TV stand design – tips and tricks in SketchList 3D

TV stand design in SketchList 3D demonstrates tools tips and tricks.

TV stand design can mean different things to different people.   We did a survey years back and found that one of the most popular projects to build using our cabinet design software was an entertainment center.   Browsing the Internet I found a considerable interest from people on how to create a TV stand design.
As many things we design and build and would TV stand would actually be very simple. It’s basically just box with the top on it.  But that would be much fun to design using SketchList 3D.   If you want some inspiration for a project look HERE.

I decided to make a somewhat more complicated build.   Basically it will provide an opportunity to look at some tools and tricks in SketchList 3D.    Moreover this post and the accompanying video will show how you can greatly speed design if you just knew a few little things.

Tools tips and tricks make designing quicker.

This video demonstrates how to use the container called door in SketchList 3D to create a framed side wall that can be cloned and moved around to address the design needs.
Also the video contains a section explaining how to use the align command in SketchList 3D to locate parts relative to one another within that door container.
The third tip shown in this video has to do with how to oversize an assembly to rotate the door/panel by 90, 180, 270 degrees.
In addition the method used in creating the frames provide an opportunity to review board orientation and how to select the proper orientation.
And no SketchList 3D video would be complete without an explanation of how to use the red dots to resize and the blue dots to locate objects and boards.
Again this TV stand design video is a starting point for your design.   Once the TV stand is created you can manipulate it by changing its size and perhaps inserting a drawer for storage.

Let’s get started with our TV stand design.

First off let’s talk about container sizes.  A container is just a empty “box” that holds all the parts of your SketchList 3D design.  Container could be an assembly.  Or a container could be a door, drawer, piece of hardware that is inserted into the assembly.   The upper most level of container is the project.  Remember only assemblies go into the project.
Our TV stand design is of a 36 inch square stand that is 24 inches tall. Remember any of these sizes can be changed at any point.

Thinking ahead our design will use the container door or all four sides of the box.  The advantage of this approach is that we only need to “build” one panel and clone and locate copies of that panel the other three sides.   Because clone panels will need to be rotated, we want to create an assembly that is large and enough to allow free rotation of a finished side panel without going outside the limit established by the assembly size.   This means two things. First the assembly needs to be big.  For that were going to make the assembly 60 inches square.  In order to fit that assembly will start off with the project that is also 60 inches square.
In this image the assembly size was larger to allow for the rotation.  After that I shrunk the assembly size back.  That’s easy enough to do if you look at the SketchList 3D spreadsheet in the right column the largest number becomes the right value of the assembly size.  In this example the top board of the TV stand design it’s 39 ½ inches wide. So our assembly needs to be 39 ½ inches wide, at least.   The same thing with assembly depth.  The top is 39 ½ inches deep. Therefore the assembly must be at least 39 ½ inches deep.
But during the design stage that assembly was 60” x 60”.  That allowed for the swinging rotation of the panels.

We’ll get back to that after we create our first panel.

As in all of SketchList 3D,  there are only three steps in creating your design. Remember these are 1. Insert, 2. Resize, and 3. Locate.  Practically speaking sometimes, you locate before you resize sometimes after.
So insert the door by dragging the door icon the top menu of icons – the one near the center of the screen.   The door comes in very small size .  We need to make it bigger.  To do this the best tool is the form normally found on the upper right side of your SketchList 3D screen.
The height of the frame is going to be 20 ½.  So enter 20 ½ as the top of the frame and click the height button.
The depth of the frame is going to be 36. So enter 36 in the depth text box and click the back button.
The frames are going to be set away from the side by 1 inch.  So enter one as the left value of the frame. The width of the frame is 1 ½ inches, incorporating three-quarter inch frame and a three-quarter inch panel.  Enter one of the left value, 1 ½ as the width value and click the Right button.

Now we have a blank box in which to build the frame.

Again follow these three steps in SketchList 3D to create your tv stand design – insert, resize, locate.
Select the board icon from the top menu. In this case you want the vertical icon and drag it into the door not the assembly. That is going to be the bottom rail want to set the height to 3 inches.  Now simply drag the red dot on the back of the board to the back of the frame. Might want to while highlighting that board click the board definition    and set the grain direction to depth.

Cloning is key!

Clone that rail and set the value for the top of that rail to 20 ½ inches.
Drag in a board for style.  Set the depth of the board to 3 inches.  Hold down your shift key and drag the top red dot toward the upper rail until it clicks into place.  Hold down the shift key and drag the lower red dot above the lower rail and back again until that board clicks into place.  Now cloned the board and drag that clone to the back of the door/frame.
Now make one more clone.  Highlight one of the rails and while holding down the shift key highlight the cloned style.  Click the alignment tab right of the SketchList 3D main screen.  Click the center icon in the front to back direction.

Add the panel

At this point we are almost done with a frame of our tv stand design.  We only need to put the panel in.  Again insert, resize, locate.  So insert the board and resize it using the red dots so it fits between the insides of the rails and styles.
Now our initial frame is complete.  Click clone and mirror and you’ll see the frame is spun around hundred and 180° and moved to the right.  Click clone on one of the panels.
Move that panel toward the center of the assembly manually.
Then click the rotate tab.  Select the direction of the 90° rotate.  If the rotate will not work you are trying to spin the frame in a manner that places it however temporarily outside the assembly.  Using the blue dots in the corner of the frames – the first one you created in the rotated clone – copying and pasting their values you can locate that rotated panel.  Pick the third panel and click the rotate tab selecting rotate 180° now locate that panel so it becomes the fourth side of the box.

Create the top

Place the top on insert a board this time the third board icon in the menu – the horizontal one – into the assembly.  Set its bottom value as 20 ½ inches and its thickness as 2 inches.  Then click the Top button in the form or the Top column heading in the spreadsheet.
Right click the right red dot enter a value of 39 ½ inches. Click okay. Right click the back red dot enter value of 39 ½ inches. Click okay.

The TV stand design is complete at this point.  If you wish you could remove the large board panel from the front panel/door and placed shelving into the box.   Maybe will cover that in our next posting.
Please remember that in addition to this high-quality perspective rendering the cut lists, layout diagrams and shop drawings are all available.  SketchList 3D creates them as the tv stand design happens.

And if you want more information about designing with doors look at this link.