Autosnap?

Baker518

I'm impressed with the software demo for SquareClock. If some of these features could be used in SU. It may be even more of a complete package that it is already, making SU really a dynamic package.

linea

The demo is really impressive but the concept seems slightly flawed if Squareclock want this to be adopted on a commercial scale. The automated feature seems to perfectly divide the available wall space into cabinet doors, but it doesn't appear to be putting in fillets. If this is the case it is only useful if you are manufacturing bespoke made to measure kitchens. If you are using commercial standard sized cabinets it has limited use. I'm not knocking it though and if a ruby could be written to do something like this I'd be very interested.

I draw kitchens by creating standard sized components that have a 2d plan layer and a 3d unit layer. This allows me to draw the kitchen very quickly in 2d. When I have perfected this I'll post the components.

kitchen template.skp

peweuk

Jon,

Some questions/thoughts.

Questions:

Do you use these plans to show to customers? If so, how do they react?
Do you use them to represent a particular make of kitchen, or are they for units you make yourself?
How long does it take to create the plan then propagate it with 3D?
If you have to order/make the kitchen, how do you do that, how long does it take?

Thoughts:
Yes you are right about Squareclock. If the demo is the full extent of the programme (which I am sure it is not) then it needs some serious work to make it usable for anything other than 'box' shaped rooms.
Their concept is that the 'catalogs' will be real Manufacturers products, so the wall sizes in the demo must be an exact match for the combined lengths of the cabinets they are using - lucky for them .

What is possible with SU is to have a 3D 'component' library of cabinets which could be designed as replications of 'Manufacturers' cabinets, with the correct sizes and even their codes. Then the walls, cabinets, windows and doors could be placed onto a 2D plan very quickly, accurately and easily using Ruby Scripts.

It would also be possible for a list of cabinets in the plan to be output to a text or .csv file (with codes and prices) to be available for producing a quote for the customer.

The same principle could be used for custom cabinets, but output could be a cutting list instead of cabinet codes.

This is all do-able with Ruby Script (I have seen various scripts that do some of this to a greater or lesser degree), but having no knowledge of Ruby I would not know where to start.

(NOTE: I'd be interested in hearing from anyone capable of writing Ruby who may be interested in the possibility of developing/modifying scripts to achieve a slick version of the above concept..)

watkins

Dear Jon,

Kitchen components for UK Sketchup enthusiasts would be very welcome. Those available from the warehouse are typically American.

Your kitchen_template presentation is very 'compact' and beautifully combines plan view and isometric all in the one skippy.

Regards,
Bob

Jim

This is a Kitchen design plugin, I believe. I've not tried it out, though.

ch Domain Nutzung

(www.tomatoes.ch)

peweuk

@unknownuser said:

This is a Kitchen design plugin,

Thanks Jim -That looks interesting.

At first site it appears to be one solution for creating cabinets, but difficult to say how useful it may be as it is all in German. I will sure investigate though.

linea

Wow Jim, looks like a good plug-in, I might buy it, but I think my method - once you've drawn the units, takes less than fifty minutes like they claim. And it's free

I'll upload the completed set of units as a "Kitchen template" skp soon.

Thanks watkins for the kind comments.

Also, there is a free open source kitchen design app in development. Nice guy who develops it, but he hasn't got far enough yet to use this commercially. I think he'd welcome our support. also as it's open source, the code might be useful to somebody.

KitCAD - free kitchen design software full version downloads from Kitchen Pages

(www.kitchenpages.com)

linea

@unknownuser said:

Do you use these plans to show to customers? If so, how do they react?

This is a very small aspect of the work that I do. I don't supply or build kitchens myself. Alongside my other work I provide a kitchen design-only service to building contractors and kitchen fitters. I meet their clients and draw up the kitchens to suit their requirements. The 3d views are an essential selling tool, I do a very basic render of the kitchens in Kt, my rendering skills aren't great but the clients are usually just impressed to see a representation of a new kitchen in their house. (The kitchen I uploaded here though has a terrible wood texture - a mistake, but the client didn't complain). The ability to plan them in 2d is IMO essential because it is easier to show the client immediately what fits and what doesn't - also there is the wow factor when you flip to a 3d view .

