What BGI makes
Board Game Inserts (bgi) helps you design an insert around the game you own. Describe the contents, the spaces they need, your game box, and the material you want to cut. BGI can suggest compartment layouts and turn your chosen design into panels, SVG cutting files, previews, and assembly instructions.
You work in a text file called a project, written in YAML. The normal starting point is automatic layout: you decide what belongs together, and BGI tries ways to arrange it. You can keep parts of a design fixed or specify the whole layout yourself when you need more control.
What can go in the insert?
Section titled “What can go in the insert?”| What you want to store | How BGI represents it |
|---|---|
| Cards, dice, tokens, and other pieces | Measured contents with space for handling and permitted orientations. |
| Several items kept together | A group sharing one compartment, such as a player set or mixed tokens. |
| Separate compartments in one insert | A grid with a shared floor, outer walls, and dividers. BGI can plan the compartment arrangement. |
| A tray to take out during play | A constructed assembly with its own floor, walls, and removal clearance. You design its interior; BGI can compare supported arrangements of designed trays. |
| An existing closed plastic box or insert | Its outside dimensions and the space needed to lift it out. BGI reserves that space without making new parts for the container. |
The supported construction uses flat panels, upright walls, and rectangular compartments. Dividers can form rows, columns, and supported T-shaped or crossing layouts. Finger openings and certain tray stacks are available. Angled card separators, molded shapes, and individual die-shaped pockets are not construction options.
The design process explains how these objects relate, what automatic layout decides, and how manual choices can be combined with it.
What a layout suggestion tells you
Section titled “What a layout suggestion tells you”BGI checks the proposed dimensions, panels, joints, and cutting paths against your project settings. If you specify material sheets, it also checks a placement of the parts on those sheets. A search tries supported patterns; if it finds no candidate, another arrangement may still work.
You choose a suggestion based on how the game is stored and played. The material guide covers sheet measurements and joint calibration when you are ready to make it.
Where to start
Section titled “Where to start”- Understand the building blocks: Contents, compartments, and trays, followed by From measurements to cut files.
- Design for your own game: start with Measure the box and contents and follow the Design an insert guides.
- Try a supplied example: Full example walks through automatic layout with a deck and tokens.
Use the example gallery for ideas and the reference when you need an exact setting.