| --- |
| license: cc-by-4.0 |
| language: |
| - en |
| pretty_name: Industrial Storage Container Dimensions |
| size_categories: |
| - n<1K |
| tags: |
| - logistics |
| - supply-chain |
| - warehousing |
| - packaging |
| - reference |
| - tabular |
| configs: |
| - config_name: default |
| data_files: containers.csv |
| - config_name: listings |
| data_files: listings.csv |
| dataset_info: |
| - config_name: default |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: type_label |
| dtype: string |
| - name: common_names |
| dtype: string |
| - name: external_length_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_width_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_height_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_length_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_width_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_height_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_volume_l |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_volume_gal |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_length_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_width_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_height_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_length_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_width_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_height_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_dims_basis |
| dtype: string |
| - name: internal_dims_vendors |
| dtype: int64 |
| - name: typical_capacity_l |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: typical_capacity_gal |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: vendor_capacity_low_l |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: vendor_capacity_high_l |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: usable_ratio |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: capacity_basis |
| dtype: string |
| - name: lidded |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: lid_available_separately |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: nestable_when_empty |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: typical_nesting_ratio |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: standard_conformant |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: standard |
| dtype: string |
| - name: vda_4500_height |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: eur1_pallet_per_layer |
| dtype: int64 |
| - name: listings_observed |
| dtype: int64 |
| - name: notes |
| dtype: string |
| splits: |
| - name: train |
| num_examples: 48 |
| - config_name: listings |
| features: |
| - name: listing_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: vendor |
| dtype: string |
| - name: vendor_country |
| dtype: string |
| - name: product_name |
| dtype: string |
| - name: sku |
| dtype: string |
| - name: url |
| dtype: string |
| - name: type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: native_unit |
| dtype: string |
| - name: external_length_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_width_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_height_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_length_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_width_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_height_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_length_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_width_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_height_cm |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_length_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_width_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: internal_height_in |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: stated_capacity_l |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: stated_capacity_gal |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_volume_l |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: external_volume_gal |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: usable_ratio |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: price |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: currency |
| dtype: string |
| - name: price_includes_vat |
