In fact if you are doing a few designs a year – it more than pays  for itself.  That’s what our users say.

Because the layout optimizer is so highly integrated with the design process – you must keep in mind the material sizes as you design – at least in the beginning.  Some new users find this difficult to do.  So based on input from phone calls, emails, and online meetings – and with the help of a customer – I now think of learning the optimizer slightly differently.

The You Tube video will show this in detail.  The basic idea is optimize EARLY and OFTEN.  You’ll identify problems before the project becomes too big.  This makes them easier to underrstand and fix.

Watch this video and try in out in your SketchList 3D designing.

The post Optimized Material Layouts Save Time and Money appeared first on SketchList3D.

1. First you insert an object or container.
2. Second you size it.
3. Third you locate it.

An object is a board – generally speaking.  A container is a collection of objects and other containers.  For example the container Assembly can hold the containers doors and drawers — not to mention board.  Containers are a way of organizing your design and saving steps and time.

More than that I saw the same tools are used in each step.

1. Slider bars.
2. Drag objects or containers with dots at edges or corners.
3. Right click those same dots to open a box where you can type in values.
4. Type in values in the form at the right of the main screen.
5. Type in values in the spreadsheet at the bottom of the main screen.

So learning to use the design software means inserting, resizing, and locating objects and containers.  And the tools for all three of those are the same.

Sure there are more tools and techniques – but you can design a good deal of complicated things with this simple approach.

Take a look.

Please let me know if you have questions or comments.

The post Design Software in 3 Easy Steps appeared first on SketchList3D.

SketchList 3D has a new feature to make this kitchen design software even faster and more accurate – without keying in any numbers. Our latest release – due out this week – supports a powerful align tool. Using the align tool you pick the board [or object] you want to align to, hold down the shift key and mouse click on other boards [or objects] then click the align tool object.
You can align in three directions – left / right, bottom / top, and front / back. You can choose to align to the inside of a board [like butting boards] or to the outside of the boards. You can also align to the center of a board.

Again – click the ‘target board’, hold down the shift key and click one or more ‘moving boards’, and click the appropriate icon. Simple.

You can also combine align functions. Move a board so it butts against the edge of the target board, then click the centering icon so the moving board is also centered on the target.

You can also insert a temporary board, set it in place, and use it as a bit of a target or snap to line. When you are finished – delete the temporary board.

Make a quick book case? Insert the left side. Insert a shelf. Align the shelf to the inside of the side board. Red dot-drag the shelf to the proper side. Clone and space shelves. Clone the left side. Click one of the shelves. Hold down the shift key and click a side board. Click the align right – outside icon. Boom. How easy was that?

Watch this video…

Align is a very powerful and flexible tool. Think about the ways you can use it. Experiment and see what it can do for you.

The post Kitchen Cabinet Layout Software Designs Numbers-Free appeared first on SketchList3D.

An email from a user follows.

“Can’t seem to edit the joinery on the back of gables. Suggestions?”

This is a great user of our free kitchen design software.  He communicated clearly.  I asked him to export and send me the project which he did promptly.  With it I was able to work with his ‘problem’ board and find the issue.

SketchList 3D sometimes has difficulty with overlapping holes.  In this case the rabbet and the dado on the board surface were being set to overlap.  Sometimes SketchList 3D predicts the problem and will not allow you to apply the rabbet, sometimes it issues a warning error.

The work around is to apply the rabbets to the edging before applying the dado.  Then when you specify the dado length make sure it does not overlap the rabbet.

Here is the warning.

I clicked the Edit /Clone Holes button and right clicked the row for Hole1.  Then I deleted it.  At that point SketchList 3D would accept rabbets on both the back and top of the board.

I clicked the Dado button after selecting the surface of the board that would receive the dado.

With some distance between the rabbet and the dado SketchList 3D is able to cut both on this board.

The same process applies to shaping and contouring board edges.  The rule is shape first and contour later.  For example if you want to make a triangle shaped table top, select the board at board detail level [double click it].  Next select a surface and click Shape.  Then delete one corner point to make the triangle.  Exit the shape tool and select an edge.  Click the contour button, select bull nose, and select the edges on which you want the contour.  Go to assembly level and see your board.

The post Kitchen Cabinet Design Software – Joinery appeared first on SketchList3D.

Kitchen Cabinet Design Software For fast design cabinet boxes.

Each week I train new users of SketchList 3-D.

