Cabinet Oblique · 45°

About Cabinet Oblique · 45°

Cabinet projection keeps the front face of the object at true size and shape, with depth lines running at 45° and conventionally drawn at half scale. This makes it unbeatable for any object whose primary face deserves to be "read" first - cabinets, control panels, façades and shop fronts. Further reading: A practitioner reading list covers the standards lineage in more depth.

Standards lineage

Cabinet projection appears in ISO 5456-3:1996 as a simplified oblique projection; depth scaling is conventionally 1:2.

A short history

Cabinet projection takes its name from its 18th-century use by French furniture makers, who used it to show the front of a piece at true scale while still hinting at depth.

Where designers reach for it

• Cabinet and casework drawings (the projection takes its name from this use)
• Façade studies where the front elevation must remain measurable
• Equipment panel layouts and rack elevations
• Retail shop-front concept boards

Printing this grid

Every variant on this page is delivered as a vector SVG with physical millimetre dimensions baked into the file, so a compliant printer driver will reproduce it at exact 1:1 scale by default. Choose the sheet size that matches your printer tray, set scaling to 100 % (never "fit to page"), and verify with the calibration check on our how-to-print guide. Buyer's guide: Comparing the major architectural scale rulers can help you pick the right physical scale rule to use over the printed grid.