If you want to enhance your design and make it more realistic and meaningful to your prospect, you should use the import image feature in your custom woodworking software.  This article contains a link to a video which will show you how it’s done.

Try to get a straight on photo of whatever it is you want to import.  In this case the camera was not parallel to the back wall and the result is distorted a bit.  It still works though – and it’s probably light years ahead of your competition. Camera quality doesn’t matter that much.  The image above was captured with a cell phone.

The steps are as follows.

1. Make a new material for a board.
2. Select new texture for that material from you computer
3. Set the scale to equal the size of – in this case room – the image.  If it looks funny in your design you probably got the wrong size.
4. Enter the material sizes in the stock database – keep it thin.
5. Insert a board and pick the material from the list.
6. You may need to try different grain directions.
7. Then push this wall to the back of the design and add your own design over the top.
8. In the design above the cabinets were added to the sides and under the window.

The post Custom Woodwork Software Imports Photos 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.

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.

Custom cabinet design software should be flexible enough to allow the creation of a cabinet beyond standard rectangular boxes.  A SketchList 3D Professional user sent in an email asking for some advice on how to make such a project.

The corner television unit was just part of a more complex wall unit his client wanted – but an important part.  He had figured out how to make the case but was puzzled a bit on how to best fit the face frame.  The task is to “cut” and fit the rails and stiles so they fit flush on the 45 cabinet front.  Actually because his cabinet had side of tdifferent legs the front was less than 45 degrees.  That’s not a problem because with SketchList 3D you can rotate objects in one degree increments.

We met online and worked on the design.  At first I suggested the front of the cabinet face forward and the back ‘legs’ would angle backward.  It sort of worked but sort of not.  After our meeting ended I tried putting the ‘legs’ of the box at 90 degrees – to the left and the back – and using a door as a container for the frame.  The door was made to the size to fit corner to corner of the ‘legs’.  I used the blue dot alignment method to line the door up in the corner and rotated the door back 45 degrees.  You’ll see in the video I made one key mistake that kept things from fitting together – but the fix wasn’t that bad.

Once I had the door sized and placed it was extremely easy to make a frame inside the door.  Two stiles and two rails later -perfection.

An option would be to have made the frame in another assembly, sizing it and rotating it as you would the door.  In this case you can merge assemblies in our cabinet design software so all boards are int he same container.  There are some small advantages when all the boards are in the same container.  But I’m not sure they are worth the effort.

Watch the video.  And please — subscribe to my YouTube channel for direct access.

I spent about 90 minutes online doing this design / training.  In the end the user had better knowledge of the tools and techniques of SketchList 3D.  Not only that but his project file was there as well.

So if you have a question or problem send me an email and we can work together to get you moving again.

The post Cabinet Design Software Works in the Corner appeared first on SketchList3D.

A drawer is a difficult thing to hand draw with any accuracy.  There is a fair amount of detail in a drawer.    At the very least it will take you a long time.

I receive a fair amount of questions about doing drawers in SketchList 3

In the very first version of SketchList I had an insert drawer function which worked quite well.  And as soon about the third user looked at it I heard the old refrain — “That’s not how I make my drawers!”  So I dropped the wizard knowing that it’s easier for you to make one drawer and save it as a standard to be used over and over again.

So this is the process.

1.  Insert a drawer into an assembly.
2.  Locate and size the drawer.  I remembered to have the drawer overlap the face frame by half inch to the left and right to account for the overlay front BUT I forgot the same half inch top and bottom.   In the video I added on a minute at the end to show how to make this fix retroactively.
3. Drag boards into drawer locating and sizing them as you go along.  The left and right side drawer boards are offset by half an inch for sliders.  Of course you use whatever size your hardware requires.
4. Mill the box parts which in this case means running a dado across the bottoms to fit in the bottom board.
5. Put a contour on the front panel board.
6. Insert a drawer pull from the standards library.
7. Save the new drawer as its own standard to be used again.

It seems that the whole process took about 10 minutes.  The one thing I would like to add is the ability to mirror front to back.  When I made up the left side I just cloned and mirrored it to the right.  I would be nice to do the same after cutting the front.  Of course I could have rotated a side by 90 degrees.  I try to stay away from rotating unless it is something other than a 90 degree step.

Here is the video.  Let me know if you have questions on the making of drawers in our free furniture design software.

Hint:  You can use the batch move function is SketchList 3D to move everything in the assembly back say 8 inches.  Make sure the project is deep enough first.  Then highlight the drawer and set its front to zero.  Presto – open drawer effect.

The post Furniture Drawing Software for Drawers appeared first on SketchList3D.

Face frames appear in many different jobs.  Cabinets, bookcase, entertainment centers – they seem to always look better with the finished look of a frame.

This video shows how to use a door as a container in which you ‘build’ a frame with two rails and two stiles.   The face frame is then saved as a standard  to be used in other jobs or parts of the design.  To use it drag it where it’s needed and resize accordingly.

As always – any questions or comments shoot me a quick email.

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I received an email asking about tapered legs.  I thought more than one person might be interested in how to make a tapered leg in SketchList 3D so I put a video onto YouTube.  I just noticed that John was asking a more specific question and my answer is more generic.

Near the end of the video I show how I set the taper to go the whole length of the board by changing the top and bottom ‘shoulders’ of the board to zero.  You can set them as anything.  Also the amount of taper is set in degrees and the overall location is a function of the number of degrees and the length of the leg.  You can taper one, two, three, or four edges.  The important thing to get this to work is to pick the orientation of board which has the board surfaces facing top and bottom.  That way all the edges become sides and you can apply the contours accordingly.

Experiment applying different contours – like a bull nose.   At the board detail level select the surface and click Shape.  Turn the square into a circle and you have a round leg – which can be tapered    Also once the leg is created try stretching and shrinking it by dragging the red dots.  Surprises abound!

Any questions shoot me an email.

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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.

This is the second of a series of basic introduction videos on how to use SketchList 3D for wood projects design.  This video covers the placing and sizing of virtual boards in your assemblies.

The first video covers the use of assemblies, doors, drawers, and hardware – their creation, locating, and sizing.

The tools used to locate and size boards are show in detailed examples in this second video..

Both locating and changing the size of boards can be done using one of three tools.

Dots on boards – red dots change size, blue dots change location.

Form – enter new values in a form.

Spreadsheet – enter new vales in a spreadsheet.

Your wood projects design using SketchList 3D is sped up greatly by using and one, or combination of these tools.

Please watch this video.

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