Designing arched five piece doors with furniture design software.

Again a tradeoff type question arose this week.  SketchList 3D user asked how I would do a five piece – raised panel door with an arched top rail using my furniture design software package.   Well first off I put together a five piece door.  Next I made the top rail a bit bigger by increasing the height of the rail and letting the bottom of the board change downward.  Then I put a contour on that board and tried to curve  it.  Oh no.  Shaping of contoured board is not allowed.  This is because curving and shaping get confused in 3D.  You can however shape a board with an angle and a contour – which is what I ended up doing.

To make the rial look curvers with a contour – I replaced it with three boards: left right and a small one in the center – sort of a key stone board.  I contoured all the board and placed a slight angle onthe left and right boards as so.

I tinkered with the bottom of the center board until it matched the board on both sides.  And – well not exactly a curve – but something that looks a lot like one.  You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference when looking at the entire kitchen.  And the more boards you put together to make that top rail – the smoother the curve will become.

The caution here is that on your cut list and in your optimized layout (Pro version) will show three and not one board.  It is important when creating the boards to note them as such.  Just before you run the cutting list or optimized layout diagrams – you change back to one top rail large enough for the purpose at hand.