[cabwriter]

Hi There,

As Joe mentioned, we don’t have that cabinet specifically, but it’s pretty easy to create one. The last time I did one, I just drew a sink cabinet, with a single drawer calculated to be the right height and selected a solid top rather than stretchers. Then, I deleted the top rail and moved the carcass top down to where I wanted it. You might have to do some other push/pulling, but it’s not too bad. You can also CabWriter Protect anything you move or modify so it doesn’t get blown away on a redraw.

Let me know if that helps…

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi There,

I will add this to the list of potential features for a later version. We can’t guarantee it at this point, but we’ll take a look at it. One thing you could do in the short term to make sure your cutlist comes out right is use the Extended Entity Info to add additional length to your FF rails where they get notched into the stiles. Not sure if it’s 1/4″ or 3/8″ on each end, but you could double that amount and add it to the length of the rails manually. I realize this doesn’t represent it to your client, but at least the cutlist would be correct.

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi,

That method certainly works, and is really the only method available at the moment to accomplish the task. We’ll ponder the options and get back with you. It is unlikely, though, that we’ll be able to get anything into version 1.0 in March at this point.

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi There,

Unfortunately, we do not support overlay doors at this time. It is something we are considering for future releases, but need to gauge the demand for it. Sorry about the inconvenience…

Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi Mike,

I don’t have a good explanation as to why you would have such a large gap to the outside of the cabinet off the top of my head. We do usually recommend using the story stick to lay out multiple cabinets when possible, which does fix the issue, but when drawing a single, frameless cabinet, it is possible to have the doors and drawers go all the way from side to side. Is it possible for you to send us a copy of your settings file?

Go to File->CabWriter->Save CabWriter Defaults and choose a name for the file. Then, go to your plugins folder then into the cabwriter/cabwriter_defaults folder and grab that file and email it to us or attach it to this post. We can take a look at your settings and see if we can spot what is wrong.

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi JeanLec,

I’m not sure if the link came through properly on the previous post. You can access it here.

Otherwise, you can go to the Education tab on the website and choose Cabinet Construction.

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi JeanLec,

Joe is right, I don’t really know of a good book that explains exactly our preferred construction method for face frame and frameless cabinets. However, I did do a writeup and a video that’s on our site about my preferred construction method that applies to both face frame and frameless. CabWriter fully supports this method. You can see the video on this page:

Cabinet Construction

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Welcome, Kevin! We look forward to your thoughts on the software…

Good Luck,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Welcome John! We look forward to your feedback once you get a bit deeper into the program. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks!
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad you’ve had some success with CabWriter so far. The issues you bring up are good ones; we do know that we have some gaps to fill in the CNC/DXF Export area. This is good feedback to help us determine the grand strategy that we need to take in a future release. Our plans are to do an initial release with the DXF stuff basically as it is, then to really analyze what we need to do in this area and make the changes to get it right in “version 2.0” so to speak. Since this will be a pretty major enhancement, we don’t want to hold up the initial release. We want to not only cover what you are talking about, but also to support dado and rabbet construction methods, amongst others, and be able to export that geometry properly to the DXF as well.

In the meantime, there are a couple of things you can do to get around the problems you are seeing to to some degree. Some of what we are dealing with is limitations within SketchUp. For example, you are correct, we don’t really have a way to detect when you draw a circle on the surface of a part, so you need to get into component edit mode and punch a hole in the part. Right now, we are assuming that if the hole goes all the way through, it’s a Construction Hole and if it only goes part way through, it’s a System Hole and they show up on the corresponding layers. So, you’re also right that if you put a large circular hole in a part and it went all the way through, for example, it would show up on the Construction Hole layer. Of course, that is not helpful because you wouldn’t be using a drill bit to drill the hole, you’d be cutting it out with a different bit. We need to think about how we handle those cases in the future, so we appreciate you bringing it up; we’ll make sure it’s covered in anything new we add. For now, as long as you punch the hole some depth into the part, it’ll show up on the DXF, but not on the layer you want. I’m not sure if a rectangle will show up or not, it might only be circles. What you could do is go into VCarve Pro, import the DXF, create the layers you want, and manually move those few geometries onto the appropriate layers. I realize it’s not optimal, but it’s all we can do at this point.

Let me know if this addresses your concerns, at least in the short term, until we can add some new features in a future release. We want to make sure we architect a solution that works for many different situations and not just patch a hole.

Thanks again for the input,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi CDN,

I’m sure Joe will jump in on this too, but he is currently working to finish up a new set of tools that will allow you to draw a tall cabinet with any combination of doors and drawers just like you’ve created. You’re correct that if you move a base cabinet off the floor, when you re-draw it, it will go back to where it was. Base cabinets are assumed to be on the floor. When I have had to do what you’re doing, I draw the base cabinet, then modify my upper cabinet parameters to match what I need, then draw an upper cabinet on top of the lower. In the short term, you can do that. In the not too distant future, you’ll be able to draw the tall cabinet directly the way you want.

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi Keith,

Oops, somehow I attached the same photo twice above. Here’s the one with the doors closed.

Thanks,
Greg

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[cabwriter]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the image, I think I get what you’re trying to do. Check out the enclosed pictures, of a kitchen I just completed with a similar situation with the pantry cabinet along the back wall. It had drawers at the bottom, then two larger bays on top. You’re correct in that there’s not a built in, elegant way of doing that yet with CabWriter, but you’ll be happy to hear that Joe is hard at work right now on a solution, but it’s not ready yet.

In the meantime, you can do what I do in this situation. Draw a short base cabinet with a drawer at 24″ high in your case. Then, draw an upper directly on top of it and overlapping it as necessary to make things line up. In my case, there was a 1 1/2″ rail separating the bays, so I made the lower cabinet have a 1 1/2″ top rail and the upper cabinet had a 1 1/2″ lower rail. Then, the starting elevation of the upper cabinet is the lower edge of the top rail on the lower cabinet, if that makes sense. In the end, you end up with two cabinets; the upper rail on the lower cabinet and the lower rail on the upper cabinet occupy the same space. Then, you delete one of the rails and the stiles on one of the cabinets and extend the remaining stiles to cover the entire cabinet. You’ll have to stitch up and side panels or sheets as well as the backs, but it doesn’t take very long. You end up with one cabinet that has parts with different cabinet numbers, but it’s workable. If it’s a frameless cabinet, it’s even easier because you don’t have to stitch the stiles and rails together, but you may have to deal with a side panel and the backs.

Hopefully, we’ll have a more elegant way of doing this soon, but in the meantime, give it a shot and see if you can get it to work and let me know if you need more help.

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[cabwriter]

Hi Keith,

I have experienced something similar to what you’re describing in the past, but I’ve always been able to toggle the section cuts off and update the scene and it would stay that way. I’ve been meaning to do a short video on this subject, so I’ll prioritize that and try to get it done in the next few days and post it so you can see if there’s something we’re doing differently…

Thanks,
Greg

[cabwriter]

Hi Les,

Thanks for the drawings; I’ve not seen that method of dealing with the end panel on a notched toe kick, so it’s helpful to us. Doesn’t look too complicated.

Thanks again,
Greg

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