I think a problem in these sessions  is that the “student” is anxious to get into the details – probably too quickly.  We create an assembly, insert a board and begin applying joinery, contours, drilling holes, and shaping that board as necessary. I understand that all of these details need to be included in the design.  But I think some idea of context would help understand what we are doing.   Take a look at the forest before carving a corbel from a tree…

I decided to put together a video creating cabinets– boxes really  – in a way of quickly creating more of a context for our work.
You are using kitchen and design software design cabinets for kitchens or maybe a wall unit for an entertainment center. Get started with some broad strokes to create size and locate the boxes that are going build.  These make up the foundation of your design.

It is really very easy to go back in and apply the details later. Because SketchList 3-D has the ability to clone, clone and space, clone and mere, or save objects as standards to be used over and over.  You can quickly apply the details everywhere needed in the design.

This video shows one way to do make quick boxes. Create an assembly and click as many of the different types of board (shelf, side, back) as you need. Then use the spreadsheet and name each board. At this point you can use the spreadsheet size and locate the boards, or you can use the blue dot and red dot techniques of sizing and locating objects.

At the end of the video I show the shop line, optimized layout diagrams, and partners/Cutlass reports that were generated as part of this design. Remember records are totally integrated and are created during the design process.

Watch the video and see if this isn’t a quicker way to get started. As always contact me directly if you have any questions, comments, or problems.

The post Kitchen Cabinet Design Software appeared first on SketchList3D.

Get an email from a user this week asking about the way one would provide dimensions to the detail of a rabbet.

“Message: I have created a rabbet on a board edge. How can I print a shop drawing of the dimensions? ”

I thought that maybe more than Peter might have an interest in the answer.   So as I often do I put together a YouTube video posted it so that you can see exactly how the SketchList 3D woodworking software allows you to dimension detail like a rabbet.

You can see that video here.

The post Woodworking Software – Dimension the Rabbet appeared first on SketchList3D.

The linked in video on YouTube has three goals.

1. Allow new users to begin designs without rally understanding the concept of board orientation.
2. Reviewing how to use the very powerful red and blue dots editing features.
3. Introducing a new way of designing that is REALLY going to speed you design times – especially on one-off case good jobs.  Although the approach applies to all design really.

The basic concept is to have a fairly comprehensive set of predesignated boards that you can simply drag into your designs.  There are about twenty of them at this point.  I made the list by taking several large [and diverse] projects, generating parts lists, and exporting them to a spreadsheet.  I sorted by part name and took the ones that repeated several times.  That means they were used in more than one project.  Anyway if you find my list wrong or lacking – let me know.  It’s easy enough to add boards.

To use the new standards just send me an email and I’ll send you a project that contains them all.  Import this project and one by one select each board and make it into a standard.  Eventually we will automate importing of multiple standards to save time.  But if you’re in a hurry you need to do it manually.  I am also pretty sure that these standards will appear as part of the database we send with new installs of SketchList 3D.

Once you have the standards in your data, just drag them into assemblies in your design.  They are all a bit small so you don’t have the problem of a board being too big for an assembly.  Using red dots you can easily re-size.

Watch this video to get the idea.

The post Casework design using standard boards. appeared first on SketchList3D.

Re-sizing cabinet designs – one size can indeed fit all.

In this week’s webinar we had an opportunity to discuss and use the cabinet re-sizing capability within sketch list 3-D. The users had questions about what would happen to a shape or to a data placed on a board when that board was stretched or shrunk in a cabinet resize.   We experimented back and forth re-sizing cabinet designs.   I’d say that people were very impressed with the power of SketchList to resize all of a cabinet and even selected parts of different cabinets. One person said that it was an extremely powerful capability and would enable him to design a very small number of cabinets and just pull those in as standards and resize them as needed in his job.

Re-sizing cabinet designs is one of those features that is extremely powerful, very useful, and all in all very easy to use. It is also, unfortunately, one of those features that probably a lot of users both old and new just don’t fully appreciate.  So as I often do I thought I would put together a quick video and posted to YouTube to further explore this powerful capability.

The re-sizing can be accomplished using the red dots. If you’ve seen the red dot video you know that you right-click a red dot and can type in a new value for the location of that edge or size of the assembly and SketchList 3-D resizes automatically. That is the default way of using the re-sizing feature.  It has the advantage of being easy to use and very fast. In order to keep things from becoming more complicated the necessary SketchList assumes that the place where the re-sizing will occur (re-sizing plane or “pink box”) is at the center of the assembly. This means that any boards that fall across the center of the assembly will be stretched from that point. Most of the time this works.  It doesn’t work if by chance that center re-size plane falls on something like a toe kick, a drawer, or a shape that you do not want to resize.  For that reason we’ve implemented the ability to move the re-size plane (which appears in your assembly as a pink plane or box when you right-click the red dot).