| dtype: bool |
| - name: pack_quantity |
| dtype: int64 |
| - name: unit_price |
| dtype: float64 |
| - name: captured_date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: notes |
| dtype: string |
| splits: |
| - name: train |
| num_examples: 121 |
| --- |
| |
| # Industrial Storage Container Dimensions |
|
|
| Planning-grade volumetric reference for the plastic containers that European and |
| North American warehouses actually run on: **Euroboxes** (Euro stacking containers), |
| **attached-lid containers (ALCs)**, and **VDA 4500 KLTs**. |
|
|
| Two tables: |
|
|
| | Config | Rows | What it is | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `default` → `containers.csv` | 48 | One **typical** row per nominal size. External and internal dimensions, usable capacity, the spread of what vendors publish, lid and nesting behaviour, standards conformance | |
| | `listings` → `listings.csv` | 121 | The **individual vendor listings** the typical figures were generalised from. Real SKUs, real prices, the date each was captured | |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| |
| typical = load_dataset("danielrosehill/storage-container-dimensions", split="train") |
| listings = load_dataset("danielrosehill/storage-container-dimensions", "listings", split="train") |
| ``` |
|
|
| Two documents come with it, both generated from the CSVs so neither can drift: |
|
|
| | | | |
| |---|---| |
| | **[`datasheet/storage-container-dimensions-datasheet-v1.0.pdf`](datasheet/storage-container-dimensions-datasheet-v1.0.pdf)** | The **datasheet**, v1.0 — scope, composition, how every number was derived, known limitations, provenance, and the full data dictionary. Read this before using the data in anything that matters. | |
| | **[`docs/data-dictionary.md`](docs/data-dictionary.md)** · **[`data-dictionary.csv`](data-dictionary.csv)** | Every column in both tables with its type, unit and meaning — as a document and machine-readable. | |
|
|
| Prefer the sizes themselves on paper? The same data is rendered as an 8-page printable reference — |
| every size, its typical internal dimensions, its usable capacity and the vendor |
| spread, divided by family: |
| **[`reference/storage-container-reference.pdf`](reference/storage-container-reference.pdf)**. |
|
|
| The second table is there so you can audit the first. Every typical capacity is a |
| judgement call about a spread of real products; `listings.csv` is that spread, with |
| URLs and capture dates, so you can disagree with a number and see exactly what it |
| was averaged from. |
|
|
| Every dimension appears in **both centimetres and inches**, and every capacity in |
| **litres and US gallons** — the comparison this dataset exists for is cross-market, and |
| one of the four vendors here designs in inches. Which side is the vendor's own figure |
| and which is derived is recorded per listing in `native_unit`. |
|
|
| ## Scope |
|
|
| **This dataset stops at the unit.** It describes the smallest standardised unit of |
| industrial storage — the tote — and nothing above it. |
|
|
| | In scope | Out of scope | |
| |---|---| |
| | External and internal dimensions, both unit systems | Pallet builds and load patterns | |
| | External volume and usable capacity | Container loads, TEU utilisation, stowage | |
| | Nesting and stacking behaviour | Shelving and racking layouts | |
| | Lid arrangement, standards conformance | Live pricing, availability, lead times | |
| | What the trade calls each family, per geography | Any one manufacturer's exact spec | |
|
|
| The one deliberate exception is `eur1_pallet_per_layer`, a convenience column giving |
| the footprint count on a 1200 × 800 deck. It is the last thing that is purely a |
| property of the box; anything past it depends on build height, pallet standard and |
| container choice, which are decisions rather than dimensions. |
|
|
| Prices in `listings.csv` are **captured observations with a date on them**, kept so a |
| capacity figure can be audited against what was really on sale. They are not a price |
| feed and will rot. |
|
|
| ## What it is for |
|
|
| The point of a dimensional dataset is that the calculations downstream of it are |
| somebody else's. In practice these are: |
|
|
