Better Furniture Design Software

SketchList was conceived after a workshop on furniture design at a local woodworking supply store. I had just finished building a hutch and disappointed with its proportions, vowed to increase my furniture design efforts before going to the shop.

The leader of the workshop stressed function, size and proportion, and the need to work within reasonable woodworking practices and joinery techniques.

We did a fair amount of work sketching and building models. While some of the guys on television speak of building full size models out of MDF, we used foam core board and glue guns.

Most of us found it difficult to make accurate representations given the limitations of our skills and media used.

There was nearly no discussion of computer modeling or drawing, which surprised me. Given a tendency to use computers even when paper would do, I am naturally inclined to try making plans on a computer screen where they can be easily revised. Or so I thought.

Investing a fair amount of time online (blogs, user groups, vendor pages), I set off to find the best computer approach to furniture design. The most commonly used design approach used by woodworkers?

It seems very few woodworkers have moved to computers and software.  This is a bit surprising since a lot of woodworkers seem to be programmers.

There seems to be good reasons for the reluctance of woodworkers to use design software. 

One reason is CAD software (so far the most common approach) is hard to learn and use.   It might take a good long time (weeks?) to get to use it.

Another reason is that designing furniture is an interactive process involving many moving parts.  Woodworkers conceive a general idea of a piece and make sketches.  Materials and joinery techniques figure into play.  The ability to select different materials, sizes, and proportions all affect the quality of our designs.

If we’re building for a customer, we need to somehow display our ideas and get feedback and make adjustments.  A shelf get moved, a drawer resized, doors tweaked a bit here and there.   It has been difficult to do all of this on the computer.

To really evaluate a design we have for our furniture, we need to see it in 3D.   Sometimes people cannot picture what we’re talking about and we need to show them.   This means 3D images are necessary.  3D drawing packages traditionally have been the tools of engineers.

An overlooked aspect of a successful computer package is that it must be fun to use.  The more you enjoy playing with your ideas on the screen, the better developed they become.  

And finally eventually the project must be build, efficiently and in a timely manner.   The problem with computer software that attempts furniture design is that the end result is a drawing.  There is still much work to be done to create a parts line, cut lists, and cutting diagrams. 

Good furniture design is a skill and a gift.  A good eye, understanding of woodworking, materials, and a sense of for esthetics are necessary.    The ability to explore alternative design solutions to customer needs and desires, to experiment with creative ideas, and to create 2 and 3 dimensional representations will allow you to create better work.  The ability to have the computer help you do this, and to translate you designs to material lists, cut lists, layout diagrams will help you get more work finished in a given amount of time.

Submit your answers to our survey.