You can be very selective about exactly where you position the re-size plane.  Anything touched by the plane has its size changed according to the amount you drag the red dot. Any objects between the plane and the direction your dragging the red dot will be moved.

This is one of those things that is much easier to understand when you see it.   So here’s a video click on it and think about how you might be able to use this capability to speed your work when re-sizing cabinet designs.

The post Re-sizing cabinet designs appeared first on SketchList3D.

Summary: Working at the board detail level provides the capabilities to add the kinds of effects that create unique, interesting, and specific designs for your use. For example at the board detail level you can take a piece of wood and put a 45° miter on both ends. Then you can cut a cove from the front of that board making it into a cold molding you might install that the top of the cabinet.  Repeating the process two more times of allows you to wrap that cove molding around both sides in the front of your design. Other types of detail are joinery and holes. This lesson will show you how to apply all of these features to your design.  

Board level details bring realism into your designs. The attention to detail on the model of the kitchen shown above is proof of that. The various shapes, contours, corners, and other treatments allow this designer to achieve a significant degree of realism. In addition to that board level detail functions in a way that lets you address the actual fabrication of your piece. By adding joinery, holes, and various shapes to your design you can better replicate the construction techniques you use in the shop in your design.

Different woodworkers have different attitudes and need for detail. Various situations also affect the amount of be goes into a cabinet design. If you are roughing out ideas or concepts you may not have any detail at all. If on the other hand you need to convince a prospective client to give you the job you may want to add much detail to better represent your ideas.

Base concept 1 – Level of hierarchy

Working at the board detail level requires you to be at the board level in the hierarchy of objects and containers. Board detail level is that below the board.

There are two ways to get to the board detail level.

1. Double-click at the board you want to detail.
2. Select the board in an assembly, door, drawer or hardware and click the board details level line in the hierarchical level form.
3. Select the board and click the details button in the board form.

Basic concept 2 – Surfaces and edges.

In SketchList every board created with to surfaces in four edges. Using the shaping tool you may actually increase the number of edges. For example if you take a rectangular board and change it to what an octagon the number of edges increases from 4 to 8. Edges and surfaces are detailed differently.

Once you have selected a board and entered the board details level you click on the edge or surface you want to detail. It will highlight in green.

The chart shows that the types of detail you can add to either surfaces or edges.

Using the shaping tool.

After you select the board in the board details level pick a surface. You will notice that the buttons in the regions “board attributes on surface” and “board attributes on both edges and surfaces” become active.

Click on the shape button. The shape tool will open.

There are two areas in the shaping tool. The area to the right is the design area. The form on the left is the toolbox for shaping. If you click the top of that form you can drag it anywhere on the screen.

The basic idea behind the use of the shape tool is to add, locate, or delete points from the edges of the board. For example changing the board above from a rectangle and to a triangle, click the delete button in the toolkit and click one of the corners.

There are tools for various types of shaping the tasks.

1. Insert a point. Click this button move your mouse into any point on any edge on the board and click again to insert the point.
2. Delete.  Click the delete button and click the point you want to delete.
3. In circle. Clicking the in-circle button turns the board into a circle. By taking the result of using the in-circle , deleting points, and using convert to line tool you can make something shapes. For example if you want a semi-circle at the end of a L shaped desk arm.
4. In oval. Same as in circle except the output is an oval shape.
5. Point fillet. Click this button and click a point at a corner on the design. Rounds the sharp corner.
6. Convert to curve. Click this button and click an edge on the board. By dragging the two red dots that appear you can change the edge from straight to a curve.
7. Convert to spline. Essentially the same as convert to curve but with more control over the detail of the resulting curve.
8. Select.  Click this button and pick a point. You notice once a point is selected the point properties portion of the toolbar expands to give you information about that point.
9. Cancel.  Returns board to the state.

When you select a point on the curve the point property area of the toolbox provides more information about the characteristics of the curve.

If you enter or change values in the point properties area click the update button to reflect those changes on the image of the board.

When you finish shaping the board, click the exit shape button in the board form.

At this point there is no arc function in SketchList 3D.

Holes in Boards

SketchList 3-D allows you to “drill” holes in boards.  Holes may be placed on surfaces or edges of a board.

You can drill a hole all the way through the board, or you can make a whole less than the thickness of the board. An example of that would be a hole for a shelf pin or a mortise.