| - **Pallet load calculation** — how many units per layer and per pallet, and the |
| build height that follows. The footprints tile a 1200 × 800 and a 1200 × 1000 deck |
| exactly, which is the whole reason the module exists. |
| - **Shelving and racking calculation** — industrial racking, business storeroom or |
| domestic shelf: how many boxes per bay, and which height variant uses a given shelf |
| pitch without wasting the gap above it. |
| - **Consolidation and move planning** — how much of a shelf, room or shipment a given |
| box count becomes, and how much less it becomes if the boxes nest. |
| - **Purchase comparison** — ranking products on cost per *usable* litre rather than on |
| the nominal size printed on the listing. |
|
|
| ## The point of it |
|
|
| If you are costing out a purchase or sizing a shipment, you need to know that a |
| 60 × 40 × 23 cm Eurobox gives you about **42 litres**, not the 55.2 litres that |
| 60 × 40 × 23 implies. Multiply external dimensions and you will overstate what you |
| are buying by roughly a quarter — and you will overstate a tapered ALC by more than |
| a straight-walled Eurobox, which quietly corrupts any comparison between the two. |
|
|
| That gap is the whole reason this dataset exists. |
|
|
| ## Read this before using the numbers |
|
|
| **The footprint is standardised. The heights mostly are not. The insides are not at |
| all.** |
|
|
| ISO 3394 fixes the 600 × 400 mm module and its submultiples, which is why the metric |
| range tiles a Euro pallet exactly. Heights are a different matter: of the 18 distinct |
| 600 × 400 heights in `containers.csv`, exactly **one** — 280 mm — is fixed by a |
| standard (VDA 4500). The rest are convention, and manufacturers ship one-off variants |
| inside it. Attached-lid heights are vendor convention throughout, to the point where |
| the same 80 L box is listed at both 400 and 420 mm. |
|
|
| **US vendors design in inches, and some of their totes land near the 600 × 400 module |
| without hitting it.** Hudson Exchange's 24 × 15 in "straight wall stacking tote" is |
| 61.0 × 38.1 cm — one centimetre too long to put four on a Euro pallet, so the pattern |
| collapses to two. Full table of the near misses, and what `native_unit` is for: |
| **[`guidance/units-and-us-vendors.md`](guidance/units-and-us-vendors.md)**. |
|
|
| **The standards fix external dimensions. They do not fix internal ones.** |
|
|
| ISO 3394 defines the 600 × 400 mm packaging module. EN 13199 caps a small load |
| carrier at that footprint. VDA 4500 additionally fixes three external heights |
| (147.5, 213, 280 mm). None of them specifies wall thickness, draft angle, rib |
| design or base construction — those are the manufacturer's choice, and they are what |
| determine internal volume. |
|
|
| So every internal dimension and capacity here is a **typical figure averaged across |
| vendor catalogues**, not a specification. Ten vendors will give you ten different |
| numbers for the same nominal size, and the spread is not small: across the four |
| catalogues captured here, a 60 × 40 × 32 cm Eurobox is quoted internally at anything |
| from 60.4 to 66.4 litres. That is an 11 % range on a box every one of them calls |
| 600 × 400 × 320. `vendor_capacity_low_l` and `vendor_capacity_high_l` give you the |
| range on every row rather than hiding it behind a single figure. |
|
|
| That is a limitation of the product category, not of this dataset. Chasing |
| manufacturer-exact figures is not achievable in a general reference, and would be |
| obsolete the moment a mould changed. **Use these for calculation, comparison and |
| planning. Check the specific supplier's own internal dimensions before committing to |
| a large order.** |
|
|
| ## Fields |
|
|
| | Field | Type | Notes | |
| |---|---|---| |
| | `id` | string | Stable slug, e.g. `euro-600x400x230`, `alc-600x400x310`, `vda-rklt-6429` | |
| | `type` | string | `euro_stacking_container` · `attached_lid_container` · `vda_klt_container` | |
| | `type_label` | string | Human-readable form of `type` | |
| | `common_names` | string | Semicolon-separated search terms, ordered most standard to most colloquial, including regional ones (`Eurobehälter`, `bac gerbable`) and genericised vendor names (`Hudson box`). Search terms only — never discriminate families on them, see `guidance/naming.md` | |
