existing tool group, remove the pocketing, and position the panel tool so it clears the other tools.
Apply the door in the job, set the outside edge to the cutout tool, and assign the raised-panel tool group.

The result is a center raised panel cut by the panel tool (the demo pairs it with a 60° V-groove).

How do panel tool groups actually shape the profile?

Breadcrumb: Optimizer > Libraries > CNC Tooling > Panel Tool Groups

A panel tool group is a stack of tools, each with a depth and an offset, that machines the interior of the door. Key concepts from the webinar:

A green line down the middle of the dialog marks the boundary between the frame (stile/rail) and the pocket. Tools placed on the pocket side chase the inside of the frame.
Order of operations matters — Mozaik runs tools top to bottom. Put your most robust tool first (e.g., a 1/2" straight flute) to clear most of the material and the larger corner radius left by the pocket tool, then follow with a smaller, more delicate tool (e.g., a 1/8" down shear) to tighten the inside radius. Running the delicate tool first risks breaking it.
On edge vs. on center — these are two ways to position a tool relative to the line. With on edge, an offset of zero sits on the left of the line; offset it by the tool's diameter to move it to the right side. With on center, an offset of zero centers the tool on the line; offset by half the diameter to shift it. Use whichever you're more comfortable with.
To add a bevel (e.g., a 60° bevel inside the panel for easier cleaning), copy your existing tool group, add a sharp-corner bevel tool, set its depth to match the pocket, and center it on the line so you get half the bevel.

Per-tool options in the group include Cut through (run the tool fully through the material), Sharp corners (ramps a bevel tool up and down so corners come out truly sharp instead of leaving a radius), Ramping (whether tools ramp into the cut), and Flip side (for two-sided machining).

How do edge tool groups differ from panel tool groups?

Breadcrumb: Optimizer > Libraries > CNC Tooling > Edge Tool Groups

Edge tool groups shape the outside edge of the door rather than the interior. The dialog looks different because you're viewing from the outside edge (the top/end of the door). You stack tools with depths and offsets the same way — for example, adding a round-over to the outside edge to mirror an interior bead. You assign an edge tool group under the outside edge option when you apply the door, instead of the default cutout tool.

How do you draw a custom CNC door tool?

Breadcrumb: Optimizer > tool set > copy a tool > uncheck Cutout tool > set CNC door tool > Tool shape

Mozaik ships with a large pre-loaded tool selection, so check there first (and watch the "import updated data" feed for new tools). To draw your own (e.g., a round-over):

Copy an existing tool, rename it, and set the diameter, speeds/feeds, and plunge rates from your tooling manufacturer's specs.
Uncheck "Cutout tool" and mark it as a CNC door tool, which unlocks the Tool shape editor.
The Tool shape editor works on points and coordinates like the parts/shape editors — X is left/right, Y is up/down. You draw half the tool's diameter, entering point values (or dragging nodes, which snap square) and adding a radius/bulge to a node where the tool is rounded.
View the tool in 3D to confirm the shape.

The more accurately you draw the geometry, the easier it is to build panel tool groups and the less trial-and-error you'll have at the machine.

How do you control the pocketing strategy?

Breadcrumb: Libraries > CNC Tooling > (pocket tool) > Pocket options

Select the tool marked as your pocket tool and open Pocket options for pocket strategies. By default Mozaik uses offsets; many customers prefer raster, which the webinar notes is often the fastest way to pocket and leaves the cleanest finish. You can also radius the corners if your machine supports it, which can help reduce witness marks left when the tool changes direction. For the broader machine-side settings that govern how these tools run, see how to set CNC toolpath properties in Mozaik.

Related guides

Get it done-for-you

You can set this up yourself using the steps above. If you'd rather skip the setup, PAC's MDF Door profiles for Mozaik can help — phillanton.com.

Full disclosure: this guide is published by Phill Anton Consulting.

FAQ

We buy our doors from outside vendors. How do we still show the right shapes in Mozaik?

Turn on Buy out door so the doors stay off your cut list and Mozaik only tracks overall sizes. To display the vendor's profiles, you can build "faux" tools in the optimizer to create matching panel profile tool groups, and name the panel tool groups to match each vendor's profile names so you can select them and show the correct door.

Should I create a separate door for every profile, or reuse one door?

Reuse one door to stay flexible — a single base door (e.g., a 2 1/4" Shaker with a 1/4" pocket) can carry many different panel and edge tool groups. If you want to save particular looks, save them as templates (which store the full collection of room settings) rather than as many separate doors. That keeps your door library compact instead of over-expanding it.

How do I set up beading on a routed door?

Turn on Applied beading in the routed door options, then configure it under Settings > Beading. There you choose the tool, the bead type (single or double), and whether to show high-detail beading (you may turn this off to speed up the display for very tight beads). You also set the bead width, the spacing between beads (for a double bead), the depth of cut, and a bead stop distance that stops the bead short of the rail so the tool doesn't collide with it.

Why does boring for hinges add flip operations?

Because a Shaker-style routed door is pocketed on the front while the hinge cups are bored on the back. Machining both faces means the part has to be flipped, so enabling bore-for-hinges forces flip operations — plan for that in your production.