[Plugin] GKWare Cabinet Maker

Garry K

I am ready to start testing. Anyone interested? I'd like a Mac user as I do develop in Windows.
If anyone is interested then please contact me.

I still have to:

Integrate Doors - for cabinet testing there is only 1 style of door
Create a help file
Complete the language translations

jtri

Great work! Our cabinets are assembled with confirmat screws and dowels. Finished ends are a loose panel. The base cabinets are on leg levelers. Are you considering these options for the program?

Garry K

I will consider all options.

Right now you can add finished panels if you wish - that is how I used to build cabinets. A lot of advantages doing it this way.

I have built cabinets with dowels using 8mm construction holes. Mostly 8 X 30 fluted beech dowels.
I have also used 50 mm confirmats for 7mm head and 5 mm end boring.

I don't see a big need to show these holes in the model - but when it comes to dxf output doweling is certainly 1 of the options.

Here is a dxf file for nested cnc. CutMasterPro reads in the parts list, optimizes it for cnc routing and creates dxf files.

Finished Panels.JPG

dxf nested.JPG

Garry K

I should ask you. Were you wanting to see leg levelers in the hardware report? Also dowel amounts and confirmat amounts?

Currently the model does not show drilling for adjustable shelves or drilling for handles, hinges or drawer slides.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

jtri

For our use I was thinking that your program would be a great way for us to quickly produce better presentation models. We currently do all our shop drawings in Auto Cad 2d, then our CNC engineer programs all the parts with all the function and assembly holes. While it would be great to by pass the 2d drawings I do not see that happening in our shop as we do mostly commercial work with an enormous range of very odd cabinets. It seems lately that every designer is reinventing the wheel every day!

Garry K

Then you would be looking at the designer version and wouldn't really need parts lists etc. I'd be interested in seeing what your 2D drawings look like. There may be a way of generating DXF files that you could import into Auto Cad 2d

You will be able to store any number of rule files, material files and cabinet library files. I've been thinking that it will be useful in allowing multiple folders for library files. You would then just set the configuration library to a folder before running the plugin. This would effectively filter reducing clutter in the library drop down.

Garry K

CabMaker is very close.

Still Todo:

Finish adding all the door styles
Complete the library feature. This is where you ask cabmaker to create a folder and use it for saving or retrieving your own library cabinets.
Documentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVGclFid-sc

db11

Garry — nice job on this plugin. Looks very comprehensive, flexible and well thought-out, and makes me wish that it was available back when I was still working as a cabinetmaker. Congrats.

Garry K

Thanks for the kind words !!

Any suggestions or requests would be most welcomed !!

Garry K

I've added a bunch of door styles into cab maker plugin.

Plain Panel
Shaker - flat panel
Square - flat or raised panel
Arch - flat or raised panel
Double Arch - flat or raised panel
Cathedral - flat or raised panel
Double Cathedral - flat or raised panel
Mitered - flat or raised panel
Half Round - flat or raised panel

All of these door styles also come with glass or mirror

Here is a picture showing 3 door styles

Double Cathedral - raised panel
Half Round - raised panel
Double Arch - raised panel

I'm now working on a new embossed door style

door styles.JPG

Phillip H

Garry, this is amazing work. Your attention to detail is impressive.

My father was a builder/developer, mainly in residential construction. As a kid I was allowed to sit quietly as he met with architects, designers, vendors etc. I remember vividly him sharing his drawings and notes with me long before the advent of personal computers. He would have been delighted with this.

Garry K

Version 1.0.6 Beta is now available for download from my web site.

I suggest you run this with the ruby console open. This way when you can copy and paste errors.

Thanks for your help.

My web site is at www://cabmaker32.com

beta download.JPG

Frederik

Thanks for the option to beta-test your plugin...

Please note that you seem to have an issue with the login page...
It's impossible to see the name and pw you enter...
I succeeded at last, but it wasn't easy...

Garry K

I will dig into that.

For now anyone having trouble can use this - but only if they have a userid and password already.
http://cabmaker32.com/wp-login.php

Alternatively - send me a private message with the userID you would like and I can set you up with an account and a temporary password which you can change by loggin in and change it yourself.

Hope this helps.

Phillip H

Ditto on the thanks, Garry. I consider it a privilege. Registered and downloaded the beta last night. No issues with either.

Have a long day ahead but will try and put it through its paces starting this evening. I'll be working in feet, inches and fractions thereof, so it should be interesting. Anything pops it the Ruby console and I'll forward it along.

Phillip

Garry K

I have tested it with feet and inches. The translation is only approximate so I suggest that you edit various sizes.

Here is what I see when I set the units to Fractional inches with a precision of 1/64"

For instance 768 mm converts to ~ 31 1/2"
For easy math you might want a drawer bank with 4 - 8" drawers. So set your cabinet height to 32"

Sketchup converts the mm to fractional inches and you get the following

imperial materials.JPG

Edit and remove the tilde '~' and it will work better for you.

Phillip H

Thanks for the heads up. I certainly don't mind making the change, but in the US market, I can see how that might be a problem. Since you are already aware, I presume you already have something in mind.

Garry K

If you stay in fractional inches then you only have to edit and save these forms once!
I'm pretty sure that if you use decimal inches then there is only a problem if your precision isn't set fine enough.

A precision of 0.0001 is sufficient.

In the future I can provide a set of templates that are set up in fractional inches. But why go to all that trouble when users are going to edit material thickness, rules etc.. anyway!!

So - is it really an issue?

Up here in Canada our building trades have always worked in feet and inches. When I built stairs and cabinets I measured up the building using feet and inches. I also quoted jobs using feet and inches. It was when I got to shop drawings that everything goes to metric.

Say I have a 14 riser stair and the total rise is 9' 1 5/8". Say you want 1/32" precision each rise would be 7 27/32". This gives you a total error of 3/16". This might not seem like much but it does throw off a circular stair.

This is equal to 2784.475 mm which works out to 198.9 mm rise per step. This gives me a total error of .125 mm which is negligable.

With cabinets my work flow would include the use of a micrometer to check the thickness of the panels. I would then make an adjustment to the material form and perform a batch edit. The entire material list would then adjust automatically.

Each to there own. Just showing you the flexibility of this plugin design.

One thought I have is to include an automatic parser like I do with my C / C++ programming.
So you could enter formulas like (95 5/8") / 5
and let the software do the calculation for you. Over the years I certainly found this approach very useful.

Phillip H

When I said, "I presume you already have something in mind.", I was sure you had already thought it through. You don't disappoint. I all sounds good.

Garry K

I have found a few bugs that I am fixing today.

If you try Mitered door without a mitered profile system throws an error. I am putting in form validation which will notify you of the pending problem. The same goes for embossed doors (which I haven't completed yet)
I'm also putting in some disabling of ignored fields for doors. For instance a plain panel can't have panel profile, stile profile etc. These fields will be disabled when you choose plain panel. This holds true for various other styles of doors.
There is a bug for drawer styles. Only square drawer styles are working. I will fix this as well

Also - if anyone is getting any login errors please tell me who you are and we'll see what we can do to fix it.

I am also putting in more intelligent door and drawer validation.
The drawer will change to a square 5 piece drawer front if there isn't enough room for an arch drawer style. And the drawer will change to a plain panel if there isn't enough room for a 5 piece drawer square drawer front.