| | `external_length_cm` | float64 (cm) | External length | |
| | `external_width_cm` | float64 (cm) | External width | |
| | `external_height_cm` | float64 (cm) | External height | |
| | `external_length_in` | float64 (in) | External length in inches. Always the derived side on this table — these nominal sizes are fixed in millimetres by the standards | |
| | `external_width_in` | float64 (in) | External width in inches, derived | |
| | `external_height_in` | float64 (in) | External height in inches, derived | |
| | `external_volume_l` | float64 (L) | L × W × H. **Not** what the box holds | |
| | `external_volume_gal` | float64 (US gal) | External volume in US liquid gallons | |
| | `internal_length_cm` | float64 (cm) | Typical internal length. Populated for every Euro row and for the two KLT sizes a vendor publishes; empty for ALCs, whose taper makes a single internal dimension meaningless | |
| | `internal_width_cm` | float64 (cm) | Typical internal width, same basis | |
| | `internal_height_cm` | float64 (cm) | Typical internal height, same basis | |
| | `internal_length_in` | float64 (in) | Typical internal length in inches, derived | |
| | `internal_width_in` | float64 (in) | Typical internal width in inches, derived | |
| | `internal_height_in` | float64 (in) | Typical internal height in inches, derived | |
| | `internal_dims_basis` | string | Where those internal figures came from: `vendor_average_rule`, `vendor_published`, `not_published`, `not_published_tapered_walls` | |
| | `internal_dims_vendors` | int64 | How many **vendors** publish internal dimensions for this footprint. Vendors, not listings — one mould in five colours is one opinion | |
| | `typical_capacity_l` | float64 (L) | **The usable number.** Always populated | |
| | `typical_capacity_gal` | float64 (US gal) | Usable capacity in US liquid gallons | |
| | `vendor_capacity_low_l` | float64 (L) | Capacity implied by the least generous vendor's own published internal dimensions for this footprint. Empty where no vendor publishes any | |
| | `vendor_capacity_high_l` | float64 (L) | As above, most generous vendor. See `guidance/internal-dimensions.md` | |
| | `usable_ratio` | float64 | `typical_capacity_l / external_volume_l` | |
| | `capacity_basis` | string | How the capacity was arrived at: `derived_from_internal_dims`, `vendor_nominal`, `published`, `derived_from_klt_ratio` | |
| | `lidded` | bool | True where a lid is integral to the product (ALCs) | |
| | `lid_available_separately` | bool | True where a lid exists but is a separate purchase | |
| | `nestable_when_empty` | bool | True for ALCs; straight-walled boxes stack but do not nest | |
| | `typical_nesting_ratio` | float64 | Fraction of its own height a nested empty box saves. 0.75 for ALCs, **0 for everything else** — that is a fact about a straight-walled box, not missing data | |
| | `standard_conformant` | bool | Whether the footprint conforms to a recognised module | |
| | `standard` | string | Which one, stated precisely | |
| | `vda_4500_height` | bool | Whether the external height is on the VDA KLT grid (147.5 / 213 / 280 mm) | |
| | `eur1_pallet_per_layer` | int64 | Boxes per layer on a 1200 × 800 Euro pallet, no overhang. The one column that reaches past the box itself — see Scope | |
| | `listings_observed` | int64 | How many rows in the `listings` table back this size — 0 means the row is a plausible interpolation, not something seen for sale | |
| | `notes` | string | Per-row caveats. Read these | |
|
|
| ### Height coverage |
|
|
| The Euro series carries the heights actually observed for sale across the |
| captured vendors, near-duplicates merged to the round figure (315 → 310 mm, |
| 365/370 → 365 mm, 415/420 → 420 mm): |
|
|
| | Footprint | Heights (cm) | |
| |---|---| |
| | 60 × 40 | 12, 15, 17, 17.5, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36.5, 40, 42, 46.5 | |
| | 40 × 30 | 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32 | |
| | 30 × 20 | 12, 15, 17, 22 | |
| | 80 × 60 | 22, 32, 42 | |
|
|
| Unlike the VDA grid, **no standard defines the consumer Euro height series** — |