Holes may not overlap. If you have the need to overlap holes you can simulate this on your design by having one whole approach another separated by a very small distance.  Holes may also not cross the edge of a board. You may get a message indicating that the hole you’re creating does this. The workaround is to make the whole somewhat smaller or move it a bit from that edge.

To drill hole, select the board the board detail level.   Pick the surface on which the hole will be drilled.  Click the non-rounded holes button or the holes button depending on the type of hole you want to place in the board.

Non- Round hole – this is a square or rectangular hole form.  You cannot make other than a four-sided a non-round hole.  The parameters for a non-round hole are height, width, depth.

Round Hole – this is the round hole form.  You cannot make other than a round hole.  The parameters for a non-round hole are diameter and depth.

Creating a hole.

• Name the hole.  SketchList 3-D will provide a default name but many times it useful for identifying the hole to have a named. For example you might name the hole shelf pin hole or lower dado .
• Fill in the location information.   The A value is the distance from the bottom of the board to the hole for non-round holes in the distance from the bottom of the board to the center of a round hole.
• Fill in the dimensions of the hole. For a non-round hole you enter height, , width, depth.  For round hole you enter diameter and depth.
• Optionally you can enter notes.
• Click OK or cancel.

Editing a hole.

You can change a hole where the board details level. Click the edit/clone holes button.  Select the hole you want to edit and right click.

When the sub menu opens you can select clone and space, edit, delete, or export.

• Edit. Edit opens the hole form allowing you to make adjustments
• Delete.  Removes the hole.
• Export.  Creates a spreadsheet like report of all the holes. You can print this or send it to a comma separated value file for importing to a spreadsheet or other software program.

  

• Clone and space allows you to make multiple copies of a hole and space them either a fixed distance apart or equally over a defined span.   This is excellent for putting a series of shelf pin holes on the surface of a board.  It can also be used for spacing dadoes or mortises.

That covers the topic of entering holes in the a board.

Adding contours to board edges to your cabinet design

SketchList 3D allows you to add one of several different contours to any board edge when doing your cabinet design.  These include:

1. Round over
2. Cove
3. Chamfer
4. V groove
5. Bull nose
6. Roman

To add a contour to a board edge select the board that to contour and move to the board details level. You can move to the boards detail level by double left clicking the board or after having selected the board click the board details level on the hierarchical level form.  Double left mouse clicking is generally faster.

When you have a board selected and are in the board detail level click on the edge of the board you would to which you would like to apply the contour. Click the contour edge button.  You can select one or all of the edges on the board by clicking those edges in the edge text box. They are labeled edge1 through edge n where n is the number of edges on a board.

Select the contour type you want to apply by clicking its button the top of the form.  A form will open. You can select the default contour or you can adjust the various elements that define the contour to create a contour of your own size.

SketchList 3-D does not have the capacity to generate any contours shape. However if you experiment by adding different sizes to the components in the Roman contour type you’ll find that you have a fair amount of design flexibility.

All contour forms share many similar elements. Of course the heart of the contour that makes it unique will be different from form to form. But the logic is consistent across every form.

There are two views of the contour on a board.

1. The profile of the contour from an end view. In this view SketchList 3D shows the thickness of the board.
2. The layout the contour from the top or surface of you. In this view SketchList 3-D shows either the width or the length of the board depending on the edge selected.

Each of the contours may be applied by accepting the default values. To do this simply click the OK button. For new design these defaults serve very well.  There are times when you may need or want to have your own look place on the contour. For this you can modify the contours by changing the values in the contour form.

There are three values to be entered for the top or surface view.  When the form is opened the length value defaults to that of the board. If you want to make it smaller type in the new value where that value is less than the length of the board.  At that point you can click the center button in SketchList 3-D will center a contour of that length on the board.  Alternatively you can change the values as you desire for stop 1, length, or stop 2.  The requirement is that the sum cannot be different than the total size of the board as indicated in the total text box.

The number of values entered for the end view depend on the contour being cut.

	For the round over you enter the size of the radius.
	For the Cove you enter the size of the radius.
	For the chamfer you enter the number of degrees of the angle.
	For the V groove you enter the number of degrees of the angle.
	For the bull nose you can enter shoulder 1, radius, and or shoulder 2. Remember the sum must be equal to the total.
	The Roman contour is the most complex. It consists of two radii and two vertical distances.  Those for use must equal the total thickness of the board.One interesting element of the Roman contour is the ability to extend the horizontal size of the second vertical.  Making that horizontal size relatively long – say 1 inch – provides the ability to create the type of contour you might use for a five piece door.