The quicker it is to design and visualise the kitchens the better. Commercial kitchen companies usually offer 3d planning for free, so there isn't alot of money to be made by offering this service independantly. But my clients prefer an independant design service as they aren't limited to one kitchen or appliance supplier and there is no hard sell because I don't work for a kitchen company.
The equivalent commercial kitchen design software apps such as Planit Fusion, Autokitchen, Articad, Kitchendraw are all expensive so the ability to do this in Su is great.

@unknownuser said:

Do you use them to represent a particular make of kitchen, or are they for units you make yourself?

These aren't bespoke kitchens. In this case I drew the units to match the sizes of Howdens Kitchens - see link http://www.howdens.com/ Drawing the entire range is laborious, so I just drew up the unit sizes and then I alter the door styles to suit. I have thought about making each unit with different layers for each different door style, but this would be a lot of work.

@unknownuser said:

How long does it take to create the plan then propagate it with 3D?

All the units have a 2d and 3d layer and a text description, once I have drawn the wall outlines, it's pretty quick.

@unknownuser said:

If you have to order/make the kitchen, how do you do that, how long does it take?

I use Layout to put notes on the plan.I use the Component Report script to output a list to a spreadsheet (I use openoffice calc). I don't seem to get good results with this script though, I have to delete alot of erroneous text that comes in with it. I email this data (after editing) to the supplier. If there was a way to streamline this it would be good.

@unknownuser said:

Thoughts:
Yes you are right about Squareclock. If the demo is the full extent of the programme (which I am sure it is not) then it needs some serious work to make it usable for anything other than 'box' shaped rooms.
Their concept is that the 'catalogs' will be real Manufacturers products, so the wall sizes in the demo must be an exact match for the combined lengths of the cabinets they are using -lucky for them

I've come across alot of attempts to do this with web2 apps on the net, I haven't seen a really good one yet. Two examples below, both a bit ropey.
http://www.navigram.com/
http://www.developer3d.com/

squareclock

Hi guys,

Thanks for your interest to SquareClock

@unknownuser said:

The automated feature seems to perfectly divide the available wall space into cabinet doors, but it doesn't appear to be putting in fillets. If this is the case it is only useful if you are manufacturing bespoke made to measure kitchens.

We use standard sized cabinets. We add fillets when needed. We "just" find the best way to fill the space using the kitchen catalog and the input rules.

SquareClock is much much more than a kitchen planner or a snap feature.
Join our beta if you want to see more
http://www.squareclock.com/?page_id=32

linea

Hi
Thanks for explaining that, that is pretty ingenious then!, I take it back. It looks very interesting.

squareclock

Thanks, we will post some updates when it will be online.

squareclock

Hi,

As promized, some feedbacks about our Kitchen features.
We add the tringle work feature and we improved our ray tracing engine linked to our real time visualization.

Triangle work
http://www.squareclock.com/?p=36

Some ray tracing of the kitchen design (no 3DS max, vray or photoshop behind this, just one click ray tracing)

http://www.squareclock.com/?p=38

finewood

tomatoes.ch is an ovation to the inventor of the sink-norm, Hans Hilfiker.
His best-known work is the swiss station clock.
Look here, my definition of my swiss-kitchen
With "tomatoes.ch" do you make fast an entire component-library.
I am master carpenter (holder of a joinery) and tomatoes have really just for me
developed, but is now free in the net for downloading under tomatoes.ch.
"Please, modified and improved until the ears wiggle"

finewood

EscapeArtist

There are a lot of folks popping in to advertise their websites and then disappearing.

Is this allowed? Is it spam?

finewood

Sorry, was a response to this post ......

Jim
Global Moderator
Posts: 2091
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:13 pm
Name: Jim Foltz
Operating system: XP Pro SP3
SketchUp version: Google Pro 7.1

.....but the thoughts are free - also my

finewood