| it is whatever manufacturers converged on, which is why it is irregular and why |
| "common" here means "seen on sale" rather than "specified". Check |
| `listings_observed` before treating any single row as a size you can definitely |
| buy; a handful (60 × 40 × 30 and × 46.5, 40 × 30 × 20 and × 24, most of the |
| 30 × 20 range) are interpolations into gaps in the captured evidence. |
|
|
| ### `capacity_basis` values |
| |
| - **`derived_from_internal_dims`** — computed from the typical internal footprint |
| for that module (600 × 400 boxes are internally ~550 × 355 mm, 400 × 300 are |
| ~350 × 250 mm, 300 × 200 are ~260 × 160 mm, 800 × 600 are ~750 × 550 mm, with |
| internal height 10–20 mm under external). These are the **conservative** end of |
| what vendors publish, not the middle of it; `vendor_capacity_low_l` and |
| `vendor_capacity_high_l` on the same row show what the market quotes. |
| - **`vendor_nominal`** — the manufacturer's published capacity. Used for all ALCs. |
| - **`published`** — a directly published internal figure (VDA R-KLT 6429). |
| - **`derived_from_klt_ratio`** — scaled from the 6429 anchor at its 71.4 % usable |
| ratio. VDA KLTs are thicker-walled than consumer euroboxes, so the euro rule does |
| not apply to them. |
|
|
| ### Vendors disagree about the inside of the same box |
|
|
| By 11 % in litres, at 600 × 400. Salesbridges publishes 570 × 370 mm internal where |
| Plastic Box Shop publishes 555 × 355 and Yosibox 550 × 360 — the first is the top |
| opening, the others are close to the base, and a euro crate is slightly tapered, so |
| all three are honest. `vendor_capacity_low_l` and `vendor_capacity_high_l` carry that |
| spread on every row; `typical_capacity_l` sits at or just below the conservative end |
| on purpose, because a planning figure that overstates capacity fails silently. |
|
|
| The full evidence, per vendor and per footprint, is in |
| [`guidance/internal-dimensions.md`](guidance/internal-dimensions.md). |
|
|
| ### Why ALC rows still have no internal dimensions |
|
|
| **ALCs taper.** The walls slope inward towards the base so the containers nest when |
| empty. A single internal L × W × H would be wrong wherever you chose to measure it — |
| right at the top opening, badly overstated at the base. Rather than invent a number, |
| those rows carry the vendor's nominal capacity, which already accounts for the taper |
| and is the figure you should actually plan against. |
|
|
| **KLTs** now carry vendor-published internals at the two sizes a captured vendor |
| publishes them for (`vda-rklt-6429`, `vda-rklt-4329`). The other five heights are |
| still empty: nobody in `listings.csv` sells them with a spec sheet attached. |
|
|
| ## The `listings` table |
|
|
| 121 individual vendor listings across four markets, each with the date it was |
| captured. Same dimensional columns as the main table — in both unit systems — plus |
| `vendor`, `vendor_country`, `url`, `sku`, `native_unit`, `price`, `currency`, |
| `price_includes_vat`, `pack_quantity`, `unit_price` and `captured_date`. |
|
|
| `native_unit` is `imperial` or `metric`: which unit the vendor's own catalogue |
| publishes in, and therefore which column is the figure and which is the conversion. |
| Hudson Exchange is the imperial one. It matters because inch-designed totes land near |
| the 600 × 400 module without hitting it — their 24 × 15 in tote is 61.0 × 38.1 cm, |
| one centimetre too long to put four on a Euro pallet. See |
| [`guidance/units-and-us-vendors.md`](guidance/units-and-us-vendors.md). |
|
|
| | Vendor | Market | Listings | Publishes internals | Captured | |
| |---|---|---|---|---| |
| | Salesbridges | Netherlands | 69 | almost all | 2026-07-27 | |
| | Plastic Box Shop | UK | 31 | most | 2026-07-27 | |
| | Yosibox | Israel | 12 | 3 | 2026-07-23 | |
| | Hudson Exchange | US | 9 | none | 2026-07-27 | |
|
|
| `usable_ratio` on this table is computed from each listing's **own** stated capacity |
| and external dimensions — so it shows what each vendor claims, not what the typical |
| table concluded. The spread is the useful part: |
|
|
| | | n | min | median | max | |
| |---|---|---|---|---| |
| | Attached-lid containers | 16 | 52 % | **71 %** | 81 % | |
