We are continuing our furniture design program project  introduced in an earlier post.  [link]
Once the concept of the project has been developed and approved we moved on to providing the details. 
There were several areas that had to be finished off before the cut list, shop drawings, and sheet goods lay out reports could be generated.  This post and the video included will demonstrate several aspects of detailing the project in our free furniture design software.

We’ll make a list of these details.

1.       The most obvious that doors need to be created, size and located as needed in the design.
2.       Each lower base unit will have a drawer added.
3.       The upper cabinets that merged to 18 inch wide cabinets into one 36 inch wide cabinet needs work.

• Merging the two cabinets just cloned and “stuck” them together.  Because of this the right boards from one cabinet and the left boards from the other cabinet repeat. Go into the cabinet at the assembly level and delete one of those redundant board pairs.
• The center dividing board (vertical) along with its stile must be centered it in the cabinet
• All horizontal boards must be examined to make sure they butt against the two side boards and fit under the center divider.
• This new merged cabinet will be cloned and moved, replacing the other merged cabinets.

Making adjustments to the merged cabinets best shows how to use the red dot in the line tool in our furniture design program.

Follow these steps.

• First select the cabinet and click assembly level in the hierarchical level form.
• Then click on one center style and delete it.
• Click on that Stiles vertical divider and delete that.
• Click on the backboard and with your mouse drag the right board to the left edge of the right side of the cabinet drag the right side of the cabinet.  Check that the right side edge of the backboard is equal to the left side edge of the right side.  (This is where the video will help.)
• Now click the backboard and holding down the shift key on your keyboard click the divider board.  In the upper right area of the sketch list main screen click the alignment button and click the icon at the left top.  That will center the style in the cabinet
• Repeat that step centering the divider board.
• For the top and bottom of the cabinet, the boards to the right of the cabinet. The SketchList 3D cabinet making software allows you to use a red dot method of shift drag [hold down the shift key and drag a red dot] to change the size of the top and bottom boards.  This way they fit between the left and right-side boards.
• Final check is to make sure that the center divider sits on top of the bottom board and underneath the top board.  

At this point will put in the door using our furniture design program. 

1. Drag the door icon into the assembly.
2. Using the form at the top right enter a depth of three quarters and click the button back.
3. Click the bottom shelf and noticed that the top value is 3 and three quarters. 
4. Click and using the form change its value for bottom from 0 to 3 ¾.  Then click the button labeled top.
5. Change the left value of the door from zero to ¾.  
6. Change the top value for the door to 20.25.   This is the bottom value of that middle shelf.  Click the button labeled top.
7. Finally change the right side of the drawer to the value of the left edge of the right side board.  In the case of this example it’s 35 ¼. 
8. Realizing that that is a very wide board were going to go into the with text box in the form and multiply that value by .5   I’ll show you how to do that in the video showing the use of my furniture design program.  The resulting new width of the door is 17 5/8. 

Break time!  The container for the door is all set.  Now we insert the needed boards.

1. At this point go  to the door level and insert the boards necessary to build your door.   Simply drag the board icon from the top of the sketch list screen into the door.  You can use the red dots to change the size of the board so that it completely occupies the door container.   That would be for a flat panel door.   To create a raised panel or five-part door you would adjust the sizes needed to make the board into the Stiles. Then you would locate one style on each side of the door.  Really the clone and mirror button works very well here.
2. Insert another board for the lower rail. Use red dots, form, or spreadsheet to size that rail.  Remember you can use the red dot while holding down the shift key method to drag and snap the rail to fit between the styles.
3. Clone the lower rail and use the slider bar to move it to the top of the door.
4. Drag in one more board for the center panel.   It’s easiest to use the shift key red dot drag method to place the center panel between the rails and the styles.
5. Finishing the left door, click on the clone and space button.  At the bottom of the form check fixed space and enter the value of zero. Make sure the left direction is selected and click okay. (For the purposes of this demonstration I’ve ignored door and drawer overlay or inset values.)

Perhaps this is a lot of information to consume in written format.  For that reason I’m including this video showing all the above using our furniture design program – SketchList 3D.

