Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
No problem zorsim. Whenever you feel you have something that meets your needs.
In the next few weeks I am going to produce another set of CabWriter tutorials to replace the six part series currently on our website. Those are very old and out of date. So keep your eyes peeled.
Joe…
Hi zorsim,
I appreciate your offer of help and your feedback. I can (and will) fix the DXF output too.
Coming up with a metric set of defaults should be easy from a communications standpoint. We don’t have to involve Excel or any other program besides CabWriter. Change any or all settings you want in the CabWriter Settings dialog box. Then simply use the “Save CabWriter Defaults” tool to save those setting in a file with a meaningful file name. At anytime in the future you can load those defaults into the CabWriter Settings dialog box with the “Open and Load CabWriter Defaults” tool and provide the desired file name. Send that file to me via the Forum or directly to [email protected] . When you use the “Save CabWriter Defaults” tool it stores the saved file in your Plugins folder at:
Plugins\cabwriter\cabwriter_defaults
The full address on my Windows 10 machine is:
C:\Users\Joe\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp 2017\SketchUp\Plugins\cabwriter\cabwriter_defaults
Once we settle on a complete set of defaults I will either distribute this file, or files if we want a frameles and face frame set, with CabWriter included in the installation file.
Also, I don’t know if you are aware of this, but every part of every cabinet has stored in it the DNA for its creation. That DNA has two components: the defaults used to draw it and the instructions for building that specific cabinet (e.g.draw bank base with two drawers). So you can click on any CabWriter part for a cabinet and use the “Retrieve Cabinets Defaults” tool to load the CabWriter Settings used in that cabinet. So, for example, if you are working on a new project and recall an old project that utilized a set of defaults you wish to use but never saved them, simply open the old project, select a part, use the “Retrieve Cabinets Defaults” tool to load them followed by the “Save CabWriter Defaults” tool to save them. Now you can close the old model file. In the new project use the “Open and Load CabWriter Defaults” tool to place them in the CabWriter settings for the new project.
Joe…
Great zorsim. But don’t forget that you need to fine tune you drawer front heights and available drawer boxes too. I will fix the comma problem shortly. I am not a user of metrics and as such am not familiar with standard defaults such as counter top height, counter top thickness, cabinet depth, rail and stile width etc. If you are willing I would love to work with you on a metric set of defaults that can be shipped with CabWriter so that others don’t have to go through the trouble you went through.
Joe….
Hi zorsim,
The major problem is that you have used commas in some of the defaults instead of the decimal point. If you change them all to decimal points then you will be able to draw cabinet the don’t have drawers. For example the Standard Base cabinet. Before you can drawer cabinets with drawers you have to fix up those defaults on the Face Frame CabWriter Settings tab. In the Base Drawer Front Heights section. Any line that has a red dot means the you have to subtract the amount in the box next to the red light from the other entries in that line. You can spread it across several of the entries. After each change click the Update box to recalculate.
You also may have to adjust the Drawer Heights in the Drawers tab to be sure those will work with the above settings.
I will provide support for the comma in the next release. But in the mean time use the decimal point.
Joe….
Hi zorsim,
Did you change a default or are you using the “factory” defaults? The error you are getting seems to indicate a CutList Bridge default that is expected to be a floating point number but is instead a character string. Can you send me the file you are working on? If it is too big to email let me know and I can set up a Dropbox to use.
Joe….
Hi Guys,
If you beaded your drawers like shown in the attached .skp, versus beading the stiles and rails, you wouldn’t have to change anything including shrinking the box or building out the drawer slides.
Joe….Here is the farmhouse .skp file. This was a very early CabWriter design, so it’s for viewing only.
Joe….
Actually, one of our early CabWriter projects had a farmhouse sink. Off the top of my head I am not sure what parameters need to be added or whether it is just a matter of changing the standard sink parameters. Greg, do you have some info here. We should cover this in revision 2.0 for sure. But let me look into what it would take to cover it in revision 1.0.
Joe…..
Hi Pearson,
Look in the Plugins folder and you should see a cabwriter folder and a cabwriter_loader.rb file. Make sure it is there.
If that those two items are in the Plugins folder make sure you are looking at the correct Plugins folder:
1. Open SketchUp and the Window > Ruby Console.
2. TYPE this EXACTLY as shown in the lower field of the Ruby Console and press Enter:
Sketchup.find_support_file(“Plugins/”)
3. Look in the upper field and you will see the location of your Plugins folder. Go there and confirm that this is where your CabWriter file and folder is. If not re-install.If you still have problems let me know and perhaps we can set up a telephone call or and internet screen session.
Joe….
Hi Hinko,
What operating system are you on? Can you draw a cabinet or does none of the CabWriter features work? Did you do a clean install? That is, did you go to your plugins folder and delete the cabwriter and cutlist_bridge files and folders?I just downloaded version 0.9.3 from the website and installed it with no problem on a PC. I haven’t tried it on a Mac, but Greg has. So I would normally assume that you have an installation problem, except, you have installed it on three different machines and had the same problem. Perhaps you had a problem in download. Try downloading it again.
By the way, what you download from the website is a .zip file. SO you first have to open that file and extract the .cabwriter_0.9.3_beta_released_1-30-17.rbz file before installing. Also, there is only one .rbz install file because I combined the two programs. So when you do the CabWriter install you should find the Extended Entity Info dialog box under the Window menu.
If you continue to have problems let me know and we can set up a phone call for support or perhaps a network screen session.
Joe…..
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the kind words. I am glad you like CabWriter and hope we can develop it to the point that you are ready to use it in your work. Revision 1.0 will come out in the next month or so. Unfortunately, it will not have dado support. However, dado support will be the first thing we add to Revision 2.0 and I expect it will follow Revision 1.0 within six months.Sliding dovetails, which I use for furniture making in my own shop, is not something Greg or I have talked about. But it intrigues me. Is it as simple as two vectors at equal and opposite angles? I’ll talk to Greg about it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Joe…
Hi JeanLec,
A) The answer to A is yes, cabinet height, depth and width can all be specified per the users specification. Base cabinet height is specified by specifying the counter top height and thickness. Upper cabinet height is specified directly as are cabinet depths. See attached images base_cabs.png and upper_cabs.png. Cabinet widths are specified with the story stick, but can be edited with the Edit Story Stick command.
B) Cabinet types are set after a story stick has been defined and the End key is pressed. A dialog box appears called Box Selector. See box_selector attached. In this image I have shown a story stick with only one box in a cabinet. But the story stick can define multiple box cabinets just as easily. The box selector is used to choose the box type, in this case the Diagonal Corner Base.
C) I will let Greg Larson suggest a cabinet making book to explain design practices for a face frame and frameless cabinet. But I suspect almost any cabinet making book would be a good reference. We don’t yet have a book specific to CabWriter, though if successful maybe one day.
Hope this helps.
Joe…..