| | Euro stacking containers | 101 | 56 % | **78 %** | 99 % | |
| | VDA KLTs | 3 | 66 % | **70 %** | 70 % | |
|
|
| Three things fall out of that, all of which shaped the main table: |
|
|
| - **The ~6-point gap between tapered and straight-walled is real** and consistent |
| across three independent markets. It is the single most important number here. |
| - **Vendor nominal litres run optimistic.** Several UK Euro listings claim 83 % of |
| external volume, which the published internal dimensions on the same page do not |
| support. This is why `containers.csv` derives Euro capacities from internal |
| dimensions rather than trusting the marketed litre figure. |
| - **The extremes are shape, method, and occasionally a typo.** The 52 % is a small |
| tote where walls are a large fraction of the volume. The Euro maximum of 99 % is a |
| single Salesbridges listing whose stated litres contradict the internal dimensions |
| printed beside them; the rest of their high ratios are real but computed |
| geometrically from the top opening rather than measured. All are kept in — the |
| point of this table is to show what vendors say, not to launder it. |
|
|
| Note that the Hudson Exchange sizes are **US-market footprints** (21.9 × 15.2 in ≈ |
| 55.6 × 38.6 cm), not 600 × 400 Euro modules. They are included because they are the |
| same product class and corroborate the ALC ratio independently of the European |
| supply chain — not because they are interchangeable with a Eurobox. |
|
|
| Raw captures are in [`raw/`](raw/), trimmed to the fields used. Re-fetching those is |
| the only way to refresh the table; the build script never touches the network, so a |
| rebuild always reproduces the same rows. |
|
|
| ## Quick start |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| |
| ds = load_dataset("danielrosehill/storage-container-dimensions", split="train") |
| |
| # What does a 60x40x23 Eurobox actually hold? |
| box = next(r for r in ds if r["id"] == "euro-600x400x230") |
| print(box["typical_capacity_l"], "L usable vs", box["external_volume_l"], "L external") |
| # 42.0 L usable vs 55.2 L external |
| |
| # Straight-walled vs tapered, same footprint |
| for r in ds: |
| if r["external_length_cm"] == 60 and r["external_width_cm"] == 40: |
| print(f'{r["id"]:22} {r["usable_ratio"]:.0%} usable') |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```python |
| # What did the 42 L figure get generalised from? |
| obs = load_dataset("danielrosehill/storage-container-dimensions", "listings", split="train") |
| for r in obs: |
| if r["external_length_cm"] == 60 and r["external_height_cm"] == 23: |
| print(r["vendor"], r["stated_capacity_l"], "L", r["captured_date"], r["url"]) |
| ``` |
|
|
| Or just `pandas.read_csv` the files — 48 and 121 rows. |
|
|
| ## Sources |
|
|
| Assembled from vendor catalogues and standards documentation, verified **27 July |
| 2026**: |
|
|
| - **salesbridges.eu** (NL/EU retail) — the widest published set of internal |
| dimensions of any vendor here: 70 of 98 listings in their plastic-crates category, |
| measured at the top opening. Prices in EUR ex-VAT. Their storefront runs on |
| Lightspeed eCom, which serves any category or product page as JSON if you append |
| `?format=json` — see `scripts/capture_salesbridges.py`. |
| - **plasticboxshop.co.uk** (UK retail) — Euro and ALC ranges with published internal |
| dimensions and nominal capacities. Their Shopify storefront exposes the full |
| catalogue at `/collections/{handle}/products.json`. |
| - **hudsonex.com** (US retail, Hudson Exchange) — attached-lid totes on US-market |
| footprints, dimensions in inches and capacity in US gallons. Also Shopify. The |
| product copy confirms the tapered-wall / nesting behaviour but publishes no |
| internal dimensions. |
| - **yosibox.com** (Israeli retail) — G- and T-series industrial boxes with published |
| internal dimensions; the primary cross-check on the 600 × 400 internal rule. |
| - **IPL Schoeller** (`iplschoeller.com`) — the Kaiman ALC height grid. Their product |
| pages publish external dimensions only. |
| - **VDA 4500 v3.1** (December 2025) — KLT footprints, the three system heights, the |
| 15 mm insertion depth, and the R-KLT 6429 figures. |
