This is the whole MakeMyInsert flow, end to end: how one straight-down photo of your tool becomes a measured outline, how that outline becomes a pocket inside a real case blank, and how the finished insert gets to you — as an STL to print, or printed and shipped. No CAD, no calipers, no hand tracing.
Lay the tool flat in the pose it will sit in the case, on a plain surface, and put something of a known size around it — a sheet of paper is best; AA batteries, coins, a dollar bill, a card or a tape measure all work. Shoot straight down with the phone level. The references form a boundary: inside it, the tool is the only item; everything outside is ignored. The photo guide covers the method in full.
Enter the model number printed on the tool — 2522-20, DCF885, whichever you own. The number lets the builder cross-check your trace against the manufacturer's published size, and if we hold a measured outline for that number, the builder can offer it directly.
Analysis takes about three minutes. Your photo comes back with the outline drawn on the tool and a quality score: 70% and up passes and that outline is the one that gets cut. Below 70%, the photo is declined with the problem area marked and a plain explanation — retakes are always free, and nothing is charged for a declined photo.
Step 4 — pick the case. The builder's blanks are solid models measured from the actual case interiors — 39 of them, from the Milwaukee 48-22-8435 compact organizer and PACKOUT drawer boxes to the DeWalt DWST08020 ToughSystem organizer and DWST08165, plus plain boxes in your own dimensions. Drag your outlines around inside the blank, rotate them, add batteries, bit holders, socket holes and other shapes, and the builder warns you about overlaps and edges as you go.
Step 5 — choose how it is cut. Cut in carves the pocket down into the blank — the classic insert. Walls only builds a standing wall ring in the tool's outline on the case floor — lighter, and easy to rearrange later. Set the clearance (snug to loose), add smoothing or rolled edges, and the floor and wall heights are yours to tune.
Build the insert and you get a watertight, print-ready STL, generated on our servers to the millimetre. Designing is free; a finished download is $4.99, and new accounts start with free download credits. Don't own a printer — or don't want to spend the hours? Order the same insert printed on the Mesh3DLab farm and shipped: printed inserts are priced by case size, small to full-size, at checkout.
A hand tracing of a photo gives you a shape at an unknown size — the guesswork is why traced inserts so often come out a few millimetres off. MakeMyInsert never guesses the scale: the references in your photo set it, multiple references check each other, tilt is corrected or the photo is declined, and the part-number cross-check flags a trace that disagrees with the manufacturer's published size before anything is cut. Behind it all sits Mesh3DLab's library of measured tool outlines, built from 3D scans and the pockets of real inserts, and case blanks measured from the real cases — the same library behind the inserts Mesh3DLab sells every day. Laying out a whole case? Start with the PACKOUT organization guide.