The post Furniture design program- adding doors. appeared first on SketchList3D.

At SketchList we offer a training program to users of our professional woodworking 3d design software.   This is done by sharing computer screens over the Internet.   To prepare for the one hour training. We ask those people who are receiving the training to send a sketch or image of something they would like to design. It helps if there are dimensions on the image just to give us a sense of how to approach the design process.
This week I conducted a training with James.   He did not send in an image because as he explained his project, he was going to build was in a very general idea stage. No problem. Actually this training session turned into a very interesting exercise in process for me.
The general ideas that James had about this project was that he was going to build a storage and work area for a wall in his house.  The wall was about 9 feet tall almost 20 feet wide and, at least initially, was set to be 18 inches deep.
Before setting pen to paper, or in our case hands to keyboard and mouse, we just discussed the overall “requirements” of the unit.  Of course we used Sketchlist 3D woodworking 3d design software.

General idea.

1. On the floor there going to be three storage units equal in size.  These units were going to be 28 inches high by 36 inches wide by 18 inches deep.  
2. The blank areas between the three base units were going to be open so as a chair could be fit under. These two spaces would be work areas.
3.  Across the three base units would be a large thick piece of lumber. This would be sort of a “tabletop”
4.  And the top of that tabletop would be six more units. At this point in the thinking they were storage boxes, some perhaps with doors. The six units were going to be 18 inches wide 72 inches tall and 18 inches deep.
5. Additionally the bottom storage boxes would have their fronts covered by doors and or drawer fronts.

Well that’s pretty much all we knew about the design the first few minutes of our time  together.  You will see in the embedded video that at the end of the hour we transformed this list of five “ideas into a model of Jerry’s project concept.   At the end of the hour I would say he had learned enough about the concepts and tools of SketchList 3D to continue to finish the project.   But again, this is a story about process more than result.

This is what the model looks like as our training session ended.

Now it is up to Jerry to take what he learned and finish adding the doors and creating the drawers as needed.  HoweverI suspect that he would spend time at this level of completion experimenting with heights, widths, depths, open space, and relationship between objects to achieve the most pleasing aesthetic design.  Back to process.
Rather than design cabinets from scratch we chose to use the library from our woodworking 3D design software to speed the process. 

What we did.

We selected a base cabinet from the library. You might notice that it’s just a simple cube box. We inserted it into the project changed its size to meet the requirements of the base unit. And then we located it to the back-left corner. The clone function in sketch list 3D woodworking 3D design software makes an exact copy of that first assembly. We slid that second assembly towards the right. Then we put a shelf assembly on top and across those two assemblies mostly to help us establish a center point.   Following that Jerry cloned one of the assemblies.  And using the align on center function placed that third assembly between the other two.
He followed the same process with the wall units except of course using smaller wall boxes. After that we changed the size and shape of these boxes place them on top of the base units. Then we were finished. Watch the attached video to see the process in “real time”.

This process and the video make heavy use of the red dot of sketch list 3D for changing sizes.   So I have this link to a post focuses on resizing objects in SketchList 3D. And it does contain a good segment on the red dot tool.
https://sketchlist.com/woodworking-design-software-resize-boards/

The post Woodworking 3d design software allows quick exploration of concepts appeared first on SketchList3D.

Drawings for this woodworking project.

When Rich worked on this he emailed me with the following.

“I started to watch the tutorials on reporting and the one area where I am stuck is the Shop drawing. I am trying to get the dimensions of the various pieces in the furniture design; however, I am only able to get the measurements of the parameter of the whole piece.”

The answer I sent back:

“Remember at the project level you can dimension assemblies.

At any other level you can dimension the distances in that container.

You must be at the door, drawer, hardware level to dim the stuff inside them.”

The answer helped it seems.  Take a look at the shop drawings Rick produced.
First from the front.
Then the left view.And finally the top.  Notice the gray box on this one.  That is the ‘floor’ of the project.
You can turn this off in your SketchList 3D woodworking project.  Right click the button in the upper left of the display areas.  Then turn off “Show Floor”.

The drawing from the top.