| - **ISO 3394 / EN 13199** — the packaging module and the small-load-carrier cap, |
| via secondary summaries; both are paid publications. |
|
|
| ## Related |
|
|
| - [`eurobox-calculator`](https://github.com/danielrosehill/storage-container-calculator) — the |
| calculator this data was built for: usable capacity, pallet and 20 ft container |
| loads, and cost per usable litre across both families. |
| - [`storage-box-3d-models`](https://github.com/danielrosehill/storage-box-3d-models) |
| — true-scale GLB models of several of these units, CC BY 4.0. |
| - [`eurobox-standard`](https://github.com/danielrosehill/eurobox-standard) — VDA 4500 |
| itself plus a human-readable digest. |
|
|
| Longer notes that did not fit the card: |
|
|
| - [`guidance/internal-dimensions.md`](guidance/internal-dimensions.md) — why vendors |
| disagree about the inside of the same box, with the per-vendor evidence. |
| - [`guidance/naming.md`](guidance/naming.md) — what these boxes are called in each |
| market, which of those names are evidenced here, and the two that mislead. |
| - [`guidance/eurobox-vs-alc-same-size.md`](guidance/eurobox-vs-alc-same-size.md) — |
| what the ALC taper actually costs you, worked through. |
| - [`guidance/units-and-us-vendors.md`](guidance/units-and-us-vendors.md) — both unit |
| systems, what `native_unit` is for, the US near-miss footprints, and precisely what |
| is standardised and what is only convention. |
|
|
| ## Versioning |
|
|
| The data dictionary carries a version — currently **1.0** — set in `dictionary.py` and |
| stamped into the datasheet filename and its footer. It describes the *schema*: bump |
| the minor version when a column is added or a description changes materially, the |
| major when a column is removed or its meaning changes under an unchanged name. Row |
| additions and capacity revisions do not move it; those are visible in the git history |
| and in `captured_date`. |
|
|
| ## Regenerating |
|
|
| `containers.csv`, `containers.jsonl` **and this card's YAML frontmatter** are all |
| produced by `build.py`, which holds the internal-dimension rules in one place so a |
| rule change cannot leave them disagreeing. Edit the rules there, not the CSV. |
|
|
| ```bash |
| python3 build.py # listings.csv, containers.*, dictionary, frontmatter |
| ./datasheet/build.sh # datasheet/...-datasheet-v1.0.pdf (needs typst) |
| python3 scripts/build_reference_pdf.py # reference/storage-container-reference.pdf |
| python3 scripts/capture_salesbridges.py # only if you want to re-fetch raw/ |
| ``` |
|
|
| `build.py` runs `build_listings.py` first, so the typical rows can count the vendors |
| and listings behind them. Only `scripts/capture_salesbridges.py` touches the network. |
| The PDF needs reportlab (`pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt`); rerun it after |
| `build.py`, since it renders the CSVs rather than recomputing anything. |
|
|
| The data dictionary lives in `dictionary.py` and is rendered four ways — |
| `data-dictionary.csv`, `docs/data-dictionary.md`, this card's Fields table and the |
| frontmatter dtypes. `build.py` fails if a builder emits a column the dictionary does |
| not document, or documents one it does not emit, so the schema and its documentation |
| cannot drift apart. Add a column in both places or the build stops. |
|
|
| Two PDF toolchains, deliberately: the reference is reportlab (it lays out long |
| generated tables of sizes), the datasheet is Typst (it is a document that happens to |
| read data). Both take their numbers from the CSVs at build time. |
|
|
| `container_stats.py` holds the per-vendor internal-dimension statistics that both |
| `build.py` and the PDF report as fact, so the two cannot disagree about what a |
| vendor publishes. |
|
|
| The frontmatter declares the column schema explicitly. Left to infer types from the |
| CSV, the Hub reads a mostly-blank column such as `notes` as all-null, which breaks |
| `load_dataset` for anyone reading that field — so the schema is written by the same |
| run that writes the data. |
|
|
| ## Licence |
|
|
| CC BY 4.0. Dimensional facts are not themselves copyrightable; the licence covers the |
| compilation, the derived figures and the documentation. |
|
|