Contours can be placed on all edges of a board. Similar contours on all edges of for example on round over will fill the corner and blend together. This similar contours on adjacent edges will cause SketchList 3D to place a notch in that corner since it is unclear to the software how exactly one contour of the corner would blend with the other

The post Board Detail Level appeared first on SketchList3D.

Summary:

Standard objects are reusable design objects in your Sketch list 3D library. Once you create a design, for example of an assembly, you can save that as a standard to be used over again in other projects.  But you can also make standards of boards and use them to quickly create custom cabinet layouts and designs.

Standard objects are saved designs that you’ve created for re-use in other designs.

Standards are grouped as any one of six different types.

1. Assembly
2. Board
3. Door
4. Drawer
5. Hardware
6. Appliances

The advantage of using standard objects is your ability to create a design specifically to the way you work and take that save design and use it in another situation. This gives you the ability to have a custom-built template that can be resized gusted for any application. You can drag an assembly into a project, resize it, perhaps add or delete a door or drawer and with that repurpose the template cabinet for another use.

Dragging’s dragging standard objects into the SketchList design follows the same rules as dragging new objects or containers into a design.

• Assemblies can only be dragged into the project level.
• Containers – door, drawer, or hardware can only be dragged into assemblies.
• Hardware can be dragged into an assembly or into a door or drawer.
• Boards or board like objects can be dragged into any container.

And in fact you can save an entire project using the save as file menu option to take a project and save it as a template to be opened and used in other jobs. Just make sure to keep renaming with the save as file menu command.

In the grouping scheme of sticks shown above we include a standard object type called appliances. This is where you would save and store and retrieve an object such as a stove or refrigerator or even a fireplace. It is a bit of a catch-all category.

Inserting standard objects.

To insert a standard object into a project go to the standards tab near the top right edge of the main SketchList 3D form.

When you click it the standards form will open. Noticed in the upper right-hand corner of the form there are a checkmark and a red X. If you click on the checkmark you be able to take that form (any form under a tab) and move it anywhere on your computer screen (s).

There are six check boxes on the form. You can click any or all of them to include that type of standard object in the scrolling list.

To scroll through the standard objects use the slide bar in the image area or the slide bar in the text list area.

To insert into the design click on the object and holding down your mouse key drag the object onto the spot in the design where you want it inserted.

SketchList 3D always inserts objects in the center of the container. This makes it easier to rotate the object. If the object was inserted at the point of origin rotating in any direction would take one of the corners of that object in place it outside of that container. That is not allowed in SketchList 3D.

You can re-size the inserted object by using any of the re-size techniques presented in the lesson on sizing and re-sizing SketchList objects and containers.

Saving a standard object

if you create a new object or modifying existing standard object you can easily make that new or modified design into its own standard. To do this select the object and click the make standard button on the form.

Good practices in making standards

As you begin to create your own library of woodworking, furniture, cabinet designs you’ll find yourself calling standard objects and over and over again. This will certainly save time. And if you plan ahead a bit you can structure your standard library to save you still more time

To do this make standards of your work early and often.

If you are making a standard side piece for a cabinet and more or less always use that side in your cabinets design the side and save it as a standard. That standard side may have a toe kick bottom shelf dado back rabbit and holes for shelf pins. And if you save it as a standard board then you need not create that it can but simply call it into your next assembly.

You may choose to save shelves, stretchers, any part really that you use over and over again as standards.

When you finish this you could say that as a standard assembly.

The same idea applies to doors and drawers. Once you make your drawer or door save it as a standard drawer for use in other applications.

You might even experiment with creating your face frame as a door and saving that face frame/door as a standard door to be applied to the front of the carcass.

Re-sizing standard objects is fairly easy to do in SketchList 3D. So when you establish your library you don’t really need one copy of all objects in many different sizes. A kitchen might have five or six different assemblies (for example base and wall units, blind corner), one or two drawer types, and possibly to doors. The point is that there is some smaller number of objects that you can use as building blocks to create practically any project that you want to tackle.

Face Frame as Standard Container

With some thought you can created to fully introduce new containers/objects to your SketchList 3-D standard library.  There is a video of making a face frame and saving it as a standard.   In order to accomplish this  a container, specifically a door, was created to the necessary size.  By using the insert new board functions to rails and two styles were put into this “door”.  Then the door, renamed as face frame, it as a standard. Now that face frame is available for use in any cabinet.

The post Library of Design Objects appeared first on SketchList3D.