Simple butt joints save material but can be made to work with modern adhesives and hardware.
Most joinery techniques require that each part be extended into the other and the stock which forms the joints be removed so that the two parts fit together. For simple and rough or rustic projects, it may be appropriate to simply cut the parts to size and mate them using adhesives and hardware. A classic example of this approach is a bird house for wrens:
It includes a matrix for laying out the parts for cutting:
Wren birdhouse: parts for cutting
The parts layout may be easily prepared for exporting as a DXF or SVG using the projection() command as previously shown.
It is frequently necessary to refer to the dimensions of parts while working. While these could be stored as variables, it may be more expressive to calculate them using a module which can then return either width or depth based on a parameter:
Dimension calculation using a module
Then it is simply a matter of cutting out the parts:
Birdhouse parts
and assembling with a few nails and a hinge and associated hardware:
