Guides
MOLLE Panel Dimensions: The Complete Reference Chart
Every number you need to lay out a PALS grid — row pitch, horizontal pitch, slot size, bridge width and the tolerances that matter on rigid panels.
MOLLE is an imperial standard wearing metric clothes. Every “odd” millimetre figure below is a clean inch fraction underneath, which is why rounding them to 25 and 38 mm quietly breaks compatibility with commercial pouches.
The two numbers that define the grid
| Dimension | Imperial | Metric | What it controls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Row pitch (vertical) | 1” | 25.4 mm | Distance between webbing rows, centre to centre |
| Horizontal pitch | 1.5” | 38.1 mm | Distance between stitch lines — the slot pitch on rigid panels |
| Webbing width | 1” | 25.4 mm | The strap that passes through the slot |
On soft PALS, 1” webbing is stitched to the base every 1.5”. On a rigid panel — HDPE, plywood, aluminium, Kydex — you replicate that by cutting slots on the same pitch. The strap still has to pass through, so the slot has to clear 25.4 mm of webbing plus its thickness.
Slot geometry
There is no single mil-spec figure for a rigid panel slot, because rigid panels are not what the standard describes. What manufacturers converged on:
- Slot length: 32–35 mm. Long enough to feed 25.4 mm webbing at an angle, short enough to leave a bridge.
- Slot height: 6–8 mm. Below 6 mm, doubled webbing binds; above 8 mm, pouches sit loose and rattle.
- Bridge (material between slots): 3–6 mm. This is the number that decides whether your panel survives.
- Corner radius: always full radius (half the slot height). Square internal corners are stress concentrators — a sharp-cornered slot in HDPE will start a crack within a season of vibration.
The bridge is where panels fail
Everything else is comfort. The bridge is structure. In 4 mm HDPE a 3 mm bridge will flex and eventually split at the corner; 5–6 mm survives. If you shorten the slot to widen the bridge you lose pitch compatibility, so the honest options are: thicker material, or a wider horizontal pitch on a panel you never intend to swap pouches between.
Edge margin and mounting
Keep at least 10–12 mm between the outer row of slots and the panel edge. Mounting holes sit outside the grid, not inside it — a hole placed in a bridge removes the little material that bridge had.
Check your own numbers
Set these values in the generator, read the bridge width it reports back, and export the DXF. If the bridge comes out under 5 mm, the tool will say so before you cut a sheet.