How do I stop the 6 and 8 from touching on a Catan board?

Leave No 6/8 touching ticked, which it is by default. Every board is searched so that no 6 or 8 sits next to another 6 or 8, then checked again, and the report shows 0 of 42 touching pairs. You can also tick No equal numbers touching and No same resource touching; ticking or unticking a rule makes a new board from the same seed.

Can I get the same board again, or share it with other players?

Yes. The same seed with the same rules and locks gives the same board every time, so sharing the seed and the ticked rules is enough. Once you swap tiles by hand the seed alone no longer rebuilds the board, so download the JSON file: Open JSON reads it back with every tile in place. The board you left also comes back when you reload the page in the same browser.

Which tiles and number tokens does the base game use?

Nineteen land hexes: 4 wood, 4 grain, 4 wool, 3 brick, 3 ore and 1 desert. Eighteen number tokens: 2 and 12 once each, and 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 twice each. The desert takes no token. Every board, including one you swap by hand or open from a file, is checked against exactly these counts.

What do the dots under each number mean?

They count the ways two six-sided dice can roll that number out of 36: five for 6 and 8, one for 2 and 12. The report adds them up per resource, and for the base set the total is always 58. It is an exact count of dice outcomes, not a verdict on whether the board is balanced or which spots are strong.

Can I keep some hexes where they are and reshuffle the rest?

Yes. Select a hex and press Lock as shown to keep its resource and number, or use the two lock menus to pin only a resource or only a number. Generate and Reshuffle then keep every locked hex and shuffle the others. Locks the base set cannot satisfy, such as two hexes locked to 2, are shown as a conflict and no board is made.

What happens if no board fits my rules and locks?

You get a message and the board shown stays as it was. The search stops at 100,000 steps or 5 seconds and says so, which means no board was found within that limit, not that none exists. If it has checked every arrangement, it says no board can meet those rules with those locks. A rule you ticked is never dropped to produce a result.

Can I print the board?

Press Print, or download the sheet as SVG or PNG. The sheet is US Letter sized and holds the board, a legend with each resource's pattern and dice ways, the rule report and every row in words. The PNG is 1632 by 2112 pixels, and the SVG scales to any size.

Does it make boards for the 5 to 6 player extension or other expansions?

No. It makes the 19-hex base-game board only, with the base set's tiles and tokens. It is an unofficial setup aid with its own drawings and is not affiliated with Catan or its publisher.

Hex Board Layout Generator

Make a board for the 19-hex base game of Catan from a seed: the same seed, rules and locks always give the same board, so a table can share one by its number. No 6 or 8 touches another 6 or 8 unless you untick that rule, and you can also forbid equal numbers or the same resource side by side. Every board comes with a report that counts the touching pairs out of 42 and the two-dice ways per resource, worked out by a check that is separate from the search. Lock hexes to keep them through a reshuffle, swap tiles by hand (a swap that would break a ticked rule is refused), and print the sheet or download it as SVG, PNG or JSON. An unofficial setup aid with original drawings, not affiliated with Catan or its publisher.

Seed

Making a board

Constraint report

The report appears with the first board.

Seed

Tiles

none yet

6/8 touching

none yet

Export

SVG, PNG, JSON

Open JSON

Selected hex

Row 3, hex 3

Lock resource

Lock number

Making the first board.

This boardno board yet
The first board appears in a moment.
Last swapchecked against the ticked rules
No swap yet. Select a hex, press Swap tile or Swap number, then pick the second hex.
Locksnone
No hex locked. Select a hex and press Lock as shown to keep it through the next shuffle.

Click a hex, or move between hexes with the arrow keys, to select it. Lock as shown keeps that hex’s resource and number through the next Generate or Reshuffle; the two lock menus pin only a resource or only a number. Swap tile moves a whole tile, Swap number moves only the numbers, and a swap that would break a ticked rule is refused. Changing a rule makes a new board from the same seed, so lock the hexes you want to keep first.

How a board is made. The seed drives a fixed random sequence, so the same seed, rules and locks give the same board every time. The search picks the desert’s hex, places the 6s and 8s before the other numbers and the four-tile resources before the three-tile ones, and backs up whenever a ticked rule blocks a hex, starting over in a new order if an attempt runs long. Every board it returns is checked again by a separate test that measures the distance between hex coordinates, and a board that fails that check is not shown. The dots under each number count its two-dice rolls out of 36.

Accuracy. A setup aid for the 19-hex base game, not an official Catan product and not affiliated with its publisher. Tile and token counts and the rules you tick are checked exactly on every board, and the dice figures are exact counts of the 36 ways two dice can land; the tool does not judge whether a board is balanced, which spots are strong or who is likely to win. If the search stops at its limit of 100,000 search steps or 5 seconds, no board was found within that limit, which does not mean none exists, and a rule you ticked is never dropped to get a result.

Common questions

How do I stop the 6 and 8 from touching on a Catan board?: Leave No 6/8 touching ticked, which it is by default. Every board is searched so that no 6 or 8 sits next to another 6 or 8, then checked again, and the report shows 0 of 42 touching pairs. You can also tick No equal numbers touching and No same resource touching; ticking or unticking a rule makes a new board from the same seed.
Can I get the same board again, or share it with other players?: Yes. The same seed with the same rules and locks gives the same board every time, so sharing the seed and the ticked rules is enough. Once you swap tiles by hand the seed alone no longer rebuilds the board, so download the JSON file: Open JSON reads it back with every tile in place. The board you left also comes back when you reload the page in the same browser.
Which tiles and number tokens does the base game use?: Nineteen land hexes: 4 wood, 4 grain, 4 wool, 3 brick, 3 ore and 1 desert. Eighteen number tokens: 2 and 12 once each, and 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 twice each. The desert takes no token. Every board, including one you swap by hand or open from a file, is checked against exactly these counts.
What do the dots under each number mean?: They count the ways two six-sided dice can roll that number out of 36: five for 6 and 8, one for 2 and 12. The report adds them up per resource, and for the base set the total is always 58. It is an exact count of dice outcomes, not a verdict on whether the board is balanced or which spots are strong.
Can I keep some hexes where they are and reshuffle the rest?: Yes. Select a hex and press Lock as shown to keep its resource and number, or use the two lock menus to pin only a resource or only a number. Generate and Reshuffle then keep every locked hex and shuffle the others. Locks the base set cannot satisfy, such as two hexes locked to 2, are shown as a conflict and no board is made.
What happens if no board fits my rules and locks?: You get a message and the board shown stays as it was. The search stops at 100,000 steps or 5 seconds and says so, which means no board was found within that limit, not that none exists. If it has checked every arrangement, it says no board can meet those rules with those locks. A rule you ticked is never dropped to produce a result.
Can I print the board?: Press Print, or download the sheet as SVG or PNG. The sheet is US Letter sized and holds the board, a legend with each resource's pattern and dice ways, the rule report and every row in words. The PNG is 1632 by 2112 pixels, and the SVG scales to any size.
Does it make boards for the 5 to 6 player extension or other expansions?: No. It makes the 19-hex base-game board only, with the base set's tiles and tokens. It is an unofficial setup aid with its own drawings and is not affiliated with Catan or its publisher.

A setup aid for the 19-hex base game, not an official Catan product and not affiliated with its publisher. Tile and token counts and the rules you tick are checked exactly on every board, and the dice figures are exact counts of the 36 ways two dice can land; the tool does not judge whether a board is balanced, which spots are strong or who is likely to win. If the search stops at its limit of 100,000 search steps or 5 seconds, no board was found within that limit, which does not mean none exists, and a rule you ticked is never dropped to get a result.