And as always the parts list comes out for free!  This would make a nice set of woodworking plans.
If you want to share a woodworking project please email me.
If you want more detail on shop drawings use this LINK

The post Woodworking project from a SketchList 3D user. appeared first on SketchList3D.

There is little I like better than good news from a SketchList3D user. This one is about using SketchList 3D as bookcase design software.

Good afternoon Dave.

I am attaching a  picture of a bookcase that I just completed where I had designed it in SketchList bookcase design software.

The first is the completed but unfinished bookcase.

This is the first project I have done using SketchList Pro.  What a blessing it has been for the design, purchasing the products and the cut sheets.  Made the cutting so “easy” and with the two different sizes of plywood used the waste minimal.

I have attached the file as well and expect that you could have done it much more efficiently.  I expect I will be able to as well as I continue using the program.

 

Thanks for a great program.

David

TX

And while looking at bookcases I found this really cool idea thanks to Mark Dutka of Inhouse Design Studio.  Great work Mark!  CLICK TO SEE IT.

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Here is an example of work designed by SketchList 3D user William LaRue of Ballston Spa, NY. He is a relative new-comer to the SketchList 3D cabinet design software tool. He is an experienced woodworker – in business for over 30 years. His smaller shop of four employees is constantly turning out cabinetry, furniture, and an assorted range of other products. You can see his work at

www.laruewoodworking.com

This sample is his fourth design with SketchList 3D. He has used the software for 2 – 3 weeks.

Notice the reality he is able to achieve by taking photo graphs of the room and importing those images into SketchList 3D objects for use in his designs.

The prospects now sees exactly what they are going to get. On top of that William was able to provide some alternatives.

This first image on the left is a photograph of the room

The second image shows how William replicated the existing room in SketchList 3D capturing all of the important elements — pattern, color and style.

In the the third image he had added a book shelf to the left of the fireplace and mantle.

This is a side view of the SketchList 3D model of the bookcase. Notice the beaded board back on the bottom case.
In the next image you see the proposal for placing the bookcase on the right.

As you view the images think of that William’s prospect is seeing and thinking.

Certainly not about how it’s done, or does this person know what he’s doing – or maybe not even about the price. That prospect is thinking ‘”This looks great: , This will work nicely.” , “Maybe a case on both sides would be best..”

He or she is engaged in the creation of something that adds value to the room, increases utility, and is something to be proud of owning.

play
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So in a few minutes the bookcases are combined in the overall project – giving the prospect what he or she wanted.

The bookcase on the left is cloned, moved to the right, and automatically stretched to fit into the space available.

Sales tool? Design Tool? Planning Tool? You Pick.

SketchList 3D becomes a strategic part of a woodworking firm’s business. The prospect is totally engrossed in the process. In fact many times will say to friends admiring the end product “Yes I did design that for that spot.” Ownership in every sense of the concept.

A side benefit for the woodworker – the process of thinking about how this is going to be made has already started. It can be tested, and tried, and modified until it’s just right. All without wasting a minute in the shop or a penny on material.

The shop drawings, parts lists, cutting diagrams – purchase lists are finished when the design is finished.

All that’s left to do is head into the shop and hand the job over.

Result – What Did the Prospect Say?

“Will,

Really nice presentation. Looks like you had some fun too with moving pictures around etc. I feel like I’m watching an episode of Property Brothers.

We would like pricing on both “Our Option” and Option 4.

Could you also provide the dimensions on both options.

Thanks,”

The post Samples and Designs – Cabinet Design Software appeared first on SketchList3D.

“I was planning to build an entertainment center with one center cabinet and two side curio cabinets. I also wanted the center cabinet to have doors to close over the TV. To make the center cabinet easier to fabricate and move into the house from the workshop, I planned to make it in two pieces that can stack together.
I had some pencil sketches but using a CAD program was expensive and required a long learning curve. Google SketchUp also looked like a long learning curve. I have Cutlist Plus LT Edition, but that is not a design package.

Searching the Web, I found the Sketchlist 3D site. They were looking for woodworkers to test the product prior to product rollout. Such a deal, test a woodworking design product while designing a real world piece of furniture. I have a background in Software Quality Control so it was a good fit with my skills.

