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How to add doors and drawers with you cabinet design software.

Lesson – creating and using containers

To enable you to become more proficient SketchList 3D cabinet design software supports multiple level containers for your designs.  A container is any object that holds or contains other objects. 

The advantage of containers comes from the fact that actions taking with a container are instantly taken on all members of that container. This means you can create groups of objects. These groups may be:

1. Moved
2. Deleted
3. Cloned
4. Saved as a standard in your library for use in other projects.

There are four types of containers in SketchList 3D.

1. Assemblies
2. Doors
3. Drawers
4. Hardware

You can have any number of any of these containers in your project. The exception is you must have one assembly.

The relationship between the containers is as follows.

• Project contains one or more assemblies. You can only insert assemblies into projects. When an assembly is inserted into a project by default it is made the same size as the project.
• Assemblies may contain doors, drawers, or hardware. Assemblies may also contain boards but technically a board is not a container.
• Doors may contain hardware and or boards.
• Drawers may contain hardware and/or boards.
• Hardware may contain boards – although when speaking of hardware we generally think they contain material.
• Boards are simply objects. They have different attributes and this will be covered in future lessons.

Any new object in SketchList 3D cabinet design software is inserted at the point of origin of its container. The tasks are to take they object and change its size and location.

In order to insert, locate, size or otherwise modify objects in a container you must be at that level of the container.

You can change the level at which you are working by clicking the level on the Hierarchical levels form, or double left clicking the object on the image area of the screen.

If you start an action, for example insert a board, and SketchList is unclear about which container you intend to receive the board, a form will open. Click the desired container and click OK.

Containers are like any other object in terms of resizing for locating them. If you view the videos on resizing and locating a board and locating boards in relationship to each other you can apply those techniques to containers.

Inserting a new assembly.

To insert a new assembly click on the new assembly icon near the top of the SketchList main form. An assembly equal to the size of the project will open. Double left clicking the assembly will put you at the assembly level and allow you to begin inserting objects into that new assembly.

Inserting a door or drawer.

Doors and drawers are containers that act as sub-assemblies.

Clicking on the door icon or the drawer icon inserts those containers into the assembly. You must be at assembly level.

To create the door or drawer, go to the door or drawer level by double clicking the outline image in the image viewing area. At that point the door or drawer becomes the container for your boards. You drag the new board into one of these containers the steps are exactly the same as they would be for inserting a new board into an assembly.

NOTE:  You can use a door as a substitute for a frame or any other subassembly.

Inserting hardware.

Hardware is also container that can be inserted into one assembly. It is different from doors or drawers in that hardware may be inserted into a door or drawer.

To create hardware click on the hardware icon near the top of the screen. Drag that icon into the container where you want to place the hardware. When the small hardware cube appears double click it. Now drag a “board” into that hardware. We use the term board but really mean material. When you create the “board” you want to design. There are materials that are similar to brass or bronze and steel in the database.

NOTE

Every object in SketchList 3D is located relative to the point of origin of its container. Sometimes this may confuse you. For example if an assembly is 48 units to the right, and a board in the assembly has a left value of zero, you might think that that board should have a left value of 48. There is a way to clarify this in the software

.

Little icon with three arrows going in the different directions will change the location values from being based on the point of origin of a container to being a based on the point of the origin of the entire project. In the example above then the left value of the board will be 48 – which is the distance that board is away from the left edge of the project. You can easily go from one mode to another as needed.

Watch the video.

This post and video will show how to make a mitered crown molding trim with SketchList 3D furniture design software.

We received an email this week from a user who is asking how SketchList 3D free furniture design software can be used to create a crown or cold molding. He also wanted to know how to take that molding and turn it around the corner by making a 45° miter cut.

The important thing to know about this is to pick the right orientation of the board when you insert it. The first board facing the front would have the same orientation as a shelf. This is to say the edge of the board would be facing forward the surfaces of the board facing up and down.

If you’ve created your cabinet without enough room on the left side and front side to fit the molding piece, you can use the batch move function at the project level to move all boards in the cabinet to the right by the necessary distance. This is usually the thickness of the molding piece. You can also use that same batch move function to move all of the board to the cabinet back away from the front edge of the assembly, again by the thickness of the molding piece.

Select the board the detail level. This can be done by double left mouse clicking the board. And click the contour button the SketchList form.  Select the contour you want to apply. Look at the contour as cut in the little viewing area of the contour form it may be facing the “wrong way”. If so change the radio button in the contour form from top to bottom or bottom to top.

When you’re done with that go back to the board detail level rotate board in the perspective view such that you can see the top surface. There be a green slice at the back of the board. Click on that with your mouse and click on the shape button. In the shaping tool click on the select button then click on the back left point on the board. The drag that number of units equal to the thickness of the board and you’ll achieve a 45° cut. Repeat the process with the right edge of the board.

Watch the video and you’ll see how I did it.