I signed up and downloaded the test software. I was very impressed. After an evening “playing” with the software and watching a few video tutorials, I was able to effectively use the program. The User Interface is basically intuitive and easy to use. I could quickly work with boards in 2D or 3D instead of adding many lines using Cartesian coordinates. The package is based on a user defined project space that can contain multiple user defined assemblies that are offset from the project spaces bottom, left, front corner. While working in an assembly, the user inputs locations referencing positions in the assembly and the software takes care of the object position in the project.

Adding boards was simply accomplished by the user defining the board thickness to be orientated when it is added to an Assembly.

I have the ability to clone assemblies to save time in design situations. This saved time with the two curio cabinets.

I can generate parts and purchase lists.

I can generate cutting diagrams and optimize the layout of parts on them and specify the kerf of the blade I will be using

There are both 2D and 3D views of the assemblies and the project. The 3D view also allows the user to rotate an assembly or the project to check perspective and parts placement.

I can input the cost of materials and SketchList 3D will calculate material costs from the material used in the project.

There are many more features too numerous to mention here.

{Editor’s note: Designers use multiple colors to help them see different parts. When the same brown color is used for all boards, details can be more difficult to see.}
As I was testing the software, I also learned a lot about woodworking in areas that I had little previous experience. In my experience, there were some program anomalies (Bugs) uncovered during my testing. The developers have quickly fixed them.

Since I was also testing the software, it is difficult to track the time to develop my project. I do know that it was a lot quicker than a solid modeling CAD package and a lot more fun seeing the results grow on screen.

The post Bill Moynihan appeared first on SketchList3D.

“I have used Sketchlist to develop 5 different projects ranging from simple shelves to a complete set of cabinets for my laundry room.
It only took me a couple hours to install Sketchlist, watch some of the video demonstrations and layout a simple set of shelves.
The user interface is will organized and easy to use.  The tabs provide a logical progression through the Project/Assembly/Item hierarchy making navigation a snap. The ability to double-click on an item in a drawing and be taken to the detail data for the item is also very powerful.
I find Sketchlist very easy to use.  You can very quickly layout the basics of a piece of furniture and then gradually refine it by adding more and more detail.
Sketchlist performs an amazing array of functions.  It knowledge of joints, drawer and door construction saves many hours of planning and drawing.  The Parts List, Purchase List and Cutting Layouts are outstanding tools and timesavers.  The way it allows you to visualize the project has save me time, money and the frustration of rework a number of times in the first few projects.  It is hard for me to image a better software package for the design and construction of woodworking projects.
I was expecting SketchList 3D to be a drawing program, so it took me a little while to adjust to concept of a furniture layout program.  The ability to define the various boards and components of the furniture and have SketchList draw it for you is much more powerful than and drawing program could ever be.”

The post Don Wagner appeared first on SketchList3D.

Thanks for letting me try out your SketchList 3D program! I just wanted you to know that I am very impressed with your SketchList 3D program. I used it this weekend to design a wall unit for my new condo that I will be moving into in a few months. I didn’t really notice any serious bugs. Maybe a couple of very small issues that I can’t even remember now. But whatever they were I managed to get around them.

I love the 3D imaging with all of the different views. Also, being able to save the image allows me to edit and revise it in other programs. I looked around and found two other programs designed for woodworkers and/or cabinet makers and Sketchlist is by far the best from what I can see.

The only modification I can suggest would be the possibility of creating and printing a drawing with some/most of the key measurements annotated. [Editor’s Note: Dimensioning lines have been added.] In any case, that would be a “nice to have” feature since the program’s current capabilities are excellent. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate what you have done here.

It’s actually a room divider so the opposite side has a different design. Total depth will be 15″ or 16″. Offset shelving allowances. I already had it sketched out on paper; so I worked from that. I would say it took a total of 4 or 5 hours from start to finish. Say, two hours was initial learning curve time.

It takes a while to get one’s head around the 0,0,0 relative reference point and the thickness, width, height thing. Although, that system works very well once one gets the hang of it.

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